Island Hopping in Thailand
Phase two of our ten week trip. We’re now done with the Southeast Asian cities and have covered thousands of miles over the last seven weeks. ‘Phase Two’ is all about suncream and shorts and what better place than the three islands of Ko Samui, Ko Tao and Ko Phangan in Thailand to do this; they are very close together and served by one airport in Samui and regular boats between the them and the mainland.
We had no firm plan other than we were flying to Samui on 19 September and wanted to end up on Ko Phangan for the Full Moon Party that takes place on 4 October. After that we have a day’s rest before flying to Australia on 7 October, Pezza’s birthday. As you’ll know we were seriously weighing up Bali due to the rainy season annoying us a little bit in Cambodia but we were sure the decision had paid off when we had a few days of uninterrupted sun on Samui. We took the first couple of days as an opportunity to get some more luxury and we checked into the Six Senses, which is probably the best hotel in it’s category that we’ve ever stayed in. Here’s a view of our private pool…
I’ve got a short Youtube video of the whole room, click here.
We left there after two nights and made our way to Chaweng Beach, the heart of Ko Samui. It was dark when we left because we wanted to milk the 5-star comforts as much as possible, and it took a while to pack up the hotel towels and top up our shampoo & shower gel bottles from the hotel freebies. We knew we were approaching Chaweng as the dive shops and 7 Elevens came thick and fast and the streets were awash with Newcastle United tattoos; very different to any of our destinations so far.
There were rooms at our first choice – the Ark Bar Hotel. We were lucky that rooms near the back were free as this is the party sport of Chaweng Beach with stuff happening every night with the backdrop of fire throwers and kids trying to con you into a game of Connect 4 for 100 Baht. This was our first beach since we were in Nha Trang in August so we didn’t see too much of Ko Samui that wasn’t in and around Chaweng Beach.
After four nights we grew tired of the commercial nature of Chaweng and thought Ko Tao would be our tonic. The boat trip was very rocky thanks to Tropical Storm Ketsana that has just wrecked the Philippines and some of Vietnam & Cambodia; even though it’s hundreds of miles away the winds here are higher than normal and the cloud cover fairly constant since we got to Ko Tao.
With the Full Moon Party looming, accommodation on Samui and Tao tend to be busier than normal in the week or two before and it took us a short while to find a bungalow. It’s obvious that Ko Tao is a diving mecca, only Cairns issues more PADI licenses in the world and despite cheaper accommodation being harder to come by the island was very quiet and many of the famous party nights simply didn’t run but in the main centre of Sairee Beach there was always a bar that would be busy as well as many others showing films for those wanting to be free of a hangover for the morning dive.
Had the weather been better then we may have strapped on a tank of oxygen but we opted instead to hire a quad bike and set out exploring the various bays and beaches of the island. Ko Tao is easilly explored in one day but if you’re not used to the roads then some of the steep dirt-tracks can prove too much – we weren’t the only ones to abandon one or two of the more testing tracks. We finished our stay on Tao with a view of a spectacular sunset and had one last night’s sleep on a particularly terrible mattress before getting the boat to Ko Phangan.
We’re here for eight nights in total, much longer than anywhere else we have stayed but with the Full Moon occurring this Sunday it’s important to get here in good time if you want a base on Haad Rin, where the action takes place. I’ll update you from Phangan in a few days!
Ko Samui & Ko Tao pictures via the Photo Page
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Dude,
Loving the pics of the luxury room – looks amazing. Very, very excited about hearing all about the full moon party. Just one little tip – maybe glue the camera to your hand! x
Cheers Stuoobs,
The build up to it is amazing, huge parties on the beach every night gearing up for the big one on Sunday!
x
hows the weather there? it’s still a bit in the rainy season. are you guys seeing a lot of sun?
Hit & miss to be honest Matt.
It rained non stop in Cambodia and the jet stream fuelling Ketsana brought a lot of cloud when we were in Ko Tao however the last few days here on Phangan have been brilliant.
The Full Moon was in full view all night!
How’s Europe treating you?
Great two posts about Thailand, I look forward to hearing how the full moon party went. We’ve just spent the last 3 months traveling Europe and look forward to our budget going a lot farther in SE Asia.
cheers
Great Post! This might be a little off topic but has anyone ever been to an island Boracay? Its like that movie The Beach with Leonardo Dicaprio!
Your expert