Koh Phangan – Mae Haad

So, as regular readers of this blog will have readily gathered, I’ve lately been stretching the meaning of the term ‘one a day‘ to the edges of, or perhaps even beyond, the boudaries of its conceptual limits. I am unapologetic for two reasons however: firstly, I was careful, when embarking on the whole One Post a Day wheeze, to not over-egg the pudding by saying that, to celebrate the passing of a year from my first entry of counting that I’d tick off 365 shared ramblings, but that I’d merely have a bash a posting a few times a week in an attempt to improve my previous record of Hardly At All. Secondly, and this is the important one, I’ve spent the last few days on a glorious small island in Thailand’s Eastern Gulf in the Indian Ocean and have found very few points of the day when digging out the old laptop, dashing off several hundered words on the subject of What I Did On My Holidays, whilst in range of a wireless internet connection felt like any kind of a priority. I’m anyone reading fully understands.

A fisherman spied sheltering from the rain as our ferry stopped off at Koh Samui

Anyhow, after flying down from Bangkok and making the necessary transport connections to hop on a ferry bound for Koh Phagnan, we arrived at Thong Sala, the main (and really only) port of the above mentioned island, to the sound of a deafening clap of thunder and sheets of rain the likes of which only a tropical climate can provide. We hopped on the back of a truck to take us to Mae Haad, our elected destination, on the Northern coast of the island, and were driven through an ever intensifying storm til we reached our destination in time for a strengthening lunch. We’d been up since 4am and on the move all but constantly so, by this stage the plate of fried rice, ginger tea and respite from the rain we recieved were like a royal welcome and were much appreciated.

Koh Ma, our neighbouring island, connected to us by a sandbar at low tide.

After these refreshments we wandered through the rain to take a look at what the beach had to offer in terms of accomodation. We’d basically now accepted that we could be sitting under a constantly gushing raincloud thoroughout our stay (something to do with La Niña apparently), and were pretty happily resigned to the idea of somewhere nice to stay where we could look out on the sea at some formidible storms over the beautiful Koh Ma, and get through a few good books from the comfort of a hammock on the verandah.

Our bungalow on Mae Haad

After not a great deal of looking (there seems to be pretty much three places to stay here on Mae Haad) we settled on the beautiful Royal Orchid Bungalows, and selected a hut on the foot of the mountain with a beautiful view of the sea and Koh Ma.

As it happens, it hasn’t rained much and we’ve been bathed, most of the time in glorious sunshine that’s allowed us to read on the beach and swim in a bathwater termperature sea to the accompaniment of good food, icy cold lager and a fine reggae and hip-hop soundtrack softly eminating from our local beach bar.

Having stayed four nights, we set off tomorrow for the shores of the smaller and, in places, more remote Ko Tao for the remainder of our holiday, bar taking a day in Bangkok before the flight home on the 9th.

Rather than go into gushing detail over how simply lovely everything is, it’s easier if I share a few more picures. As ever, our stay here has been peaceful and enjoyable, made all the more so by the hospitality and helpfulness of local people, the friendliness of the army of beach dogs (and the odd cat) and a ready supply of delicious food, beer and fresh fruit. Wonderful stuff.

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