Family visit: departure for the island of Ko Phangan (2012)

Ko Phangan, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Southern Provinces, Surat Thani, Travel to Thailand

This time we are heading south, to the coconut trees and the white sand, but this time no car but a direct plane to Nakhon Si Tammarat where we stopped to say hello to Jitima's family who we were joining there, before going to Surat Thani to take the ferry to Ko Phangan, where personally Jitima and I had not been back since the last time 4 years ago.

Welcome under a rather grey sky.

Quick trip to Khanom with the in-laws

Arrived home, greetings to his parents, aunts/uncles, sister and all that, then we went to eat somewhere between Nakhon and Surat Thani (I would learn later that it was Khanom), on the way we stopped at the resort run by Jitima's half-sister who by the way offered my parents to stay in the suite (with private pool, mind you!) for free during their next stay in Thailand.

The niece and nephew test the hammocks.

The garden.

View on the sea.

The little niece is having fun.

Beach left side

Beach right side.

Visit of the suite.

Small but private pool. Room just vacated, bed not made yet.

Arrived at the restaurant, bordering the mangrove.

In the middle of fishing, there is no doubt that the fish in the restaurant is fresh!

Ferry to Ko Phangan

Waiting for the ferry.

In full effort.

This is our boat.

Departure imminent.

A boat from a different company (we were with Raja Ferry, the route is direct from Donsak pier to Ko Phangan)

Given the black smoke, this type of boat should no longer sail, it's a disgrace...

The coasts of Ko Samui on the way.

A stranger daydreams and admires the landscape.

In a relationship.

In the cabin.

Out again.

Here is a little one that kept me busy for a while, a bit rowdy this one got into the game of having her picture taken, then after trying to take a picture of Jitima and me, quite funny. The time to do that and we had arrived (2h30 journey, I also had time to take a nap)

Posing with his, um, sister/girlfriend?

Most of the pictures she took were like this…

The only successful one. Thanks little one!

Another one is embedded.

Arrival in Ko Phangan

It's time for me to rest, finally! It seems a bit ironic but it's true, traveling in the north is a lot of walking and more than 3000km of driving is not easy! This is the south, if visits are still on the program, it will be mostly done on scooters rather than walking, and the beach, an essential place to relax, will not be refused.

Gloomy weather, although overall it could have been worse, we still had some rain, sometimes even during the day, which we could have done without.

In 4 years the roads have not really changed, the island has not, I am pleasantly surprised (if we compare to Ko Samui which has been concreted everywhere...)

We took a shared taxi with other people, after dropping everyone else off at their respective hotels we arrived. So here is the beach where we will stay during this stay on Phangan namely Haad Salad, in the northwest of the island.

Quite charming, the only flaw rather inherent to the whole island is the lack of depth for swimming.

So we wade more than we swim, we have to swim in the morning when the tide is high to have a bit more depth.

The restaurant of our hotel, the Haad Salad Resort, run by Burmese people. The wait was sometimes long, choose other restaurants on the beach.

This is where I notice a difference compared to 4 years ago: there are a lot of Burmese on the island. Between the resort managers and the restaurant employees, they are now offering Burmese dishes on the menus... But there is a significant drawback... since some do not speak Thai or even understand it at all!

This gave rise to a scene that amused her at first, but ended up annoying Jitima, and for good reason! In her own country, she found herself unable to order dishes in her own language, like this case when faced with a waiter who didn't say a word... What a shame! Imagine in France ordering your little meal without making yourself understood!

If the first few times it didn't bother her more than that, it's because she thought it was an exception, but it turned out that by combining the rental of the scooter with having to speak English with an obviously Burmese owner, then the accumulation of all the restaurants which almost all turned out, without exception, to be Burmese, after a while it didn't go down well...

The resort garden.

Some bungalows have hammocks.

The rooms are ok for the price (700 baht on the seafront) but a bit of renovation wouldn't hurt, the whole place is starting to show its age (except the bathroom which looked more recent)