Family Visit: Inland Tour in Ko Phangan – Day 17 – Trip April 2012
That day, my parents had also rented a scooter, and although it was only the second time my father had driven such a machine, we were off to explore the island, which is not really recommended for beginner drivers.
Driving gently on the roads bordering the sea this was no problem on this day. Today's route took us to the north before cutting through the middle of the island between the mountains, a relatively easy route.
In summary, in the form of a photo “report”, this is what it gave:
In the fishing village in Chaloklum Bay, in the north of the island.
Drying small cuttlefish.
The west of the bay.
The east of the bay.
Following the signs indicating a viewpoint we take small roads, after a while I prefer to continue on foot rather than risk getting stuck or breaking my neck, the terrain becoming more daredevil.
It's bound to go up.
You have to be brave to camp here, the tents are hung at the foot of the hill.
View of the fishermen's bay where we came from. Arriving at the top the manager puts on his music (reggae as is often the case on the islands) just for us, we are dripping with sweat (well especially my father and I...) and the day has only just begun.
They had apparently tried to build bungalows but it seemed they had given up.
In the middle of nowhere.
Here again a really steep slope, my mother and Jitima preferred to go down on foot…
There are also elephants, like in all tourist places... Here is a beautiful male.
From the bottom of the road we see our next destination, a Chinese temple with a view of the sea (which also overlooks the same bay as this morning)
The temple looks recent.
The interior.
The surrounding mountains are very misty. The rain is not far away…
It looks like Jitima is begging...while waiting for the rain to stop, in fact.
Fortunately the rain does not last and so we continue the visit.
The sticks are used to ask a question to the "gods", depending on the position it means yes or no in response to the said question (in this case one must fall on the flat side, the other on the rounded side, but be careful if you ask too many questions it could distort the result because instead of a "no" it could actually say "I've had enough" from the entity... such is the belief)
Afterwards, following the same route we visited the Ko Phangan National Park. Like any good national park, there are forest walks and waterfalls that await you.
On the program.
Unfortunately it is April and despite the rains of the last few days the weather is above all hot and the falls rather dry.
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The route is a bit chaotic.
Alone motivated, I set off towards the viewpoint.
It's a steep climb but it doesn't last too long (barely 10 minutes of walking)
Here I am at my goal!
So many coconut trees!
From there it is possible to continue for a short walk in the forest. For my part, I would go back down to join Jitima and my parents by the same path where I would meet other French people.
The main waterfall in the area, this time there is water flowing.
“Swimming pool” not quite natural because bricks were added just 10m downstream to allow the water to be retained.
It turns out that the clouds are mostly concentrated in the mountains, which is not a surprise (this is also the case in Bali), once you get down there the heat and the sun are definitely there.
The beach just south of Thong Sala (and the pier where we arrived with the Raja ferry)
More about Bang Charu Bay (at least I think)
Behind us the weather is this time very overcast, until now it was only a little while we visited the Chinese temple.
All these beaches are deserted.
An old abandoned resort, it won't be the only one we come across, the competition is tough but we must also admit that the beaches in the area are not deserted for nothing, probably lack of seabed (even if it's relatively the same everywhere) but above all few shops/restaurants, amenities in general in the area, although I'm certainly not advocating the addition of shops/restaurants to fill this gap in the area, I much prefer that it remains relatively "wild" like that.
Nobody…
The large beach of Ban Tai is very deserted.
Further along the road we arrive at Haad Rin where the hotels cling to the hill.
If you feel like retyping…
The house of spirits is still there.
Sometimes you have to take a bit of a run-up to get up hills.
View Point.
It goes down so steeply that you can't see the rest of the road... fortunately it's not the main road but the access to a nearby beach.
We thought we would have a snack break at this restaurant built against the cliff (behind us in the photo) but it was actually just a bar.
We will find another place a little further, a small family restaurant on the side of the road with the beautiful view that goes with it.
The road we just took.
The view in question.
Restaurant.
And their chickens.
Always further.
Arrived at an access to Haad Rin beach.
Right away there are a lot more people...
It was from the end of this beach that I took the panoramic photo that appears at the top of the blog 4 years ago.
Jet skis and other beach games are available here.
Stirring.
The weather is getting cloudy.
On the way back, message received!
A beautiful view of all the beaches west of Phangan.
Shellfish fishing.
With family.
Some mangroves.
Panorama of Wok Tum Beach.
Further up towards our beach.
We will soon be back in Haad Salad.
Welcome “home”.
An hour later, another sunset “session”.
And also evening swimming time incidentally.
Another wonderful moment!
A little massage to finish? (not for us, we will wait until the next day while we were taking a trip to the neighboring beach to the south to have our little massage on the beach for 50 bahts cheaper… a visit that was not originally planned… but that’s another story…)
That evening we were coming back to eat on the fishermen's bay of this very morning while a friend in Jitima invited us there. Basically more of an acquaintance, the anecdote being that before Facebook Jitima had not spoken to her for almost 20 years and while she had quickly reconnected this "friend" turned out to be very friendly and boundlessly sympathetic once we met her there the day before, in this case she came to pick us up by car at our hotel to take us to dinner. A big thank you to her.
The restaurant in question mainly offers seafood and fish (logical of course, but annoying for me who doesn't eat them...)
Souvenir stop, if you are passing through the area, the restaurant is good I recommend it (on the main road to the north, crossing the village of Chaloklum) however I think it only opens at the end of the afternoon.
