Kho Phangan – Day One

Lucy, Elenor and I left for Kho Phangan at five o’clock on Thursday afternoon (to catch our bus departing from Kho San Road at 6:00). In Bangkok rush hour traffic, journey that should have taken about 10 minutes, was going on 50 minutes, before we asked the driver to stop where he was (not a difficult request to acquiesce to seeing as we had been stopped in the same spot for the past 10 minutes) and got our luggage out in the middle of a log jam of traffic, making our way through the mass of cars to the sidewalk with our packs. Walking through Kho San Road, the “Backpacker Haven” of Bangkok, I really felt like part of the whole backpacker community.

We made our way to the agency and were led to a grassy spot where about 30 other people were waiting with their packs and sat to wait for the bus. Over the next 30 minutes, our numbers swelled to over a hundred and double-decker “VIP” buses began lining up at the curb. Having been warned to sit on the top (because “the bottom smells like the toilet”), I was a bit antsy to be sure I was one of the first on the bus, but kept reminding myself that I was in Thailand and I should be calm and serene and patient – a reminder that worked for about five minutes after which it was repeated in cycles of apprehension and conscious efforts at remaining calm. Finally we were told that our bus had arrived and we joined the mass of people and packs making their way on the bus.

The bus itself was quite luxurious with two floors, a spiral staircase, high-backed, padded chairs; pillows and blankets, a television, and air-condition. Unfortunately 11 hours in any vehicle where you are confined to a chair, no matter how luxurious, is going to be painful – and it was. The air-condition, which we had paid extra for, turned the bus into a mobile arctic and the stench of the toilet that we were assured remained below, crept it’s way up into our compartment after just two hours and filled the whole bus with a putrid fog. Eleven hours later, at 5:00 a.m., we were deposited at a food stand in the middle of nowhere to wait for another bus that would bring us to the pier in two hours time. Although, elated to be out of the bus, our sleep and food deprived bodies did not relish the two hour wait and we tried our best to keep ourselves occupied with books and conversation punctuated by attempts at sleep with our heads on our folded arms on the concrete table. The food stall consisted of a what appeared to be a storage/living area, a covered “dining area” (plastic chairs and tables on dirt floor) and a small store selling drinks, potato chips (seaweed, lobster and barbeque) and packs of Oreos). There were two or three Thai men, a Thai woman, a small Thai girl about 10, a boy about 6 and a kitten, who provided moments of amusement chasing insects, its tail and various other invisible targets. A little after seven, a bus pulled up and we loaded on for the ten minute journey to the pier.

The ferry to the island was a boat with a lower compartment filled with rows of rounded plastic chairs facing a large television, an upper air-conditioned VIP deck (which we did not discover until the end of the journey), and an outer deck where you could sit, holding on to the rails and hang your feet over the side. We were herded into the lower deck and settled into three adjoining plastic seats.

After about 15 minutes, unable to find a comfortable position, uninterested in “Cat Woman” and desperately needing to rest, I made my way out onto the deck where I settled into a spot on the side, my feet over the edge, my arms wrapped through the life preserver hanging of the railing in front of me, my head on the rails and tried to sleep.

The four hour ferry ride took us first to Kho Samuei and then on to Kho Phangan. The blue of the water reflecting the blue of the sky made for a view so intense it was hard to take in. Here and there, the scene was dotted with distant hazy blue islands with nothing else as far as you could see. Three hours into the journey, the ferry docked on Kho Samuei and as seventy percent of the boat’s passengers scrambled to get their packs and disembark, Eleanor and I made our way to the bow to watch to as Kho Phangnan appeared on the horizon.

We had planned to book a room ahead of time, choosing one of the islands many secluded beaches as our primary destination, but had not been able to reach anyone at the number in the Lonely Planet. As fate will sometimes do, she appeared as a Thai man, one of the many bungalow touts, with a card for the same one we had tried to reach days earlier and an offer of a free taxi ride to the bunglows. As we navigated the mad rush to the pile of packs on the bow and got off the bus, I was relieved to have a guide and an established place to say. The pier was crawling with Thai men asking, “where you stay?” trying to find guests for their respective bungalows. We doggedly followed our guide to the back of a waiting pick up and climbed aboard for the long journey up to the north western coast of the island.

The pier is located in Thong Sala, the main town on Kho Phangan. From what I could tell, Thong Sala is made up of one main road filled with shops and restaurants and various smaller arteries running off to the side, offering more opportunities to eat, drink and shop your day away. The majority of the stores sell clothing and shoes, along with a few rows of local nick-knacks and toiletries. Brightly colored sarongs hang from ropes along the outer store fronts and the insides are filled with rows of tops, shorts, dresses, skirts, bathing suits and anything else you could need to outfit yourself for you island holiday. The resaurnts and bars are also open to the street offering “authentic Thai food” (which I found amusing because what else would Thai food be in Thailand if not authentic), fresh seafood and cold drinks.

From Thong Sala, we made our way (Lucy, Elenor, myself and one other traveler, from whom we later learned his name and country of origin, but I can’t remember either!) with our packs in the back of the pick up over dirt roads, though little villages, past signs and flyers tacked on poles announcing a Thai boxing match on Saturday, a Black Moon Party on Friday and various bars restaurants and bungalows. As we rounded a corner into what was to be our home for the next two days and we found ourselves looking into a dreary looking forested lake, my immediate thought was “weren’t we supposed to be staying on the beach?” We all exchanged questioning looks until the truck pulled around another corner and a beautiful little stretch of beach came into view.

The bungalows on the beach went for 300 bhat with one double bed and a fan, while those farther back went for 200 bhat with the same amenities. We decided to take two of the 200 bhat rooms and split the difference three ways, with me able to have a room all to myself for a fraction of the price. Finally settling into our new rooms after an 18 hour journey, we promptly made our way – me to the beach, Lucy to the hammock and Eleanor to the room – to sleep.