Ko Phangan

The Hat Rin peninsula, south-east corner of Phangan. Hat Rin East (Sunrise) is the main beach. Hat Rin Sunset is across the peninsula to the left. The smaller beach left side partly concealed by the near headland is Leela Beach. The south coast stretches away towards the top - Ban Khai is about half-way along, Ban Tai a bit further. The beach on the far right is Hat Yuan (image Creative Commons-Manfred Werner)


Hat Rin bottom right, Thong Nai Pan top right, Than Sadet mid right, Mae Had top left (Koh Maa on map), Had Salad just below Mae Had (image fullmoon-party.com)
A full sized version can be seen here.



MUCH OF THIS PAGE WAS COMPOSED IN LATE 2006 AFTER MY THIRD VISIT TO PHANGAN. HOWEVER I HAVE WRITTEN UPDATES AND POSTED NEW PIX FROM MY LATEST AUGUST 2009 VISIT WHEN NEEDED.
I MADE A POINT OF STAYING AT TWO NEW LOCATIONS, HAD SALAD AND THAN SADET, AND CHECKED OR RECHECKED BEACHES NEARBY LIKE MAE HAD, CHALOKLUM, CORAL BEACH (HAD KHOM), HAD KRUAD, HAD THIAN WEST AND HAD YAO WEST . I HAVE A HEAP OF PIX AND INFO ON THESE ON A NEW PHANGAN PART 2 PAGE.


I revisited Phangan late March. Lack of time changed my original plan of doing a bungalow crawl up the east coast, along the top and then down the west coast as far at Hat Yao. So I had to confine myself to staying at Leela Beach (Hat Rin) and Thong Nai Pan Yai, visiting others either by round-island boat trip or motorcycle.

Bad luck voyeurs, LEELA ain't a nudist haunt like the old days. It now has a couple of pretty nice mid-range resorts and an old style budget bungalow place and is a little too built out for overexposure. Nevertheless, it is a very laid back beach, uncrowded even on the nicest days, has nice sand which gets a bit narrow at highest tide, and good swimming except at lowest tide when lots of rocks just below surface make this difficult, although it is still dead easy to find a spot to sit in or splash around.

Leela is on the sunset side of the Hat Rin peninsula, east of the harbour and fairly close to the SE corner of the island. You can reach its western end in about three minutes from the end of the Hat Rin East main street (take the stairs and follow the sign to Coconuts) or the far eastern end in a little more than ten (follow the signs from the top of the stairs up the dirt road to Leela Beach Bungalows). So Leela is a good alternative to Hat Rin East for people wanting to stay on a nice and much quieter beach.

I stayed a little further past the beach at a place lauded in a Thorntree post, LIGHTHOUSE RESORT which is accessed by taking a wooden walkway for about 300m over the rocks from the far eastern end of Leela. “Lighthouse” gives the impression it’s on top of the headland but this resort starts on the seaside rocks and rises to about half way up the steep hillside. Nevertheless, a great location, almost on the SE corner of the island with nice views across to Samui (sensational views from the higher 800 baht bungalows especially at night when the lights came out).Wooden walkway to Lighthouse Resort with Leela Beach in background. The restaurant of Leela Bay Bungalows is the first building on the beach. (image Lighthouse Resort)

Those dearer bungalows were pretty big and looked fine. But I have to say my 200baht bungalow (outside bathroom) was a dump - its 15 degree lateral list beat a 10 degree longitudinal dip, it was pokey with a three quarter size bed and barely enough room for two people’s gear, it wasn’t very clean, had advanced wood rot in the roof beams and the veranda beam at the top of the stairs was so low it scalped me first time. The super steep stairways in several places through the grounds had PVC water pipes across the air gaps. On the plus side, the outside bathrooms for the cheapies were reasonable, the restaurant food was good if a little overpriced compared to really good value bungalow restaurants and the service was quick if unsmiling (at least from the female side - the blokes were pleasant enough).

Lighthouse Resort - good views across to Samui from just about all bungalows (image Lighthouse Bungalows)

UPDATE AUGUST 2009 - I rechecked Lighthouse latest trip. The place seems little changed. The more expensive bungalows still look pretty sweet and as can be seen from the shot below, the obstacle course to some of the cheaper bungalows was still present.My elcheapo bungalow from the 2006 trip had not fallen down - closer inspection showed a fair bit of new woodwork. This is a 2009 shot.

If I were looking for a cheapie in this area I’d try LEELA BEACH BUNGALOWS which had a lot of 300 baht (with bathroom attached) places up the back row. They looked okay in a pretty pleasant setting, maybe a little close together. LBB was putting in new beachside bungalows in March, which looked like they were to be aircon. Nice position - absolute beach-front.
One downside may be this outfit’s two dogs, who got over-exited from terrorizing a beach jogger and then decided to harass all passers-by. Maybe not such a good idea when one of those passers-by was a dog-hating Orstrayan with his really big bush stick.
For people looking for a nice midranger on the beach close to Hat Rin main street, COCO HUTS on Leela looked pretty nice to me. They have a pool.
UPDATE - Leela Beach Bungalows was not operating when I revisited in August 09. I can't believe the place had gone broke with such a prime position. More probably sold out for some upmarket development.
Coco Hut had also been redeveloped and has headed upmarket from lower midrange.
Adjacent to Coco Hut is a lower midrange place with some more budget bungalows up the back - Sarikantang. Check Google for plenty of websites and reviews.

2009 shot of Leela Beach from the western Coco Hut end. Lighthouse Bungalows are out of sight around the headland at the far end (click to expand pix)


As for HAT RIN itself - I like it. Despite the bullshit from the Full Moon Party haters, East Hat Rin Beach is clean, wide, great for swimming.The town has heaps of restaurants, shops and services (people who haven’t ventured down through Western Hat Rin for some years will be astounded by development here).
And for one of the best people watching places anywhere, grab a beer from the corner store fridge at the “crossroads” in HR East main street and watch the passing parade.Crossroads mid Hat Rin Main Street and mid beach access lane. My favourite corner store at left. This August (high season) 2009 shots shows fewer people than normal - the World Financial Crisis seemed to be having a bigger impact on backpackers and budget travellers than midrangers from what I could see. Not that Hat Rin is now only a backpacker/budget haunt - there was a big hotel-like development midbeach-front with a pool, and even bigger joint midway between sunrise and sunset beach, and a fair few smaller bungalow places seemed midrange now. Not to mention plenty of expensive looking people tanning on the beach and hopping into speedboats to fang off on some daytrip. But hey, few sunlounges on the fine beach and still plenty of budget places to stay.

Hat Rin East (surnrise/moonrise/party beach) is not shabby at all - white white sand which is very clean (see shot of mechanical beach cleaner on the POLLUTION page), clear water which is not too shallow a short distance out and some nice shade from trees in back of beach particularly towards this northern end. Budget beachfront bungalows out of frame to the right - more high on the headland behind camera with some pretty cool restaurant/bars. On the passing ferry from Than Sadet to Samui at the end of this Phangan trip I also noticed some cool not too expensive looking headland bungalows above the seaside rocks out of frame to left, far end of the beach - it would be maybe a 10 minute walk from these to central Hat Rin and the beach. Note the relative lack of people on the beach at prime 1100 sunning time in Phangan's second high season (because of the better weather, Phangan/Samui/Tao tend to have an August high season almost as busy as Christmas/January).


You don't have to wait for the Full Moon Party for a fire twirler show - this can be seen on many beaches most nights (image ASIAEXPLORERS)



THE SOUTH COAST
The beaches along the south coast of Phangan are not as nice as the east and north west, but not shabby. My first Phangan stay was in this area and I remember fine views back to Samui, water which got a bit shallow at low tide and a really good shuttle of songthaews along the main road between the pier/main town Thong Sala and Hat Rin. I noticed in my latest August 09 trip that a lot of really nice midrange places have developed in places like Ban Khai, Ban Tai and Bang Charu - although there are still a lot of cheapies along here. A good place for Full Moon Party goers because of the transport.


THE EAST COAST
THONG NAI PAN YAI towards the north end of the east coast is so much better again. A really nice beach surrounded by rain-forested mountains, quite a lot of accommodation from basic to mid-range, some beach bars etc, but with a laid back, uncrowded feeling. There is a separate village with several small supermarkets, some restaurants and an ATM.

I’m a sucker for elevated el-cheapo bungalows with stunning views, so I got myself another 200 baht job at WHITE WIND, built up the steep headland hillside at the north end of the beach. What a contrast to Lighthouse! I’ve got a pretty full report of the bungalows and some other TNP stuff on travelfish HERE.
White Wind contacts -Ph 084 8768495 - 8375310 : whitewindresort@hotmail.com

White Wind bungalows on the southern headland of Thong Nai Pan Yai. Tezza's cheapy is partly seen far left side (image Panoramio - bamboulele)


UPDATE August09 - I walked over from Than Sadet to recheck TNP. That's the view from White Wind's restaurant above.
White Wind had expanded in the restaurant area - this is on the top deck of the left building below. The mid and ground levels contain an internet cafe, art and tattoo studio, a store/travel agency. The small structure to the right is a bar and lounge area with some sun lounges in front. The bungalows are up and to the right, overlooking the rocks and sea. Prices were still pretty attractive - 200b small outside facility bungalows, 300 for bigger and 500 for bigger with bathrooms.

This is the view of Thong Nai Pan Yai from the viewpoint constructed by Panviman Resort which straddles the headland between TNP Yai and TNP Noi. You can shortcut the normal 20 minute road walk around the inland side of the headland by hiking up through White Wind and into the bush past the water tanks. A walking track leads to Panviman's boundary in about 5 minutes - since my last trip Panviman has built a barrier but it is clear locals have been ignoring this - there is a gap in the barrier and the track itself is well used. As soon as you pass the barrier you will see the viewpoint track which leads uphill to views of TNP Yai and Noi (below) and then loops back down to the resort. You can avoid the goons at the gate by following the signs to THE BEACH - Panviman's beach is the northern section of TNP Noi and it is easy to jump over or wade thru the small stream which separates it from the rest of TNP beach.

Thong Nai Pan Noi. The biggest change I saw on both beaches was the upgrading of bungalows. There seemed to be few budget bungalows beachfront on Noi - most were upmarket jobs. If you look closely at the near headland bungalows on the Yai Shot 2 up you will see pools which didn't exist on my first visit.

I saw someone bad-mouthing Panviman on TT - “new headland hugging concrete monstrosity mega bungalows“- hey, looked pretty good to me and http://www.panviman.com/shows an attractive 3 day package even if the daily rate is a bit over the top (that website also shows Panviman Ko Chang).

UPDATE Aug09 - This is the high end Santhiya Resort and Spa on its own little beach just 20 metres over a low headland north of TNP Noi. The last time I saw this little bay there was no sand (it was shipped in - the original beach was pebble) and the resort was less than 50% complete.

The long road into TNP is a little better than last time I visited, but still super steep and rutted in many places, real easy for the inexperienced to stack a motorcycle. Please take care, particularly if you have your trusting girlfriend on the pillion. There seems to be only two public songthaews from THONG SALA each day, but several bungalows send pick-ups to meet most ferries (you would be looking at 150-200 baht in 2009). Water-taxi longtails will bring you up from Hat Rin East. The good news is the small fast ferry which leaves TNP about 9am, picks up at several of the little beaches down the east coast, calls in at Hat Rin east beach and then goes on to Mae Nam on the north coast of Samui for 300-350 baht. This comes back in the afternoon (see the Than Sadet section below for more info).

You can walk into TNP Yai from Than Sadet on a trail considerably closer to the coast than the roads - see the opening map. This leaves Sadet about 5 minutes up the main Sadet access road just inland from the Ranger Station - follow the signs to Viewpoint Bungalows but go straight ahead where the track to Viewpoint turns hard right uphill after another 5 minutes. This track is not for motorbikes being super rutted in sections and narrowing to a one-person rainforest path in the highest third. It dumps out adjacent the small supermarket/travel agency/motorbike hire place about midway along TNP Yai's inland main street. The track took me 55 minutes to walk - beach to beach 65 minutes.

Thong Nai Pan Noi, right - TNP Yai left. That's part of high end Panviman Resort on the headland between.


THE NORTH-WEST
Other places which caught my eye include TT poster and Phangan resident girllrig’s favourite non-TNP location, MAE HAD (Hat Mae, Mae Haad), a nice smaller beach (TT says the beach “isn’t fantastic”. Well technically that’s right, but it’s pretty nice) on the n.w corner of the island, with good swimming away from lowest tide, some good coral near a small offshore island, about half a dozen bungalow places, but not too crowded. This seemed to have mainly young Euro couples and families staying. Between the boat trip and the motorcycle I visited three times, including a great sunset last evening while using up time waiting for the night ferry. I have done a bit of research on less expensive places to stay for my future trips. Wang Sai resort on the slopes overlooking the beach and with the restaurant beach-side has had good posts in the past. I have used the restaurant which was standard Thai budget type - tasty and inexpensive.
The other place which appealed to me was Ko Ma Resort - some budget bungalows on tiny Ko Ma which is joined to Mae Hat beach by a spit of sand. At high tide there is a boat shuttle.
Phangan Part 2 has some extra info/pix of both Mae Had and it's near neighbour, Had Yao West.

Mae Had from the sand-spit leading out to tiny Ko Ma (image Panoramio-The Globetrotter)

HAT YAO (the west coast one) was similar to the present Mae Had when I last visited in ‘97. Now it is fully built up, with a big array of bungalows, restaurants/beach bars, dive centers etc. Nevertheless, it is still an attractive place.Hat Yao (west coast), low tide August 2009. It gets a bit shallow here on the low tide, like most west coast beaches. Sand is white, water clean, lots of accommodation in all price ranges on the beachfront, the headlands each end and in the small township along the main beach road behind. A fair few bars/restaurants meaning some good nightlife without being over the top like Hat Rin.

MORE EAST COAST
The around island boat put in at HAT SADET south of TNP on the east coast. This laid back beach had a surprising amount of accommodation, much built up the steep hillsides both sides of the beach, and a small waterfall about 1 km up the road with a good pool for swimming and a big rock with a small cave from where you can actually enter the pool by swimming underwater a short distance.

Mai Pen Rai, which has bungalows on the beach, riverside and hillside, gets lots of good comments on the travel forums. UPDATE - on my latest trip I spent quite a few days at Mai Pen Rai - report and pix on the Phangan Part 2 page.

Hat Sadet aka Had Sadet, Than Sadet from the wonderful restaurant deck of Plaa's Thansadet Resort.


For people looking for really quiet out of the way beaches, Hat Sadet would not be a bad start, but it gets more chill along the strip south of here towards Hat Rin - several small bays with just one or a few places, like AO THONG RENG, HAT YAO (EAST COAST) and HAT WAI NAM. HAT THIAN looked a bit busier than these, but no more than Hat Sadet. HAT YUAN, just north of Hat Rin, looks really built up these days. I originally wanted to do a beach crawl along this section, staying at a few of the beaches, but as mentioned, time beat me. Next trip.

THE NORTH COAST
Unfortunately, the boat didn’t put in at BOTTLE BEACH (Hat Khuat) on the north coast, but it sure looks more developed than last time I visited. Nevertheless, land access is apparently still difficult, so no doubt it still is pretty laid back. UPDATE August 09 - land access has improved slightly so that Bottle Beach's bungalows now bring in guests by 4 wheel drive vehichles over the long rough mountain track north of Thong Nai Pan. Nevertheless it is still too steep and rough for all but the most skilled motorcyclist.
From the west the track from Chaloklum is now a concrete road for several km and ends just past Coral Beach (Hat Khom) - it is now about a 3km sometimes very steep walk into Bottle Beach by this track and the guy who hired me a mountain bike said it was a good testing ride, but I found access very difficult and so gave it a miss. I did go down to Hat Khom and found a delightful beach with some laid back old style bungalows. I have some pix of this and Chaloklum on the Phangan Part 2 page.

On the personalities front, there seemed to be much fewer football-top wearing farangs walking around the place. Perhaps my idea that people wearing this stuff who haven’t played for the team are wannabe-losers, is sinking in. However the pirate look seems to be spreading - what we have here those calf length board shorts, a bare chest with the inevitable tattoo, and in many cases a bald head with the colourful knotted ‘kerchief on top. But hell, where’s the stuffed parrot on the shoulder? And shouldn’t those tatts be skull and cross-bones rather than “MOTHER”?
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GETTING TO PHANGAN
From Bangkok
- the cheapest would be train or bus to Chumpon and then hop on one of the fast ferries which goes to Phangan via Tao. Chumpon is a long way north of the popular alternative of Surathani. I know the sleeper train south (I think final destination is Hat Yai) gets into Chumpon in good time to catch the first express boat out each morning.

I have seen a lot of posts saying Lomprayah ferry company's bus/fast catermaran combination is very reliable - there are two services a day - one bus goes overnight.
UPDATE - I used Lomprayah to get from Samui to Phangan on my August 09 trip. The Mae Nam (the pier is at the western end of the beach) to Thong Sala trip was pretty quick at about 30 minutes, but they do pack the passengers in. Note that the 1130 trip out of Samui (which goes on to Tao and Chumpon) includes free transfers from your Samui accommodation which will save you a 300 to 500 baht taxi fare from Chaweng/Lamai areas. Similarly the incoming boat which arrives in Samui at 1100 will shuttle you to your accommodation gratis. I noticed one shuttle bus had AIRPORT on it.
I came back to Samui on the smaller east coast ferry which starts in Thong Nai Pan and arrives at a different Mae Nam pier (central beach). Plenty of taxis, motorcyle taxis and charter songthaews meet this - Lady Tezza and I paid 100 each for a songthaew which also shuttled some people to the airport for 50 each. More information for this ferry can be seen on Mae Pen Rai's website and under the photo at the bottom of this page.

A more expensive time-saver is to fly to Samui and then hop across to Phangan or fly to Surathani and catch a ferry. Bangkok Air and Thai fly into Samui from Bangkok - and Bangkok Air also flies in directly from Phuket, Krabi, Chiang Mai and U-Tapao near Pattaya. Thai and maybe others fly into the Surathani.

INTERNATIONAL FLIGHTS.
Direct flights into Samui are offered by Bangkok Air from Hong Kong and Singapore. Berjaya fly from KL as does Firefly.

FROM SAMUI
I have a copy of losing_touch's great ferry timetable here.
http://www.backpackinthailand.com/gulf_ferries.html
Note that ferry companies can change times etc so it's a good idea to check each company's website for latest info.

What is the latest boat you can get from Samui?
Travel forums get a lot of questions from people arriving on late flights into Samui wanting to get to Phangan on the same day.
The last boat at time of writing is at 1830 - the Had Rin Queen from Big Buddha.
It takes around 10 minutes by cab from the airport to Big Buddha pier.

The 3 ferries which leave from near the airport are Lomprayah from western Mae Nam, Seatran from Bo Phut/Bang Rak, Had Rin Queen from Big Buddha and the east coast beach ferry from the central "pier" on Mae Nam.
The first 2 go to Thong Sala, where pickups are waiting to transfer all over the island - the last one is good if you want to go directly to the east coast beaches (last stop is Thong Nai Pan) but runs to Phangan early afternoon only, Had Rin Queen is great if you want to go to that place or nearby.

Other ferries on the link start on the Surathani coast and pick up in Samui's Na Thon which is a long way from the airport and from the popular east coast Samui beaches.

The closest ferry piers to the airport are Bo Phut/Bang Rak and Big Buddha. There’s quite a lot of good inexpensive accommodation there - google travelfish for reviews of places there and at Bang Rak which is part of this area.
Mae Nam is maybe 15 minutes west of the airport by taxi or shuttle bus - plenty of cheapies there.
Note that Lomprayah has a free shuttle to their ferry (well the second daily one at least) so it doesn't matter where you stay if you use that one.

If arriving too late for the last ferry, I wouldn't use a longtail to cross at night - can be quite bumpy and wet, sometimes outright dangerous - and it would cost a bomb. A bigger fishing boat would be outrageously expensive and still bumpy and maybe wet.

Spedboats can be chartered - would be very expensive, particularly after dark. I have travelled this area in pretty big seas on speedboats, they tend to throttle back and ride the swells reasonably - not good if you suffer seasickness though.

I'd stay on Samui, go down to one of the little restaurant/bars overlooking the beach/piers and have a nice first night relaxing.


From the Andaman or the South
- most people come in through Surathani. Some ferries leave from the town itself but more, including vehicle ferries depart from further east on the coast. If you are coming in via the bus station, the airport or railway station (the last 2 both out of town), there are travel counters or adjacent travel agents who will sell you a shuttle bus-ferry ticket right onto the island.

One of my favourites is the night ferry which leaves at 2300 from the town pier, chugs down river and then across the bay, you on your designated matress and pillow, arriving in Phangan about 0500 where transport is waiting at the pier to take you to your beach of choice. You can grab a swim and brekka while all those lazy travellers are still tucked into their bungalows cutting the zzzzzs.

From Phi Phi in one day.
This question and its reverse trip gets asked lots of times on the travel forums. Poster english_dave gave this answer in April 08:
"'P.P.Family' - I think this is the only company that does the full trip in one day.Phangan -> Phi Phi - leave at 7am from Thong Sala, Arrive Phi Phi at 3:30pm - cost = 700baht
Phi Phi -> Phangan - leave at 9am, Arrive Phangan about 6pm - cost = 800baht.
Pretty much any travel agency in Phi Phi or Phangan will be able to arrange these tickets for you."
A small caveat here. There have been lots of complaints of thefts from luggage in the underbus storage area of coaches put on by private travel companies between Krabi and Surathani (and KSR and Surathani) So to be safe don't leave any valuables in your luggage - have them in your carry pack in the cabin.
Maybe a BIG caveat - PP Family probably gets more complaints than any other regular Thai transport operator - not only for underbus thefts but for time wasting and general lack of care - travelfish advises against them. I reckon if you catch the first ferry out and the normal Krabi-Surathani minibus you would make it in a day. Catching the night ferry from Surathani town pier around 2200-2300 assures this. Actaully you would probably be able to leave PP on the afternoon ferry and still make the night ferry.


WHEN TO GO.
The Phangan/Samui/Tao area tends to have a different wet season to most of Thailand. Normally this kicks in late September/early October and runs into early January, although the fact that Christmas/New Year is peak season indicates that it can't be too bad come late December.
The good news is that when the Andaman and Eastern Gulf islands are in wet season midyear, the Phangan area is usually much drier. Sure it will rain a bit in these months but usually sunshine dominates. This drier weather means a second high season in July/August and consequently not the bargain accommodation prices you will find in Phuket, Krabi or big Ko Chang etc.
February thru April are even drier. Note March April can be pretty hot.
A point about Phangan's wet season - frequently this can be as holiday friendly as most other areas, but every now and then they have a shocker. In all the years I have been following Thai weather this is the only place I have seen forum posters complaining about persistent bad weather, prolonged heavy rain etc. This seems to happen every 3rd or 4th year, but not necessarily on a regular basis. So if I was planning a Thai beach holiday in say Oct, Nov or early Dec I might think more about the mid or eastern Gulf or the Andaman. However if these months were the only time I could visit and I really wanted to see Phangan, I would not be put-off - my first visit into this area was in a November and I got real nice weather, as good as my 3 August visits.
A smaller point - May in this area and many other Thai regions often gets a little blip of extra rain compared to adjacent months. Usually this is not enough to make it a mini wet season but once again I occasionally see complaints from the Phangan/Samui/Tao areas about prolonged rainy spells.

For the price conscious, you are going to get good discounts in wet season. But note months like March, April, June and a lot of Septrember are usually not wet, yet many accommodation places go into low season pricing. Note too that low-budget places are much less variable in pricing compared to midrange and high-end joints.


A really nice link which has all sorts of info on Phangan, including great maps, accomm from basic to swish is www.phangan.info.com HERE

Top deck of the slow ferry which starts at Thong Nai Pan around 0900 and heads down the east coast of Phangan picking up at several beaches including Than Sadet, Hat Thian and East Hat Rin and then goes across to Mae Nam on the north coast of Samui, not too far from the airport and Chaweng Beach in around 2 hours from TNP - cost from Than Sadet August 09 300baht. The boat returns starting early afternoon. Some real nice mountain/beach views passing down the coast. Don't be alarmed at the tilt - the boat is doing a turn out of Hat Thian's bay here.



ONCE AGAIN THERE IS MORE INFO ON HAD SALAD AND THAN SADET, AND BEACHES NEARBY LIKE MAE HAD, CHALOKLUM, CORAL BEACH (HAD KHOM), HAD KRUAD, HAD THIAN WEST AND HAD YAO WEST ON THE NEW PHANGAN PART 2 PAGE.


If you have exta info or see mistakes in the above, please post below. But if you have any questions, please ask them in THE FORUM rather than below. I don't get a chance to check all threads daily, but unless I'm travelling I'll try to monitor THE FORUM regularly.