The Islands of Thailand

Yes, I made a specific post focusing exclusively on the islands in the south of Thailand - The Gulf side and the Andaman Sea side.  This place was special to me and will probably win the award of ‘favourite country in the world’.  It’s just that good people; if you haven’t been you need to move it up on your bucket list asap.  However it comes with a warning, if you DO NOT like any of the following then the Thai Islands are simply not for you.

• Amazing foods including beach side seafood barbecues
• Some of the friendliest people on the planet
• World class diving and snorkelling
• The inability to spend more than $8 on anything
• Beaches, beaches, beaches beaches, beacjdsfl;kasdf;s
• Muay Thai Kickboxing (watching or participating!)
• Night time Fire shows
• Some of the best partying anywhere
• Laughing, smiling, high-fiving

If you shook your head at any of the points above and said to yourself “Shawn that sounds terrible” then cross Thailand off your list....otherwise enjoy the rest of the post J

I had the pleasure of being on these islands for a little over a month, I stayed on 4 in total with day trips to another 2.  Most days were spent on the beach, in the water or in a hammock.  The majority of the month the only things I wore was board shorts and a smile.  So here we go, first stop Koh Phangan:

We arrived there on the 23^rd in hopes to secure a 9 day accommodation through new years as we’ve heard after Christmas it’s tough to find a cheap place.  We took our time and found a great place on west Had Rin beach called Friendly Resort.  It had cheap bungalows, a pool, great food and was far enough away from the centre of town that you could escape the crazy if you wanted to.

Our 800 baht per night bungalow ($13 per night each)

The pool...and the Gulf of Thailand

The other side of Had Rin is where the main beach is and the world famous full moon beach parties.  This beach was where we spent most of our time...go figure.  There was a big party set to go on Christmas day on this beach....but the weather had other ideas and decided to swallow up the beach whole.

Merry Christmas!  But uhhh, dude where’s my beach?

Ya apparently there was a huge storm that was just passing so the first few days were a bit damp.  But that soon cleared up and we commenced having an awesome time.

One of the days we headed up north to a beach which has a small island that you can walk out to in low tide.  Snorkelling was supposed to be great so we checked it out.

The snorkelling turned out to be a bust as the visibility was junk but the views were still worth the tuk-tuk drive.

Now there are some world famous festivals that I’ve already attended during my trip which include Oktoberfest and La Tomantina.  Going to a full moon beach party in Koh Phangan is another.  On December 31st 30,000 people descended upon Had Rin beach and rang in the New Year.  Buckets upon buckets were consumed, bars and table tops were danced on, people jumped through fire (some successful), ridiculous outfits were worn and music of all varieties pumped until the sun came up.  Although the 31st wasn’t officially a full moon, all other aspects that make a full moon party amazing were prevalent.  I saw the sun set on the west beach, and the sun rise on the east some hours later.  There was a group of about 10 of us all staying at Friendly Resort who partied together that night and we all had the time of our lives.

Just to show you we are normal people

But then it can change so quickly...

Some people couldn't take the crazy....

But we partied through the night!

After a rowdy 10 days of awesomeness we decided to head to the neighbouring island of Kao Tao for a change of pace and also for some world class diving.  I absolutely loved Kao Tao.  It somehow managed to blend a chilled out party atmosphere with a quiet, small town feel.  The food and accommodation was cheaper than Koh Phangan as well which was icing on the cake.  We stayed at a beach side bungalow resort which had its’ own bakery and nightly beach front barbeques serving up the freshest and tastiest seafood I’ve ever had. 

The dining room...

Are you seeing the size of those prawns?  For under $10 you had the culinary pleasure of consuming everything on that plate.  I’ll give you a minute to wipe the drool off your keyboard...

A day trip to neighbouring Koh Nangyuan turned out to be incredible. 

The Thai longtail boat....a staple in water transit

Do I spot a lookout point up there?

Make your own postcards....

The diving was incredible and the cheapest in Thailand.  For two dives, lunch and equipment rental it was a measly 1600 baht ($48)!

I could’ve easily spent more time on beautiful Koh Tao, but it was off to the west coast of Thailand and the islands of the Andaman Sea!  En route to our first destination, the famous Koh Phi Phi we stopped off at Krabi town for a day.  Krabi is famous for its’ karst mountains which provide world class rock climbing.

Take away food straight from a long-tail boat....yep!

Accommodation on Krabi was scarce and pricey, so we decided to move on to the much hyped Koh Phi Phi.

After the tsunami devastated Phi Phi in 2005, the Thai government publically stated that they would rebuild Phi Phi’s tourist area properly concentrating on infrastructure (sewage, fresh water etc).  Before the tsunami the focus was on short term tourism dollars instead of a long term sustainable plan.  With the tsunami they were given a ‘fresh start’ to try and do it right this time.  Well after visiting the island nearly 7 years after the disaster I can honestly tell you that they have failed yet again.  They have once again focused on making money on tourism instead of building a viable infrastructure that can keep up with the demand.  Garbage often lines the streets and the stink of raw sewage can be smelled (and seen) way too often.  Dozens of long tail and speed boats cast shadows on beautiful, picturesque beaches which renders swimming almost impossible.  Even the world famous Maya Bay (where they shot The Beach) is barely visible behind the hundreds of boats that sit anchored in its’ bay.  Without proper governance and a LONG TERM plan this will only get worse.  I write this with an overlying feeling of irony as since I’m a tourist I feel that I am part of the problem.  However I still believe with proper regulations in place this island paradise could once again be just that.  If you do visit Phi Phi I strongly encourage you to get away from the main twin bay area and to one of the more remote beaches up the Eastern shore, as they are much less crowded.
Luckily this island is saved by the world class diving that surrounds it!  Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of these amazing dives but I did manage to borrow some videos of a fellow diver.  The camera quality wasn’t the greatest, but never the less here is a small sample of what I saw

Another highlight of Phi Phi was a cruise of the two islands (Phi Phi Leh and Phi Phi Don) including Maya Bay.  We had a great bunch of people on board which made for an amazing time.

2 for 1 Bacardi Breezers?  Who could say no!

haha this took so many takes to get right

Underwater crane and plank?  The crank!

The party crew on Maya Beach!

Paradise....even with all the boats!

I did salvage some decent pictures of Phi Phi itself as well

This thing was not from this world....

Ph Phi Leh, home of The Beach

Another angle of Phi Phi Leh.....think you could swim across? :)

A panoramic shot of Phi Phi's twin bays...you can imagine now why it's such a popular tourist destination

The last island that we stayed on was magnificent Koh Lanta.  The biggest island by far, it still had that small island feel....very Koh Taoish.  There is a small canal separating Koh Lanta from the Thai mainland, so amenities are a plenty and prices are reasonable.  The awesomeness continued to flow....

The bungalow

The beachfront bar/restaurant/lounge

The beach...not a boat in sight!

The tan lines....maybe I should've opted for the speed-o?

The sunset...

The scuba diving was amazing as expected on neighbouring Koh Ha.  En route we saw this beast of a super yacht anchored just off-shore

It turns out that it’s owned by Russian billionaire Andrey Melnichenko, if you want to take a tour of what it looks like inside check it out!  The boat was simply called “A” ...maybe for Awesome?  Amazing?  Don’t hAte?  The dive boat had mixed reactions on its’ looks, personally I didn’t like the submarine look but I’m not a Russian billionaire! (not yet....).

The dive site

Blue skies and 20m of visibility make Shawn one happy diver

Back on land we decided to do a little island exploring in this sexual tyrannosaurus of a 4x4

To obtain your license to drive this thing, you had to shave with an axe, build a fire with your bare hands and tap out a shark....no problems

Off-roading is tough business so we stopped for a very manly fruit shake (the shakes were made of mangos, nails, saw-dust and a copy of Rambo...on VHS)

Staying on Koh Lanta for nearly 2 weeks was amazing as you really got to know the other long term backpackers and also the locals.  The Thai people are such warm, welcoming and hospitable people it was almost impossible to tear myself away from this place.  I also said goodbye to long term travel buddies “bullet-tooth” Tony and Adele “I’m from HK but I’m not Chinese”.  As I’ve said before, seeing amazing places in this world is one thing, but sharing those amazing places with amazing people is a whole new experience.

From Thailand I had a night stop over in Singapore and luckily had a friend that I had previously met in Ireland who let me crash at his place.  Singapore, like Hong Kong or Dubai is very ex-pat centric.  It’s an extremely clean and straight-laced city (you get a fine for chewing gum!).  I wish I had a few more days for this city, but unfortunately only managed to go out and explore its’ nightlife and thus didn’t manage to snap a single picture!

Australia is up next, I’ll be cruising down the east coast staying with friends who I’ve met all over the world and even a few from back home!

Cheers mate!