🇹🇭 Koh Phayam 🌴🧉🦜

As we arrive in Ranong with the minivan, the tuk-tuk drivers immediately attack us, even before we have properly disembarked... we don't love that. We first go for a coffee. 😄 Then we take a tuk-tuk to the ferry. The driver takes us to his acquaintance, where we can buy the tickets for the ferry. It is supposed to leave in two hours.

Our "ferry" turns out to be a speedboat. Together with other travelers, the speedboat takes us to the island of Koh Phayam within 30 minutes, where we arrive on 27.12.23. The journey is very pleasant.

Most tourists rent a scooter directly at the harbor, but we once again take a tuk-tuk to our accommodation "Rabbit Bungalow", where we are kindly welcomed by the owner Lec. He shows us on a sketch of the island where the most beautiful beaches and beach bars are located, and where we can watch the sunset. At the reception, you can also buy weed if you want to 😅 he takes us to our bungalow. A nice, small wooden bungalow, the first impression is good, but then I hear or discover wasps on an exterior wall, and not just a few. Chris goes back and talks to Lec. He doesn't hesitate and immediately lets us move. The next bungalow is even nicer and slightly larger than the first one. There is a mosquito net in front of each window, we have a fan and a hammock in front of the door. There is also a mosquito net over the bed.

We quickly extend our stay to a total of eleven nights. What we have found here is an oasis of calm. The entire facility of our accommodation is tidy and clean, green, quiet, and beautifully landscaped. We don't want to leave here. Because there is also a super delicious restaurant at the accommodation, we also regularly eat dinner and breakfast there. The prices for food and drinks are added separately and written down in the room, so we could pay everything at check-out, including laundry. There was good coffee and the tastiest curries in the restaurant, and the staff was super nice, and those who could speak English also talked to us. It wasn't far to the next beach, Buffalo Beach, maybe a five-minute walk, and it was never crowded there.

👉🏼 We celebrated New Year's Eve on Koh Phayam, and even in the accommodation, you could feel that there was now a bit more going on than usual, but it was still completely manageable, and shortly after New Year, the island emptied again. Rarely have we experienced a Thai island so quiet and relaxed. If you like, you can of course go to the beach bars in the evening to party or have a drink, there seemed to be some events on New Year's Eve. On the last evening, we watched the sunset at the Hippie Bar, highly recommended, because this bar is definitely worth a visit and very picturesque. 🪇 

As you can easily see, we felt incredibly comfortable from the first moment, the island is still very original, there are no large hotels yet, only bungalows with fans. 98% of the traffic on the streets is scooters, rarely cars. We hope Koh Phayam will keep this originality for a while longer because this is what tourists appreciate about this island: no mass tourism and crowded beaches. You can find peace, nature, and peaceful tourists and locals here. 

We will definitely come back 💯 We both had a hard time saying goodbye. But it was time to meet our friends on Koh Samui. 🙂 (By the way, the Rabbit Bungalow complex is closed outside the season from the end of April to December).

We took the speedboat back to Ranong on January 7, 2024, then a taxi driver took us to the bus station, where we took the bus to Surat Thani. We booked the entire return trip with the speedboat, taxi, and bus at the harbor (where the boats arrive) on Koh Phayam. We stayed one night in Surat Thani and the next day took the minivan that we booked through 12GoAsia to the ferry to Koh Samui. 🎉