Heading South - the Beaches - Koh Phangan

Today it is time to leave the North of Thailand. At 9 am I say good bye to the R.M.P. residence and Mister A, who had helped me so much in organizing my trip to the South. A pickup taxi picks me up as well as a young couple- brother and sister from El Salvador and takes us to the airport. At 11:15 our flight from Chiang Mai to Surat Thani on Asian Airway starts (our beautiful flight attendants you can see on the pictures). Then a bus ride of 1.5 hours takes us to the ferry boat. I was lucky to meet Kassandra, a nice young woman from Ehrenfeld/Köln as we were leaving the bus and  we then spend the waiting time for the ferry as well as the 3 hours ferry trip to Kho Phangan together. As we go by ferry to Kho Phangan we pass Kho Samui and enjoy the sunset from the ferry. 

As soon as we arrive in Kho Phangan Kassandra and I have to part as she is going to another resort. The place where I will stay is called „Cozy Bungalows“ and around 10 minutes after I call them someone (later on I find out he is the barman) picks me up right in front of Seven Eleven. And I even manage to buy some coconut sunscreen at Seven Eleven before they pick me up. 

When I arrive it is already dark and they show me to my little bungalow. It is small and simple, but nice and clean and there is even a little hammock in front of it. The resort is right at the beach and I have to walk not even one minute til the beach where also the restaurant is located. On the way there I see many people sitting outside their bungalows, lying in the hammock, smoking cigarettes and sometimes joints and enjoying music. It is a very chilled hippy like atmospher here. 

At the restaurant I am the only guest  and enjoy a delicious Thai dish while looking into the dark sea and listening to the rough waves. Afterwards I decide to have a mojito at the adjacent bar where I meet some girls from South America and a young psychologist from Hamburg and we talk til it’s time to go to bed. 

The next day I spend relaxing at the beach. The beach is really small and because of the rough waves there is not really a chance for swimming, however I feel happy here and I love the atmosphere - the place is full of backpackers and hippyish people and I spend a perfect day there - reading, listening to my audios, eating and talking a lot to people from different countries, this time mostly in Russian, German and English - nice travelers from Israel, Russia and Germany. 

From our small beach we can see ahead of us the huge island of Koh Samui and I decide it is about time to read the novel „The Beach“ again  - for the third time now!

In the evening many of us gather at the beach for watching the wonderful sunset together.

Later on I go to the nearby walking street where I have a manicure and afterwards delicious Thai food in a small family restaurant. I am the only guest there and meet the whole family - from grandma to grandchild. 

On the way back I get lost and as I walk through a narrow street with no lights, no cars, just some small ponds, huts and lots of green on both sides, I hear all of a sudden dogs barking. However at first this does not worry me at all because I am pretty sure that they are behind a fence or on a chain, as this is quite common here. But all of a sudden they run out on the street and are chasing me while barking like hell. They are a kind of a dog gang and quite big dogs. I get really scared, however behave instinctively in  the correct way: I do neither slow down nor do I go faster. After a little while the dogs stop chasing me, however after a few minutes they start again. But in the end they get bored with me and stop chasing me. Then I realize that I am walking in the wrong direction and that I would have to walk the same way back. But I rather make a big detour than meeting this dogs again.

The next morning it is time to leave this small little paradise. At 1 pm my ship leaves for Koh Tao and it is time to explore another Thai island.