Koh Pha Ngan island tour… Beautiful beaches but I’m still waiting for that special one

Since I had some time on my hands & enjoyed the locale of the hippy Sanctuary on Haad Thien in Koh Pha Ngan in the Gulf of Thailand, I decided to spend awhile further exploring the island. While we somewhat enjoyed the destinations in the Andaman Sea (Krabi, Railay, Koh Phi Pho, Phuket), the sheer volume of international tourists there was intimidating & while I considered visiting the supposedly-less-oft-traveled Andaman Islands of Koh Lanta & Koh Lipe, my fear was tourists now flock to those places as well (yes, I know I’m also a tourist but my goal is to find places where there’s few of me). While Ko Pha Ngan may be known as a “party island” w it’s late night/early morning raves for the monthly full moon party, that hoopla really is centered in/around Haad Rin & once you get out, it’s just beautiful, relaxing & quiet. At least that’s what I was counting on.
I did stop for a couple nights just outside Haad Rin, after an adventure leaving Haad Thien, to do some laundry & to ride out a storm that never really materialized excepting large waves preventing any boats from accessing Haad Thien & thus leading to a very ridiculous/exciting/borderline dangerous 4×4 large pickup truck ride up & then down a mountain in order to leave the Sanctuary. I was sitting w 3 others on benches lining both sides of the rear of the truck w everyone’s luggage at our feet (3 others plus driver in cab). The “road” was actually a severely rutted dirt road dotted w intermittent boulders and ski-jump steep hills where I couldn’t see the bottom over the top of the cab. The benches were flush w the sides of the truck & there was nothing to hold onto but for the heaviest piece of luggage I could find within grasp, which was very necessary as several of the bumps came close to bouncing me right off the side of the truck as I was catching a lot of air. It was a bonding experience as we were all laughing hysterically, while holding on for dear life, & warning one another to duck in the event oncoming branches were aimed for your head. We made it, clearly, & I talked the driver into dropping me directly at my new hotel so pretty smooth sailing.
After Haad Rin, I went to the far NE coast to stay on Thong Nai Pan Noi & Thong Nai Pan Yai beaches. They’re in nearby coves & rated by Trip Advisor as the top beaches on the island. They didn’t disappoint but also provided reasonably quick access to where I really wanted to go once the wind died down…

10-min walk outside Haad Rin on a quiet strip

Cute local kid on rope swing

https://youtu.be/6icKWop17JQ

This is the main Haad Rin beach that hosts the massive full moon, half moon & various weekly parties. I walked 10 mins to check it out around 5pm & the beach bars were already bumping competing beats. Beautiful cove & beach but kinda trashy businesses lining the beach, imho, so I didn’t return.

Thong Nai Pan Noi beach & fire show entertainment during dinner on the beach one night.
https://youtu.be/WHuw8CF8OPY

https://youtu.be/2HNctcq2400

In general, I’ve found the Thai food in S. Thailand islands to be shit compared to the mainland; however, I wasn’t all that surprised as people come for the sea & beaches first & foremost. One thing they do well is fish BBQs so I’ve been eating a bunch of whole grilled fish. Delicious!

My tentative plan

Several people have asked if I had a plan for the remainder of my trip or when I was coming home. No real good answers to either question so I mapped out the following rough itinerary (starting as of March 28) at breakfast one day based on how I was feeling at that point but it can always change bc I don’t book anything in advance & who knows, maybe I’ll tire of traveling & decide to park it in one place.
Rough itinerary:

– 3 wks Gulf of Thailand islands (including diving certification & other dives)

– 1 wk Malaysia chilling at a luxury property on an island courtesy of hotel points & checking out Kuala for a few nights

– 1.5 wks Indonesia (Bali & maybe a couple other stops, one for diving), probably include a nice hotel on points

– 1.5 wks Philippines (including diving)

– 1 wk Myanmar; may depend on the political situation there but I read that it’s in a good place now. I’ve run into a couple travelers who’ve visited in the last 2 months & said it was a highlight, especially bc tourism is so low now, & will soon blow-up once the government is fully transitioned.

– 2 wks in Vietnam to end the trip bc I’m obsessed (probably Saigon, Dalat, a city in the mountains just north of Saigon, & the Mekong Delta, including Phu Quoc Island, south of Saigon)
So if you’re doing math, that’s 10 weeks. Holy shit. I even left out other places on my wish list including more of Laos (but there’s a state dept travel warning now for the place I’d like to visit), Northern Vietnam (again) & a trip to Sri Lanka & I know I’m short changing most of the places I’m hitting but unless I find a sponsor of some sort, I probably can’t travel in perpetuity although I really think I would be good at that. So if things don’t change much, I may try to cut a week out to make it back for the Memorial Day Cubs game vs the Dodgers but maybe not. We’ll just have to see how it goes bc I am in love with this region of the world. I’ve never been so relaxed. This place just suits me. Beyond being drop dead gorgeous with people as sweet & helpful as can be, I do yoga/Pilates everyday, the food is incredible & good for you & I somehow don’t get a hint of a hangover even if I have one too many beers/glasses of wine. So I feel super healthy. Before I left on my trip (& quit my job), it was difficult prying myself out of bed each morning to head into work. Now I’m up before 7am excited to start the day & I really like it. I always want to feel this way.

Goodbye to Amy

I bid farewell to Amy after 6 weeks nearly a week ago. It was bittersweet as I hated seeing her go given the good times we had but it was inevitable as she has a life & a job she loves; however, I was looking forward to exploring this region on my own. The only vacation I’ve taken alone was a week to Anguilla for luxury pampering a couple years back planned 3 days in advance after a particularly stressful time at work. As much as I miss you all, I feel as if traveling alone here for an extended period of time is something I really need to do & I’m super excited for it. That said, if any of you have a week+ to spare & a desire to disappear to the other side of the globe, please feel free to join me for an adventure. I think I’ll probably use some of my hotel awards points at some lovely places to introduce some luxury into a plan otherwise focused on cheap & basic beach bungalows & it would be a shame if I were the only one enjoying it. Haha. Love you!
FYI… There is still one post forthcoming regarding the last stop Amy & I made at a hippy yoga commune in the Gulf of Thailand, one of the most entertaining stops all trip. It’s still writing itself.

Ko Phi Phi island not hanging w Leo

The trip to the island of Phi Phi in the Andaman Sea took 3 different boats & only one minor mishap. We took a longboat from Railay to a ferry boat parked just offshore to Phi Phi & because there are no roads on the island of Phi Phi, we hopped aboard another longboat taxi to our hotel. Boarding the initial longboat at Railay required us wading into knee deep water w our backpacks & purses, slinging them over top the wooden boat & leaping up while small waves come crashing in. Amy made it up on first try but then promptly toppled over backwards into the boat. I exclaimed “oh, Amy!” as I thought there was a chance she was going to knock her head but she managed to recover by pulling off a pretty adept barrel roll & successfully sat up w a big grin on her face. We died laughing along w the longboat captain. Only later did the bruise develop. After I hopped up & in along w the next 2 people… the captain finally decided to put out a ladder, after he perhaps got his entertainment for the day.
We were one of many people leaving puritanical Railay for Phi Phi as it is apparently the Mecca of Southern Thailand (beyond Phuket), made famous by a Leo Dicaprio movie, “The Beach”, filmed there some years ago. We weren’t taking a day trip to “The Beach” with everyone else nor did we feel we needed to see the main port town of Tonsai turn into a crazy club town at night, so upon recommendation from other travelers, we opted for the less-populated far NE side of the island. We splurged a bit on the hotel as we were looking for total relaxation after some busy days in Vietnam & the somewhat disappointing Railay. We got exactly what we hoped for, in addition to amazing food & it was lovely.

View from my hammock:

https://youtu.be/wrO1AqlT0-A

Can’t get enough of these boats & the views

The view from our room was of the infinity pool overlooking the sea

We had some of our Thai favorites including tom kha gai soup (yellow curry w coconut milk, chicken, tomatoes & veggies)

Back to the beaches… Railay beach in Krabi, Thailand

Up to this point in the trip, we had done a proper job researching each place prior to visiting to try to understand what we were in for. We didn’t really do that for Railay Beach, near Krabi in the Andaman Sea. We just picked a place on the beach & booked a night to check it out before committing to anything else. Two of my best friends, the Veit sisters, have previously been to Railay beach & I talked with them about it not long before my trip. However, only a “you probably don’t need to spend much time there” rang out in my head along with “the beach is gorgeous & this is a must see” so I guess I attributed “not needing much time” to time limitations of their trip… Why not spend more time there if it’s so beautiful?
We flew from Siagon to Krabi & hopped in a taxi to take us to Railay Beach. The taxi dropped us at a pier & told us to book a boat to Railay Beach bc apparently no roads. This is where more research would’ve come in handy. Oh well, everything’s an adventure. It was 3:20 & luckily the next boat was leaving at 3:30. It was a wooden longboat & the ride was 15 mins to Railay. It dropped us at Railay East which doesn’t have good beaches but only a 10 minute walk to Railay West are good beaches & our beachfront hotel. We did a quick change into suits & went out to enjoy the beach at 4pm to check out the area to see if we like it enough to stay additional nights. Within 15 minutes we had decided the afternoon & evening would be plenty of time & we’d look for hotels on Ko Phi Phi for the next few nights. This quick decision was due to the following factors:

– The lovely longboats that make for beautiful photos in the foreground of mountainous scenery were so goddam loud & constantly picking up & dropping day trippers off. Total noise pollution which did not make for a peaceful relaxing atmosphere.

– It’s 98 degrees during day (prob 90 at 4 which was bearable) but no way to cool off as the water, protected by the inlet, was like bath water. It didn’t even make me want to go in after walking in knee deep. I thought it would make me hotter. The opposite of refreshing.

– The beach was swarming with a lot of families & a lot of couples, who we determined were very boring as we weren’t sure what there was to do here given swimming in the ocean & relaxing on the beach were out. I just couldn’t reconcile why couples, looking for a nice quiet romantic spot, would come to a place w such noise pollution all day long. Doesn’t make sense.

– Then we finally realized what there was to do… Serious climbers come there to climb the massive rocks overlooking the water. We saw maybe 20 people w ropes & climbing shoes so we determined the majority of the people were boring couples.

– The topper was when we sat down to split a spicy squid salad at 6:30 & to book our Ko Phi Phi hotel. We were given food menus but no drink menus. We asked the server for one & we deciphered he told us he couldn’t serve us bc he was Muslim but we were welcome to go to the bar, order drinks & bring them back to enjoy w dinner. Umm, what? I traveled all over the Middle East & in Turkey & believe me, we were served a lot of drinks by Muslims without judgement. Why wouldn’t you want to make a buck? So Amy desperately went in search for the bar, which we thought was our hotel’s along the beach. Nope. She tried the next beach hotel and the next. They all directed her to “the bar” which she finally found bc there’s only one on the beach. The only ones to serve beer & booze on the island. WTF? 20 minutes later she returned w 2 mojitos, we ate the salad, booked our Phi Phi hotel, settled our tab & promptly went back to “the bar” for dinner (a delicious red curry w duck & pineapple), beers, cards & some great people watching.
A simply stunning beach bound by these massive awe inspiring mountains but a 2-hr day trip would’ve been sufficient bc it was a weird place overnight and while we made the best of it & had fun, we were thankful we were leaving in the morning.

The pier where we caught our longboat taxi

Leaving Vietnam

After 3 weeks in Vietnam, we are leaving for Southern Thailand. I admit I’m a bit reluctant. I love the country so much. The people are so nice & welcoming, it has so much variety to offer from buzzing vibrant cities to gorgeous isolated beaches to lush mountainous rice paddies, & the food is on another level. We spoke with locals who noted they don’t get many American tourists beyond younger backpacker types & based on their prior conversations, they wondered aloud if it was due to Americans having a single track mind when it comes to Vietnam… All they think about is the war. It’s still recent history so perhaps that’s true. Thailand far surpasses Vietnam in tourism each year & after spending 3 weeks here, it’s baffling to me as IMHO, Vietnam surpasses Thailand in all respects, although my goal is to find some Southern Thailand beaches that are just as isolated as those we found in Vietnam. I think in 5 years, as word continues to spread, they will close that gap bc it’s just a lovely country.

Hanoi, a wonderful surprise

Every other city we’ve traveled to, I’ve been able to get my bearings, figure out where stuff is & find my way around in about a day. Hanoi baffled me for 2-3 days as it took me nearly the entire stay to get a handle on the city. It’s a mass of small winding streets, intersected randomly w larger boulevards and you’re concentrating so much on not getting hit by a car or a motorbike, bc the locals have commandeered the use of all sidewalks (bribes to police to ignore city ordinances) for their own personal storage, motorbike parking or an extension of their house/shop/restaurant, you easily lose track of where you are. It’s madness. Definitely the city with the most frenetic pace, insane traffic & high energy. I loved it from jump.
The food just pushed it over the top. You can clearly tell by all my posts, that I’ve eaten very well over here. When we hit Hoi An, the food ratcheted up a notch but Hanoi has easily surpassed it. Not only is the food ridiculously amazing, it’s also dirt cheap. We only had one proper sit down meal at a restaurant in Hanoi & excluding that, we stuck to street food all visit for every meal.
There were some hiccups on day one, in addition to the near hotel scam. In our first couple hours here walking the city, a biker ran into Amy. I’d say it was a somewhat gentle nudge, as we were walking on the street & he was turning a corner very slowly & we were all trying to squeeze together, but it was a bit of a surprise to her. Later, a street vendor, carrying what appeared to be a shoe repair kit, approached Amy with a glue stick aimed directly for her shoe before she reacted strongly with a “no”. I think he was probably just looking for money as if he “repaired her shoe”. Another vendor later, snuck up behind me with her wooden shoulder bar bearing 2 baskets of fruit & without me seeing, attempted to place it on my shoulder & then asked for money for a picture. I turned, sternly said no & shrugged it off my shoulder. She perhaps would’ve balked were she not worried about it going crashing to the ground, thus losing her pretty fruit displays in the mad Hanoi traffic. The hotel scam, those incidents & the insane traffic would, I think, scare off a lot of people. We just laughed our way through the incidents, didn’t give up on the city & subsequently fell in love with it.
So for a host of reasons, I may now consider coming back here on my extended trip. There’s this lovely place in the mountains, Mu Cang Chai, that I read about online before the trip (it didn’t even make my SE Asia book or Amy’s Vietnam book so that tells you how tiny it is). We didn’t have time to squeeze it in this time as we were told 4 days/3 nights minimum as it’s 8-10 hours north of Hanoi (this is after a guide asked me, intrigued,… How did you hear about that place?) & we wanted to end Amy’s portion of the trip w some beach time in Southern Thailand. Plus we didn’t knock off nearly half of the key Hanoi tourists sites. Prior to the visit, I’d never have dreamed Hanoi could challenge Saigon for culture, food, feel, etc. but it certainly does that ten-fold. It has culture coming out of its ears & I could aimlessly wander the old quarter all day hopping from place to place, stuffing myself full with street food & egg coffees. I love it so much.

Hanoi traffic on a light day

https://youtu.be/VlVWgbHsrGI

Red Bridge to Jade Island, which houses a pagoda, on Hoan Kiem Lake. It was sprinkling that day so Amy bailed while I kept wandering.

Monk action series sequel, spelunking edition

I was thrilled enough as it was w Halong Bay. Imagine my delight when we stumbled upon monks touring the same massive cave!?!?! Our guide and I debated on the origin of the monks. Based on my technical research, I surmised either Northern Thailand or Cambodia. Definitely not Laos. Turns out they’re Cambodian. So I present to you the monk action series sequel, spelunking edition.

Spelunking monk taking in Vietnam’s neon cave lighting

Vacationing monk thrilling a fellow traveler

Monk on holiday capturing a video on his iPad

Monk posing for a vacation photo in front of a sunny pic of Halong Bay. Perhaps he didn’t enjoy the fog as much as I?

Halong Bay in a fog out

Halong Bay is a 4 hr drive East from Hanoi & famous for its bright green waters & 1,600+ towering limestone islands topped w rainforests. With a simple google search, you can see just how lovely it looks on a bright sunny day. The thing to do is take an overnight junk boat, head out for some up close viewing, explore via kayaks & enjoy some great food. Unfortunately for us, the weather didn’t cooperate as it was cold, sprinkling & terribly foggy so we opted out of the overnight boat as we figured we could make better use of the night back in Hanoi (eating ourselves into a stupor) so we just did a day trip w a guide. Great decision and frankly, I think the fog made for some uniquely gorgeous vistas so I in fact, now would highly recommend visiting on a foggy day, limiting it to a day trip & heading back to Hanoi in time for some late night bun bo nam bo (yes, that’s exactly what we did).

I apologize as the photos below are I’m sure repetitive but it took me forever to narrow them down bc I think it’s just that beautiful of a place (& this is after I deleted 100+ photos). A couple videos interspersed as well.

https://youtu.be/CpeYPlAWqv8

https://youtu.be/oHvFWfI6ipg

Hanoi street food, professional motorbike tour

Because we really like to eat, are obsessed w street food & loved our Saigon motorbike food tour, did you really think we weren’t going to do one in Hanoi too? Similar concept as cute young women drivers are paired w customers but this time there were just 4 of us, including a very nice young Russian couple who lived in Kuala & was visiting for the weekend (I managed to resist asking them if they’ve visited Nha Trang bc I didn’t want to profile them but it was a struggle all night). The tour was a bit more informal as the girls didn’t wear traditional dress & only the chick in charge, Nga or “Money”, came in & sat w us at the street food restos to explain what we’re eating & how to eat it. Thankfully I was paired w her on the motorbike so we had great convos coming & going as she knew exactly what we ate & discussed & I really got to know her as well as you can. I felt a bit guilty as Amy didn’t have that same luck but despite that, we both had a really great time. I was a little curious, since we had been traveling in Vietnam for over 2.5 weeks, whether we’d know all of the dishes or still be surprised. I was thrilled as Money introduced us to so many new dishes which just speaks to the massive variety in Vietnamese cuisine as this tour varied significantly from the Saigon one.
Stops:

Stop 1 – Bun Cha w barbecue pork, noodles, fish sauce, green papaya, add chili & garlic for spice. Hysterically, we had bun cha w beef that very day for lunch on our own personal street food tour but I didn’t have the heart to tell Money. Delicious twice in one day.

Stop 2 – Thanh Hop restaurant; special pho (pho ga tion); dry pho so no soup; noodles same, mixed w soy sauce, chicken, cucumber, coriander, peanuts; add pickled garlic in vinegar & chili sauce. Called Pho ga tran (dry chicken noodle). I’d never heard of dry pho before & it was fg fantastic!

Stop 3 – Long Vi Dung for (1) nom bo kho, beef jerky salad, green papaya, peanut, basil & dipping sauce; (2) banh bot loc, tapioca dumpling so transparent w shrimp, pork & black mushroom & dip in same sauce (4 parts water, 1 part fish sauce, vinegar & sugar). We are only 1 hour in & we’ve had 4 dishes. Belly is bursting but must push on.

Stops 4 & 5 – Thankfully these were sightseeing stops at the pretty lake & a bridge.

Stop 6 – Pho chien trung, egg fried pho at Trung Ran; w beef, an amazing sauce & topped w greens. Again, no idea that fried pho existed but need to find this & dry pho in Chicago. Also had rolled pho, pho cuon – fresh rice paper, beef & herbs (very similar to Southern Vietnamese fresh spring roll but definitely not called that… they like to highlight the differences between S & N Vietnam cuisine… Kinda amusing).

Stop 7 – HCM mausoleum w parade in front when lower flag daily at 9pm (raise at 5am)

Stop 8 – Banh mi sandwich w fried pork, pate, veggies & a shot of rice wine to wash the food down; also had ca phi trung or egg coffee – yolk on top; Vietnamese say bc they have a bitter life, they like to sweeten everything; used to drink w condensed milk but replaced w egg; seriously delicious!!! I had to come back to the same place to get another one the very next day. Money gave me her email address to stay in touch but I told her first things first, I needed the egg coffee recipe.

Stop 9 – Two desserts including fruit w caramel & sticky rice w ice cream
And as an extra bonus… She recommended 2 other great street food restos for us to try on our time. Number 1… Bun bo nam bo, my obsession. Done & done. So that just further validated our amazing taste buds.