I had vowed not to return to Koh Phangan as the island surely would be different than when I first visited. That was back in the days before Full Moon Party was invented, when no road connect Had Rin to the rest of the island, when there was no electricity and no swimming pools. But I had a business appointment on the island, so I decided to combine it with some R&R.
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| Had Rin Nai |
Had Rin Nai is still a very nice beach, but Had Rin Nok is not that great. And the area behind it is now packed with structures put up with no prior planning making roads and alleys a maze. Many structures are shoddy constructions intended to house party revelers in bunk beds. Delicious food is not to be had as bars and sellers of buckets (with alcohol of questionable origins) outnumber restaurants on Had Rin Nok. The service staff are mostly from Myanmar and have little training, which can result in interesting combinations being served. For example, I was given chopsticks as utensils for a plate of Italian pasta.
That being said, Koh Phangan has many beaches apart from Had Rin. A drive along the coast from Thong Sala to Ban Chalok Lam will take you past several nice bays, which I would prefer over Had Rin, but none of them can be said to be deserted. I went to see Ban Chalok Lam because when I first visited, that bay was used as a graveyard for fishing vessels. When fishing vessels were retired from service, they were pulled up on the beach and cannibalized for parts.
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| Thong Nai Pan Beach |
Ban Thong Nai Pan used to be hard to reach, but the road has now been upgraded - when I first visited, it could only be reached on horseback.
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| They worked when we bought them - why check if they still work? |
On the ferry back to the mainland, I noticed that safety concerns are not high on the list of the ferry company's priorities.
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