Thailand 2022-2023- Ko Pha Ngan

We had planned 4 nights in Koh Pha Ngan but we got stuck on Koh Tao for 2 1/2 days due to stormy seas so we only stayed two nights. This was not our first trip to the island. We spent some time at Than Sadet beach on the other side of the Island in 2017 (details can be found here )

This time we stayed at  Mae Haad beach, a nice stretch of beach with a small island off shore which you can almost walk to along the sand bar when the tide is out. We stayed at the Garden Inn the room was clean and there was a fruit shake lady right across the street. The seas were still pretty rough so most on water activities were out. That included snorkelling from shore.

We walked to the nearest village Chalok Lam. There is a fishing pier there, but all the boats had been brought in and were safely floating in a local river. We found a German bakery and bought a pretzel. It was not that good, but it was pretty funny. The area obviously has an expat community. There is a beach there too and you can take a water taxi from there to bottle beach for 200B per person when the sea is calm. It was not!

We kept walking to Haad Khom beach. A beautiful little beach which was also too rough for swimming. From there we took the “trek to bottle beach” through the jungle to bottle beach.

The trek to bottle beach starts just past Haad Khom viewpoint It really is a jungle trek. It’s fairly well used (we saw a few other people), it’s marked with blue and yellow paint in the spots where it is not obvious. There is some minor scrambling involved and it would not be safe if the rock was wet. The rocks here are very rough. Great for traction but falling on them would be very rough. We saw a young woman take a minor fall, she had major road rash. We had Keen sandals and we were fine. I would not do it in flip flops. The trail goes up and over a fairly steep hill. It took us about an hour to get to the beach. We had ambitions to go to the view point above the beach which is Instagram famous, but we decided to eat lunch on the beach instead. It’s a beautiful beach and it would be an easy outing if the boats were running.

We stopped on the way back at Haad Khom viewpoint which also had nice views out to the ocean.

We made it back in time for a great sunset and dinner at a local restaurant we had Thai food !

On our final morning we swam out to the island as the tide was in. We made it safely and found a few fish. It would be a good spot for snorkelling if the water was clear but it was still silty from the stormy seas.

Namtok Wang Sai Waterfall

We also explored the local waterfall. Namtok Wang Sai. We paid 50B each to get in. the place was huge and obviously set up for big crowds. There were 10 other people there when we were there. We swam in the pool under the natural waterfall.

There was also a pool which I would not have swum in, a climbing bar which was closed, a tarzan tree house, various things to climb which looked pretty safe and a zip line which looked to be using old tires. I would not have gotten on the tip line! It looked pretty closed anyway. There was also a big set of stands. I guess they must have big parties here. Koh Pan gang is known for full moon parties and in between those they have jungle parties, waterfall parties, half moon parties…any excuse will do. Waterfalls, climbing gyms and drunk people, what could go wrong?