Koh Phagnan

I guess this is the post everyone is looking for, but lets start from the begining :)


Full, bad A/C and narrow sits, that was the nightmare bus ride to Surat Thani, where we would take the boat to Koh Phagnan. Unfortunately we still had to wait over an hour to be carried to the bus that would take us to the harbour. Confusing? Well try doing it after two awful nights in a bus...

We took an overcrowded ferry, that left the harbour around 10. I took a "seat" on top of the backpacks. That was the most comfortable place available! The sun was shining, which when you're in the middle of the sea without any shadow in sight means sunburn on the way.

After a 3.30h trip, 30 min by taxi to haad rhin (the party beach and village) we still had to walk 15 min to Leelha beach, where we had a booking in the very basic Leelha beach bungalows, for 300 bt per night.

Beach finally
This was the beginning of our relaxation part of the trip. Our days in Koh Phagnan can almost resume to waking up, diving in the warm and translucent water, eating breakfast, staying at the beach the whole day and then having dinner in the afternoon and partying in the evening. Well, not in the first day... We stayed in Leela beach for a couple of hours and then went to the center to Haad Rhin beach. It's a beautiful bay, with lots of sand and almost any rocks in the water. It must have been a great place before the tourism industry arrived... And I have to say, that I kind of felt I was... Back in Sweden... Given the amount of Swedish food restaurants and the amount of Swedes on the streets!
After swimming for a while I had to sleep for a couple of hours. I woke up the next day!

The Full Moon Party
The main reason to go to Koh Phagnan was taking part in the full moon Party, a 24h rave party that takes place on the beach and attracts about 5000 people. Well we went first to the pre full Moon Party, where we warmed up for what was coming the day after (be careful with half a liter cuba livre buckets when you're tired and dehydrated...).

The party itself is just a giant rave spread out by different stages in a 500m sandy beach. What makes it so special? Maybe taking 24h, which allows you to watch the sun rising while you're still partying, being in Thailand makes it different as well.

It was great fun. I can definitely take part on it again. And I strongly recommend everyone to go there and just dance all night long. We didn't have time to explore the island and I heard from an american that used to live there that it is a really beautiful island. So, another reason to come back.

Well, after the Full Moon Party there's an after full Moon Party that takes all day until sunset. We preferred staying on the beach doing nothing the whole day, but we could hear the music all day long. And after the after full Moon Party ends, life gets back to normal... Meaning, the beach party starts again around 10-11 pm and goes almost until dawn.