Ko Pha Ngan

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After reluctantly leaving relax bay, we set out early for a long day of travel across to the East coast....our destination: Ko Pha Ngan, another beach island known for it's full moon parties. We had heard a lot of good things about this island from friends and fellow backpackers, especially the north side, so when we arrived on the island after a 2 hour ferry ride, we headed straight for the north side. Unfortunately, to get to the north side of the island, one had to take a long boat ride as there was no road to this one resort we wanted to get to...which was the cool part, but since we arrived pretty late in the evening, no long boat access was available in the nighttime, so we had to stay near the ferry dropoff. No matter, we found this 5 hut bungalow place nearby, got some dinner, and was able to watch a Euro Cup game at this outdoor Swenglish Bar...I was very excited as this was my first game I saw of the tournament - it was France v. Romania, and it stunk gamewise, but nonetheless, I was happy to watch a game. And probably the best part of the night, was playing jenga for shots with the swede bartender and his english local friend,
Chris.
Moving on to the morning....we woke up early and set off for the north side, to a place called Bottle Beach. It took a short time to make it, and it was well worth it...this beach was the best we've seen and because of its remoteness, it was pretty empty of tourists, and best of all, it was surprisingly cheap to stay and have a bungalow right on the beach. The resort name was Bottle Beach Resort...there were only 5 places to stay at this small strip of beach and we realized later, the better resort was not the one we stayed at, but the one next door, called Smile Resort. Smile had the better restaurant, backpacker atmosphere and cheaper bungalows, although they weren't beachside. So that's where we spend most of the time chilling, reading, eating, watching Euro Cup games, meeting new friends, Sander, Madelon, both from Holland. I even got to play some beach futbol...very fun, i was goalie. We had plans to see more of the island as there was a lot to see on the island, such as great snorkeling places, waterfalls, and of the course, the massive parties on the southeast side, but alas, we did none of that. Partly due to the fact that the weather was not all that good, and we were just too content with relaxing on this gorgeous beach we were at. So Bottle Beach is where we stayed for 3 nights and then decided to head back to Bangkok...we had enough of the island life at this point and needed some city time.
MS

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Photos

our bungalow
A row of bungalows on Bottle Beach