Ko Phayam

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We were back on the boat to travel to Chumpon then a coach journey over to Ragoon then a boat the following morning to get us to the island of Ko Phayam.

This time the journey was thankfully calm! and the coach journey only took a couple of hours only we had missed the daily boat over to Ko Phayam by the time we arrived to Ragoon, therefore had to stay the night there to catch the morning boat. Ragoon is a strange place to say the least! the small town has very few vistiors (except for travellers like us who miss the boat over to local islands!) the whole palce smells very fishy, We did however get a luxuary (TV & hot water) suite for far less than we usually pay (not that we ever pay much!!) and dinner extreamly cheap!!

So we got up early the next morning to get the boat over to Ko Phayam. Ko Phayam is often desccribed as Ko Sumui twenty years ago or as paradise and it didn't dissapoint!! There is no electricity between the hours of middnight and six pm, no hot water and no TV, phone, or internet!! But it is absulutly beautiful! just a small island there are three beaches and one small town with a few resturants, shops and a jetty.

As we arrived on the jetty we quickly realised there were no cars, all the roads are designed for motorbikes only, having planned to stay on a beach over the other side of the island we were wondering just how in the 30 degree heat we were going to get there!! however as always in Thailand this was no problem we were greeted by motorbike taxis who jammed our rucksacks in the front of the motorbikes, popped us on the back and drove like crazy to the beach (I had my eyes closed for most of the journey!!)

Five minuets later we arrived on our beach, a beautiful long stretch of sand with a few bungalows, bars restaurants on it! From the beach you can see Burma in the distance and the most amazing sunsets every evening! we found the most lovely resort, Phayam beach resort, run by JJ and his family. They have to be the nicest most welcoming people in Thailand who made us part of their family for the next five days. They had the most georgous two year old son who enjoyed swimming with us in the evenings, We stayed in bungalows with tents inside, they were really comfortable and best of all no bugs could get inside!!

We spent the next couple of days being really lazy, lounging on the beach, eating fresh fish, and drinking cocktails! We did take a long tail boat around the island to do some snorkelling and fishing, caught some small reef fish to our surprise the locals were keen to keep!

We felt very relaxed after our stint on Ko Phayam and were very happy we meet such lovely locals after our bad experience of having a passports stolen!!

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