Blogs from Ko Phayam, South-West Thailand, Thailand, Asia

From Bangkok, I headed to Ko Phayam. As I have been to Thailand before, my goal for this trip has been to explore the less explored places and Ko Phayam fit the bill well. After a flight to Ranong and a short speedboat ride to the island, I arrived at this idyllic island. Close to the Myanmar border, Ko Phayam is an island of about 17 Square KM and a population of about 600+. And tourist population in season ranges from 100-200. My first impression upon arriving at the place of stay was everyone seems to know each other, even the tourists. And the reason was simple, tourists end up staying long here. I had initially planned 4 nights of stay including couple of days where I had to do some work calls. But one look ... read more

The 2015 cruising season started in Phuket, sailing north to the Andaman Sea. We hopped up the west coast and anchored in very beautiful places that I'd visited several years before. Travelling is all about the people you meet, those interactions where you make a real connection. What a delight to make new friends and connect with cruising friends from the time spent in SE Asia in 2012. It was an especially good time spent on Cashew Island (Koh Phayam) celebrating several birthdays and sharing much cake and sunsets. What a stunningly laid back place worthy of putting on your bucket list. I returned to Dubai enroute to Europe and had the marvellous experience of being present for my daughter Natalie's official engagement. The month of May approaches and I leave for the UK for family ... read more

“No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow.” – Lin Yutang After the trials of The Killing Fields (and possibly in Andy’s case Cambodian reality TV), he made the decision that the trip wasn’t matching his expectations and that he wasn’t getting anything from it. No disagreement from me there although I find it helps to try a little to get something back. It was actually a relief when he announced he was going to go home. I suggested that perhaps returning immediately to London might not be the most positive option (after all, I know exactly what it feels like to want to run away from feeling rubbish – remember my arrival in Bangkok?). I asked him if he’d rather ... read more

we have travelled south down the peninsular of Thailand and we're now on a small island off the West Andaman coast. This island is simply gorgeous, white sand crescent shaped bay with a scattering of bungalows but otherwise undeveloped. Everywhere you look butterflies flutter about. Hornbill birds sqwark from the treetops and crickets sing you to sleep. The only roads are just a metre wide meaning the only transport are mopeds. We've rented a superb bungalow up on the hillside overlooking the bay. We've had a few visitors namely a nine inch gecko, a frog who loves our toilet, and a homing snail who comes back every time I sweep it off the verandah! We've hired a moped for the duration, th and visited the next bay last night where we bumped into Avalina from Finland ... read more

So wirbt zumindest die Broschüre eines Bungalow-Anbieters. Ich bezweifle, dass es auf Ko Samui vor 25 Jahren Internet, geschweige denn WLan gegeben hat, aber sonst könnte es durchaus hinkommen. Ko Payam liegt in der Nähe von Ranong einer Grenzstadt, die Westler oft nur auf der Durchreise besuchen, entweder auf dem Weg zu den nahegelegenen Inseln oder auf dem "Visa-Run" in das benachbarte Myanmar. Die meisten Touristen, die zu den Inseln wollen, fahren nach Ko Payam, nicht dass das besonders viele wären. Der Anteil deutschsprachiger Touristen ist dabei relativ hoch. Wenn man einen anderen Farang trifft, kann man ihn eigentlich gleich auf deutsch ansprechen. Die Chance, dass er das versteht ist recht hoch. Das mag damit zusammenhängen, dass Ko Payam im "Loose", der deutschen Traveller-Bibel, als Highlight bezeichnet wird, während es im Lonely Planet, jedenfalls der Ausgabe ... read more