Island Hopping in Thailand
I was planning on taking a solo trip out to Thailand this year. My boyfriend was off to China for a few weeks and I wanted to take myself somewhere warm, totally switch off and just relax after a long and tiring year. I had this desire to go and soak up some sunshine and get my bum back to Asia after falling in love with Bali the year before. However, after speaking to one of my close friends about my plans, we decided to head out together. It’s always nice to have a friendly face with you whilst you travel somewhere new!
We had a rough idea of the places we wanted to visit over the two weeks. Before any trip I like to research into local sights, interesting places to stay and areas we simply can’t miss out on, but I never actually make a solid plan as I like to just go with the flow. I don’t think I could ever stick to an itinerary whilst I’m away, as you never really know what you’re going to love or hate and how much time you’ll actually want to spend in each place! To my surprise, the one place I thought I was going to hate (Koh Phi Phi), ended up being one of my favourite places from the trip! Weird, huh?
London – Bangkok – Phuket
We had two flights to get from London to Bangkok and then a further flight from Bangkok to Phuket. However, we didn’t realise there were 2 airports in this city, which meant that we actually missed our original flight to Phuket and had to buy another one at the airport, which was not a great start to the trip. This was actually the first time I’ve ever missed a flight, so it was a brand new experience for me. However, the staff at Bangkok airport were super helpful and pointed us in the right direction for cheap and quick flights across (thank god for Bangkok Airways) and we even got free lounge access, win win!
The flight to Phuket took about an hour and a half and they even had an on-flight food service, which was totally unexpected and almost a bit unnecessary for such a short flight, however you can’t ever complain at free food!
When we arrived in Phuket, we got a taxi straight to our first hotel. We were both excited to be in Thailand, but we were knackered and we needed a nap. The hotel we stayed at in Phuket was called Tint (click here to go to their website) – the decor was adorable. Everything was pastel pink, blue, green and orange and the walls had the silliest little phrases on them.
Our first night in Thailand consisted of the best deep tissue massage of my life, lots of Pad Thai and then the weirdest fireworks display I have ever seen. Turns out we arrived on the last day of the Vegetarian Festival in Thailand. The Vegetarian Festival happens once a year, where Chinese descendants of Thailand praise their Gods by not eating meat, drinking alcohol or engaging in sexual activities for 9 days. They only wear white clothes during this time and yellow flags and decorations can be seen adorning the streets. During these 9 days, there are various shows and ceremonies that take place, however we happened to arrive on the ninth day, which seems to be when the real madness happens.
On the last day of the festival, they set off fireworks and firecrackers to scare any demons away. But this isn’t your average fireworks display and people in Thailand seem to have absolutely no fear.
Everyone was throwing fireworks at one another and at cars or mopeds as they passed by, even really small children were taking part and launching the firecrackers into the streets. Then at around 10pm a procession took part along one main street where hundreds of people walked through and had hundreds and hundreds of firecrackers thrown at them. It was honestly the most manic thing I have ever experienced and all I can remember was the sheer noise from the bangs of the fireworks and all the smoke in the air.
It’s no wonder people were selling face masks for 10 baht on the side of the road that evening, because we could barely breathe! If you happen to be in Phuket at the beginning of October, I definitely recommend checking this festival out, but make sure you’re prepared and grab yourself a face mask!
Phuket – Koh Phi Phi
We only had one night in Phuket as we were desperate to get to the islands. Our first island stop was Koh Phi Phi. I had very low expectations for this island. I thought it would just be full of party animals and rubbish and only really went there for the possibility of seeing Maya Bay, which unfortunately was closed because of tourists destroying the coral, however I loved Phi Phi. Yes, the island was full of party animals and yes, at busy times of the year I could imagine this island would get filthy, however in October, it’s a little slice of paradise at the best of times and very easy to get absorbed by. We met some of the best people on this island and partied a lot (which is really unlike me), but we also had a lot of down time and it was nice to be somewhere so small and full of a sense of community.
Our first night’s accommodation on Phi Phi was dire. We stayed on the east side of the island at a place called Don Chukit and although the location wasn’t bad and we were well away from the parties, it was way too overpriced and disgusting. Thank god we only booked one night there!
We decided to stay another night in Phi Phi, but had a look for somewhere else online. I found a beautiful hotel the next day called Phitharom Resort (click here to see Phitharom). This resort was further North than where we were before, but only took about 15 minutes for us to walk up there. Our room was up a big old flight of stairs, but it meant that we had an amazing view across the island and overlooked the ocean. It really was perfect and although we only intended on having one more night on the island, we ended up staying for 3 more.
Monkey Beach
Whilst on Phi Phi we decided to take some kayaks out to Monkey Beach. Being the only one of the group to have actually met a Macaque, I wasn’t too keen on the idea of this beach. Macaques are absolute b***ards at the best of times and I wasn’t looking forward to being mauled by a monkey, however when we arrived there wasn’t a single monkey in sight.
We spent most of the day on this small cove collecting shells, chilling with hermit crabs and soaking in the fresh sea breeze. It was actually a really relaxing day! That was until the Macaques arrived.
The only way I can think of to describe these monkeys is “angry little grey fuzzy things that belong in the mafia”.
Honestly, they’re wild and they know exactly what they’re doing. They came running down from the jungle all guns blazing, screeching and baring their teeth.
At first Annie exclaimed “awwww monkeys!” before quickly realising they were vicious and jumping up, screaming and running for the sea. I was already in the ocean, with everything I owned in hand. They basically come down, scare you away and then steal everything you own.
So if you have anything you don’t want to lose to a monkey, I’d suggest either leaving it at your hotel or keeping it close on your back and out of their way.
5 tips for surviving Monkey Beach:
1 – Don’t look into their eyes. They see this as a sign of aggression and will attack.
2 – Don’t smile at them with your teeth. They see this as another sign of aggression, as though you’re baring your teeth at them and will attack.
3 – Kayak paddles make excellent defence mechanisms. Use these to whack the ground really hard and scare the monkeys away. I would never suggest actually hitting one of them with a paddle, but they definitely did not like them being waved around or hit hard on the floor and would run the other way.
4 – If they steal your stuff, let them have it. It’s better to lose a bottle of water than get bitten by a macaque (have you seen their teeth?!)
5 – If you do get bitten or scratched, seek medical attention. These monkeys often carry rabies and you definitely don’t want to catch something off of them!
Another word of advice, if the waves are strong on Monkey Beach and you’re trying to battle your way back out onto the ocean to get back round to mainland, always point your kayak nose first into the waves. Do not paddle with the boat sideways on, or you will capsize. Some stupid boys capsized a few times and ended up getting really injured just by being inexperienced. You should never mess with the ocean.
Also, just a side note for any vegetarians or vegans that might read this post – you will be spoilt rotten for choice for food in Thailand, especially on islands like Phi Phi! We found the best vegan restaurant called Dow and their food selection was incredible! We ate there almost every day and I would recommend them to anyone.
Sunset Viewpoint
If you have a few days on the island then I would definitely recommend hiking up to the viewpoint for sunset. I can also imagine it’s breathtaking for sunrise, but we were being lazy so opted for sunset instead. My main piece of advice for this hike would be to give yourself at least an hour before sunset to get up there. We gave ourselves 20 minutes and we definitely underestimated the difficulty of that hike up.
There are hundreds of steps up to that viewpoint and those steps are ridiculously steep. We were running up them at one point and I honestly thought I was about to have a heart attack. Once we got to the top, we were both extremely hot, tired and sweaty, but it was so worth the effort. The sunset was insane and definitely a highlight of the trip – you could even see Maya Bay over to the left which was exciting!
Koh Phi Phi – Khao Sok National Park
Whilst on Phi Phi we met 3 lovely Scottish boys on the beach who happened to be heading to Khao Sok National Park at the same time as us, so we decided to travel together. Having a group to travel with made this journey a hell of a lot better and our time in Khao Sok was definitely the highlight of the trip. We only spent 2 nights in the jungle which was definitely not enough time, but we had planned to go to the full moon party and the boys were heading home, so unfortunately our jungle experience was cut short. I could have easily spent my entire 2 weeks in this one place and will definitely be returning as soon as I possibly can.
Our actual journey to the jungle was an experience in itself. We left at 7 in the morning and were due to arrive in Khao Sok around midday. However, something we soon learnt was that Thai people seem to run by Thai time. “10 minutes” ends up being more like 2 hours and our supposedly 4 hour taxi ride took around 8 hours. The driver was insane. I don’t know whether he was blindfolded or just totally wreckless, as we spent the majority of our time on the wrong side of the road doing way over the speed limit, whilst he blared Westlife and insane Thai music into our ears. Somehow we arrived in one piece, but only after about 30 check points along the way.. Thai taxi drivers tend to stop a lot to get you to buy things or just to run their own errands it seems. But the long old drive was definitely worth it when we checked into our hotel.
During our time in Khao Sok, we stayed at Khao Sok Riverfront Resort (click here to view the hotel). We were welcomed with drinks and pretty flowers and shown to our rooms, which were unbelievably beautiful. We stayed in little huts that were raised off the floor and our room overlooked a beautiful river and the misty mountains of the jungle. I honestly couldn’t think of anywhere more beautiful to spend our time. As we arrived later than planned, we had a chilled evening that consisted of more lovely Thai food and hours worth of Jenga at Rasta Bar. We actually discovered that we were Jenga pros and I can’t say I’ve ever stayed up until 3am playing Jenga before, but I loved it!
The next day we went out on our jungle adventure. We decided not to pay for a guided tour, partly due to budget but also because we all wanted to have a chilled hike and explore the jungle for ourselves. Little did we know that we’d have the ultimate jungle experience that day!
Annie was of course the first to get attacked by a leech. She only had sandals on, so obviously those buggers saw her feet as an easy target and after the first attack we all became extremely paranoid and didn’t stand still for very long without itching at our legs. We saw all kinds of wildlife in the jungle and were even pleasantly surprised to see crabs, lizards and even monkeys! Not even macaques this time – these monkeys were actually ridiculously cute and climbed around in the treetops, munching on leaves.
There were plenty of waterfalls to see along the way and we made the most out of wandering down little trails to see them. Obviously nobody swam in the water. I think you’d be mad to get in there with all those leeches lurking in the depths!
But the craziest part to the jungle hike was the flash flood. We had all decided to clamber over some large boulders so we could get a better view of one of the waterfalls when suddenly we were surrounded by loads of frogs. It wasn’t until Zac and Darren’s water bottles started floating off down the river that I noticed just how much the water had suddenly raised in those few minutes.. Instant panic mode. What was once bone dry dirt behind us, was now a raging body of water and we all realised that we were going to have to jump from one slippery boulder to another slippery boulder, whilst trying our absolute best not to fall into the running water around us. It was honestly the most terrifying thing I’ve ever had to deal with when I’ve been away and it just came down to inexperience. None of us expected the rivers to raise that quickly and we were lucky to all make it out of there in one piece. We didn’t go down to the river after that as I think it was a lesson well learnt.
Once we had escaped the raging flash flood, we hiked for a few more hours around the jungle before returning to our resort to chill out.
5 tips for surviving the jungle:
1 – Wear hiking boots or trainers. I know they’re a pain to pack, but you’ll be so grateful that you took them and they’ll protect your feet from leeches!
2 – Cover yourself in leech spray. You won’t mind smelling of deet if it keeps the leeches away or even buy some of those super cool leech socks to protect your legs. I think I might actually invest in some of those next time!
3 – If it’s raining, even if it’s just a little bit of rain, don’t venture too close to the river. You don’t know how much it’s raining further upstream and flash floods are called that for a reason. They literally come quicker than you could ever imagine.
4 – Take litres of water with you. Even though it’s considerably cooler in the jungle, you will still sweat lots and will need to keep yourself hydrated. You’d be surprised how quickly you get through water in Thailand!
5 – Keep your eyes peeled for all kinds of wildlife. There are so many amazing creatures dwelling in the jungle, but there are also dangerous animals like snakes and jaguars, so keep your wits about you and don’t go walking off into the thickest parts without a guide!
We spent our last evening in Rasta Bar playing Jenga, Dominoes and cards games. We even had a little girls vs boys game of pool with one of the local girls. Turns out the ladies knew a little something about pool and we actually won twice! It was a bittersweet ending to our jungle experience as we all knew we’d have to go our separate ways the next day.
Khao Sok National Park – Sarut Thani – Koh Pha Ngan
With an early start to the day, we made our way over to Sarut Thani to catch the ferry over to our next island. The Scots left us in Sarut Thani, as they had an overnight train to catch back to Bangkok, so we said our farewells and went on our way to catch our bus to the port. This was another one of those journeys where we thought it would only take about an hour, but took more like 4. We took a taxi to a bus stop, then a bus to the ferry. The ferry journey over to Koh Pha Ngan was really smooth and took about an hour. When we arrived, we checked into B52 Beach Resort (click here to go to their website) for our first night on the island. We decided to have just two nights on this island, as we were only here for the Full Moon Party and didn’t want to get absorbed into a party island.
B52 Beach Resort was beautiful and we were sad that it wasn’t closer to Haadrin Beach where the Full Moon Party is held, as we would have definitely preferred to spend more than one night here! We decided to have a chilled out day at B52 – we walked along the beach, collected seashells and relaxed at the bar whilst the rain bounced off the poolside around us. It was a really nice way to spend the day and regain some energy after travelling around so much the past few days.
Eventually we decided to head over to Haadrin and check into our hotel, which was the most expensive place we paid for whilst we were in Thailand. I think it cost a little over £20 each for one night and it was honestly the most disgusting place we stayed in. We were greeted by sick on the walls, ghecko poo on the floors and some very outdated pink curtains that looked like some lady’s private parts.
One thing to be aware of if you ever decided to go to the notorious Full Moon Party: you will find that all of the hotels near Haadrin Beach get booked up very quickly and the remaining few are overpriced and disgusting or extremely expensive and totally out of budget. My piece of advice would be to book months in advance or you’ll find yourself staying in a mosquito infested shack like we did. But hey ho, it’s all part of the travelling experience I guess!
The Full Moon Party
Now The Full Moon Party was like no other. We knew it was going to be wild, but I didn’t expect it to be quite so busy during off peak season! It cost around £2 for entry to the beach, which I think is a fair price as I like to think the proceeds go towards keeping the beach clean (no idea if they do or not, I just decided to think positively about the whole thing). We rocked up around 11:30pm as we decided not to hit it too early as we didn’t want to drink too much.
The only drinks you can buy on this night are buckets. Now, be warned.. If they offer you anything with Red Bull in it, it is highly likely that it will contain amphetamines, so I think it’s best to steer clear of the stuff. Most buckets contain a little bottle of Red Bull, so we just always asked just for the spirit and mixer and specified that we don’t like Red Bull. They were always really respectful of our wishes and we managed to avoid it all night.
The actual party itself was alright, but I’d imagine it would be a lot better if you were white girl wasted or tripping off your tits on mushroom shakes. We spent a lot of our time just being amazed that drunk fools would happily jump over skipping ropes set ablaze with fire and burn their skin off for a few laughs! I personally think I had a much better time partying on Phi Phi, as the party on Haadrin was just too packed and full of too many creepy old men. It’s one of those “been there, done that, definitely would never go back again” moments. At the end of the day, it was just an excuse for us to get all dressed up and cover our bodies in glitter and crystals.
5 tips for surviving the Full Moon Party:
1 – Keep everything worth stealing close to you. Just like the Macaques on Monkey Beach, there are thieves waiting in amongst the crowds of people and you could easily get your phone or wallet stolen when you’re navigating your way around a sea of tourists. (I think this was the main reason for no photos of the evening)
2 – Steer clear of Thai Red Bull. I mean unless amphetamines are your thing, then go straight for the stuff.
3 – Don’t be a fool and skip over a fire engulfed rope or limbo underneath one either. You will get burnt and you will die. Just kidding, just be careful.
4 – Keep your bloody shoes on. I saw so many people wandering around without any shoes on and the amount of drunk people who were washing their sliced open feet in the sea was ridiculous. You’re just calling for your feet to get cut open on glass, so it’s better to keep your shoes on and be safe!
5 – Don’t go swimming in the sea when you’ve had a few too many to drink. I saw so many foolish drunk people swimming in the ocean and although it might seem like a fun idea, it’s really dangerous when you’re so intoxicated. The last thing you want is to be rescued because you almost drowned or worse than that, wake up the next day with sand in every nook and cranny imaginable.
Koh Pha Ngan – Koh Samui
The next morning we caught a ferry over to Koh Samui. This ferry was very small, stunk of fuel and was definitely too full. However, somehow we made it over in one piece and made our way to Lamai. We stayed at a vegan yoga retreat in Lamai and it really was the best place to end our trip. I wish the retreat was in a nicer part of Samui, but the constant stream of ladyboys and wishful old men gave us something to laugh about each night at least.
We spent a lot of time in Koh Samui just chilling on the beach, eating lots of food and watching some wonderful sunsets. One of the best beaches we walked to was called Silver Beach. We decided not to catch a cab as we were running low on money and it looked like it would only take about half an hour to get there on Google Maps. But, we definitely underestimated the walk! The weather on Koh Samui was hotter than anything we had previously experienced and that half an hour walk soon became about an hour and a half and it was definitely not a fun one at that. We were so grateful to reach Silver Beach. It was breathtaking and was so nice to get away from the sexual streets of Lamai for a day.
I think this was one of my favourite beaches in Thailand due to the relaxed vibe and crazy natural rock formations on the edges of the cove. It was also such a beautiful place to sit and watch the sunset.
We spent a lot of our time in Koh Samui just relaxing and making the most of the last few days together before I would head home. I’m so accustomed to being constantly on the go and trying to fit in as much as possible whilst I’m away, so it felt really good to just switch off and not really do anything for a few days.
There were hundreds of things I wanted to see and do during these two weeks in Thailand, but as I said before, due to my nature of never really sticking to a plan and just going with the flow, we barely even scratched the surface of the country. I would definitely love to get back out there and see more of mainland, the jungle and some of the less travelled islands, but this will have to wait until I can spend more than a couple of weeks there!!
Thailand is one hell of a country and so diverse. We had some really serene and peaceful moments at Khao Sok and Koh Samui, but we also experienced some absolute chaos in Phuket and Koh Pha Ngan. You never really know what you’re going to get, even down to the weather, but I would highly recommend visiting and really embracing this crazy part of Asia.