After Ko Chang and Ko Mak, we went back to Bangkok with my friend Claudia for a couple of nights. Still craving for beach life, we decided to travel to the Andaman coast for a couple of weeks before meeting Fabio’s parents and friends in Ko Phangan. First we had to flight to Ranong, and from there we took a ferry to the island. Fabio was already here, for me it was the first time, but we both loved it. It is a hippie island, with a very chill vibe, still without any Seven 11 shops or very big resorts.

The start was not the best… as soon as we landed in Ranong, we found out that Fabio’s backpack was still in Bangkok, and it would arrive on the next day. The weather was also not the best, grey and a bit rainy. However, we were rewarded after seeing the bungalow that we booked, that looked gorgeous 😍 A little comfy accomodation on one of the biggest beaches on the island. Long Beach - or Ao Yai - is a wide sandy beach approximately 5 km long. It is not steep, and it makes it an ideal beach for runs or long walks.

We decided to extend our stay as we liked very much, but unfortunately we had 4-5 days of rain, so we had a lot of time to just relax and do nothing other than eating, reading, and playing backgammon 😊 There was also the Phayam festival at the time we were there, with plenty of food stalls and some local singers performing at the beach. It was very nice, even if the sea water was flooding half of the venue 😅

Overall Ko Phayam is one of the places we liked most, with its chill & reggae vibe, lovely beaches and bars and wonderful sunsets. At the time of writing, we are thinking to go back there before the end of our trip, maybe for a shorter time, as we both have the feeling we didn’t have enough of this amazing place.