As we mentioned before, we left Bangkok to go to Ko Pah Ngan for our first Thai beach adventure. We were planning on meeting some friends at Hat Rin, the “party beach,” so for the five days we went to the northern end of the island for more secluded and quiet beaches. 

The first beach

We went to Than Sadet, which had a handful of bungalows on a little bay with turquoise water and white sand. The area has huge boulders strewn in the water, on the beach, and up the dramatic hills. Apparently a long time ago Thai kings liked to walk around the boulders there. It was beautiful. There couldn’t have been more than forty people staying in the area. We liked to go for a swim in the morning and usually we’d be the only people out there, which was pretty neat.
 

In our rustic bungalow one night a huge roach dropped on Kevin from the ceiling! He let out a yell and I giggled, saying “they don’t bite, what’s the big deal?” just to give him a hard time. He was like, “just you wait til it happens to you, you’ll be screaming and freaking out!” 

A little too far out there

 
Turned out that Than Sadet was even more remote than we thought. We needed to get in touch with our friends, but we couldn’t find an internet connection. We tried hiking to one, but after a couple of hours of killer heat and steep hills, we turned back. So we caught a ride with some guys taking people on a day boat trip up north to Ao Thong Nai Pan Yai to stay for a few day. It’s a gorgeous bay also with white sand and turquoise water. It had more bungalows, restaurants, bars, general stores, and internet cafes, but retained its quiet appeal. The places to stay and eat are right on the beach, so you can go for a swim in the warm and clear water, lay on the soft sand, sip on a fresh juice, and drag yourself to your room for that afternoon nap all within 50 yards. At night the restaurants and bars put candle-lit low tables on the sand and cushions to lay on. It was fantastic.

Our first night there we stayed in a very cheap bungalow, but it was shabby. And, of course, a very large roach fell from the ceiling on….Kevin. And the terrible person that I am laughed again. (How couldn’t I after he told me I was next and he was wrong?) So we moved the next night to a much nicer one with no roaches.

Out for all to see

 
We had a relaxing few days on the beach and it was pretty perfect. Although one thing was slightly off-putting. Our guidebook says Thais find it very offensive or get the wrong message if foreign women go topless on the beach. However, we found several people breaking the taboo. Some of them weren’t so bad, strategically holding their book or putting their top on as soon as they got up, etc. But this one lady near us didn’t have her top on all day, including at our neighboring table at the beach restaurant. It was like a car accident, you don’t want to look but you can’t look away. I don’t think it helped that they were huge and she wasn’t very attractive. She was eating, playing with her two small kids, blabbering on to her husband as if her boobs weren’t out. Then some Thai guys were fixing a motor on a boat and she and her husband brought their kids over and took pictures by them. We were like, isn’t that a little weird? Anyway, it made us uncomfortable. Other than that, though, we’d highly recommend a relaxing vacation to Than Sadet or Ao Thong Nai Pan Yai.