Thailand: All Together Again

Some reviews said that the ferry to the tropical island of Koh Phangan was a rusty tub that was always late and  also home to families of cockroaches. While it was a little behind schedule leaving Donsak Pier on the Thai mainland,  there was no sign of any cockroach onboard. The boat was large, clean and comfortable with two decks of  air-conditioned inside seating as well as a top open deck which was sweltering despite the sea breeze.

We knew that Thailand was a very popular holiday destination and that the islands of Koh Samui and Koh Phangan attracted an abundance  of visitors but the sheer volume of (mainly) Western tourists took us by surprise. The terminal at the Donsak pier was heaving with mostly young people with backpacks and suitcases, big enough to hold a body or two. Tour buses from the local airport and train station disgorged still more people, in search of sunshine and the lure of paradise in the tropics. We shuffled along in a sea of white faces to board the ferry. Having travelled overland up the eastern coast of Thailand from Malaysia along the relatively untouristy towns of Songkhla and Nakhon St Thammet, it felt as if we had travelled into a different country.

We were in Koh Phangan for a family reunion, very long-overdue.  Caoimhin and I arrived the day before our children and their partners, who were in Bangkok having flown in from New Zealand, Australia and Dublin. The ferry docked at the island town of Thongsala, with songthaews (pick-up trucks with two rows of facing seats), mini-buses and motor bikes waiting to transport the visitors around to the hotels, resorts and guesthouses. We trudged past the restaurants and bars with blaring music and the constant roar of the motorbikes, to a cheap hostel where we spent the first night before travelling next day to the villa we had rented for five days. The hostel was basic, spotlessly clean with good (and very welcome) air-con. However the communal bathroom was a long trek from our windowless bedroom – through reception,  down a long corridor and  past the common area which overlooked a small stream where a waterhen mothered  a family of chicks amid the floating plastic bottles. I regretted the beers that we drank in the Irish bar that evening when I had to visit the toilet at 5am.

It was almost Chinese New Year and there were altars with offerings of chickens and fruit outside most businesses and family shrines. We almost leapt out of our skins with the first rat-a-tat of gunfire as we drank a morning coffee in a streetside café. It wasn’t gunfire, it was a series of bangers, to celebrate the year of the Fire Horse. We soon grew immune to the noise and the palls of smoke as the bangers were lit in sequence down the streets.

Caoimhin and I were the first to arrive at the villa in the hills overlooking Haad Yao Bay, about a twenty-five minute songthaew ride away from our basic accommodation. The villa was anything but basic, it was stunning, decorated in dark wood with a wall of glass doors which folded back to showcase the fantastic sea views. There was a large living area with a pool table, several outside dining spaces and a lovely pool with sun loungers. However, the view came at a price – the hill to reach it was a nearly vertical 300 metres climb……which most taxis refused to ascend.

I can’t really put into words the feeling of reuniting with our children, it was three years since the five of us (parents plus three kids) had been together and it was even more special as each was travelling with their lovely partner and we were also meeting Cormac’s Australian girlfriend for the very first time. So we were a party of eight, coming together on a tropical island in the Gulf of Thailand, a gorgeous location for an event worth celebrating. If we had a family altar, I would have put offering on it for this most unique of Chinese New Year celebrations, an auspicious start to the Year of the Fire Horse.

The most popular way to get around the island was by motorbike as the shared taxis were relatively expensive (costing almost €6 per person for short rides with no negotiation on price) so each couple rented a bike at €7.50 a day. There was something both liberating and exhilarating about riding around the island’s hilly terrain, feeling the warm breeze wrap around us.  It was a challenge to get up the extremely steep slope to our villa, without stalling or toppling over. This became even more challenging when the rains came in torrential downpours as they did most days, although we were supposedly in the high and dry season. It was a week of  hikes, the most dramatic was to the viewpoint over Bottle Beach on the quieter Northern side of the island. The many beaches were white sand with warm water and ringed with restaurants serving delicious food, often Thai food with a Western twist and too often with western prices to match. There were pool games, card games, swimming both in the pool and the sea, massages and yoga classes, competitions to see who took hold their breath the longest underwater in the villa pool, sunset cocktails but most of all, there was laughter and chats without friction.

But all too soon, it was time to go our separate ways. Cormac and Jackie back to Bangkok for a flight to Brisbane and the others to Ko Tao, a smaller Thai island before travelling back to Dublin for Caoimhe and Alan and onwards to Vietnam for Aonghus and Amy. Caoimhin and I are making our way slowly back to Malaysia to fly home in two weeks. It is gratifying to raise children who become strong independent adults with a love of travel but the price we pay for that achievement is that we don’t see them as much as we’d like.

Koh Phangan is a stunning tropical island, with its white sand beaches and lush jungle. It is famous for its monthly high-energy, full moon parties with all-night revelling on the beach.  But that wasn’t what brought us there, we had a much more important goal than partying…..and we thoroughly enjoyed our stay and the memories of a special time, in our secluded villa in the hills, with monkeys in the jungle beside us and a resident cat called Ricky.

 Koh Phangan is seriously in danger of becoming a casualty of its own beauty and success, with constant construction to cater for the insatiable tourists, involving more destruction, deforestation and further strain on the fragile infrastructure. Thai people are renowned for their gentle hospitality but many islanders (but not all) appeared tourist-weary, seeing us as a necessary inconvenience, a revolving conveyer belt of new visitors. But exploitation works both ways and I’m sure that some of the party goers may not be respectful to the locals or their environment.

We are now on the mainland in Surat thani, having booked a sleeper train to take us overnight to the Malaysian border and the difference in attitude at our hotel and on the streets is palpable. We are again welcomed with smiles and that gracious gentleness but one things for certain, we will never forget our time on Koh Phangan, when we holidayed with our wonderful adult children and their chosen ones.

Thanks for reading

Till next time