The view from our balcony at Salad Beach Resort, Koh Phangnan...
So on to Koh Phangnan and Koh Tao.
Since I’m supposed to be starting a phd in construction in a little less than a year (let’s see...), I may as well take the chance to offer a couple of unfocused comments directed to the construction end of things, among a few other (non-construction) comments.
As we have truly hit the off-season here - the lull from the end of August when tourists and travellors largely disappear, to mid-December when the start reappearing once again in droves, we have had a chance to see these 3 Thai islands presenting themselves at their most uninhibited, shall we say.
A lot of places through open for business, have given up any pretense of having any purpose beyond finishing all desired construction in time for the next high season in December. Mess, at these places, is everywhere.
In fact, nearly every bungalow operation on Koh Phangnan and Koh Tao seem to be carrying out some new construction, or re-construction, or de-construction to varying degrees. These means plenty of activity is visible, which doesn’t really change the pace of life terribly dramatically - it’s pretty relaxed, not surprisingly.
A little construction to help the off-season pass
There is little doubt that there is a sort of mini-boom going on at these islands. Actuallly, I would call it an all out boom in the case of Koh Samui, and pretty close to it on Koh Phangnan. Koh Tao is a little more subdued that the other two, but it is the smallest.
Probably the only thing holding back Koh Phangnan from being at a similar level of development to Koh Samui is a surprisingly under-developed set of roads - and thankfully the lack of an international airport.
The rather bumpy road on Koh Tao.
Large parts of Koh Phangnan and Koh Tao remain connected solely by VERY bumpy and muddy roads which are basically unnavigatable in anything less than a 4-wheel drive truck. And even a small part of the island remains accessable only by water.
We, of course, choose one of tghe most remote parts of the Koh Phangnan island to have a little low-speed motorcycle incident which sent Elisabeth off the back of the bike eventually lying on the ground with a sprained arm. A little 4 wheel drive taxi ride to the island hospital eventually confirmed that diagnosis. The driver of the motorcycle, your truly, was fortunatley uninjured, save for a couple of minor scatches.
Thank goodness for the friendly Koh Phangnan hospital...
One particularly good think about being on Koh Phangnan during the off-season is a degree of luxury, luxury that would already be dirt cheap by European/North American standards, becomes even cheaper as luxury places try to attract a few more travellors during the off-seasona than they would otherwise. In fact, the prices become nearly ridiculous. This meant Elisabeth did have some fairly pleasant surroundings to recurerate from her little injury.
Recovering in style and comfort...
Surrounding the place we stayed was a fantastic looking resoret of similar high quality to ours that seemed to be undergoing a radical face-lift, and on the other side was a more modest bungalow operation was nonetheless finding the time to nearly double in size during the down time.
Our chosen locale, Salad Bay Resort, was taking advantage of the off-season not to do any construction, but rather to suck in loads of travellors. The strategy seemed to be succeeding as business was booming while the surrounding operations along the bay (6-7 of them), were all but deserted.
But evidently many were nonetheless predicting big things once peak season returned, judging by all the construction.
watching the fish dry...
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