We found paradise .... again

We spent a lot of time before this trying to figure out which island to go to. It was a difficult time mainly because of the SW monsoon which pretty much took out all the Andaman islands as possibilities. This pretty much left us with the islands to the east of the gulf. Out of the 3 islands (Samui, Phangan, and Tao), we finally decided on Phangan since Samui was too developed and Tao seemed to be more of a diver's paradise. Now that we had the island in mind, we had to pick a beach. There was of course Had Rin, the spot of the infamous Full Moon Parties. That wasn't so much our style so we decided to skip it. We finally settled on Thong Nai Pan Yai. Not as busy as the roads there aren't developed yet but not completely cut off from the world.

When we got there, we knew this was it. Even though it was an overcast day, it was still beautiful. The water was absolutely clear and was amazingly green, the sand was fine and white, and there were palm trees hanging above us.

We knew which 'resort' we wanted to go to already as we had read in LP that this was the place. Unfortunately, you can't reserve with them as they don't have a phone or e-mail. We were taking our chances. We got there just in time it seems as we got the last bungalow! Hooray! I had put 'resort' in quotes earlier because it really isn't a resort in the traditional sense. It was a basic wooden shack but laid in a beautiful environment. It was called Dolphin and was owned by a Kiwi-Thai couple. They had built an amazing atmosphere with lush tropical plants everywhere and an ultra-cool lounge. (Too bad the Kiwi half was a little anal but I won't let that spoil my memories).



Back to my thought on the monsoon ... I didn't have very high hopes for the weather as I figured we'd probably get one sunny day and the others, overcast or rain. Someone must have been looking out for us as we got 9 days of pure sunshine and blue skies. It was amazing.

We spent so much time out on the sand and in the water the first couple days, we both ended up getting burns (oops). We had to spend a couple days after that lounging in the shade, sometimes on the beach but other times on the hammock on our porch. That hammock was heaven sent. It was an amazing place to dwindle away the afternoon and evening, just relaxing. We realized we lucked out with finding such a great place.

This was exactly what we needed after 5 and a half months on the road. I can't remember the last time I was this relaxed ... maybe the summers of my teenage years. This place gave us so much opportunity to let our minds wander, something we didn't really get to do beforehand as we were always preoccupied with what to do and how to do it. This was heaven sent.

posted by Jenni @ 12:00 AM