Koh Phayam

After our time in Koh Lanta we headed further north to visit the island of Koh Phayam. Koh Phayam was a much smaller, much quieter island. It was so small, in fact, that there were no cars. An occasional tractor and plenty of mopeds, but no cars.

Every once in a while we look back at the people we were early on in this trip and compare that to who we are now, often we laugh at how naive we were. I don’t think that there have been any big, drastic changes but a lot of small ones. When we first got to Costa Rica we were very careful about what we ate and gradually that has kinda gone out the window. We ate street meat that had been out who knows how long off dirty grills in Argentina and now in Thailand we eat just about everything despite warnings against travelers diarrhea (well, everything within reason, we still only go to busy places with quicker food turnover. Mystery meat that has been sitting out for a long time is much worse than regular mystery meat). When we were in Brazil we saw motorcycle taxis with helmets and thought “that is so dangerous, I would never, ever get on one!” and then we landed in Koh Phayam and we were about 5 kilometers from our bungalows and there was no way to get there except by moped taxi. Without a helmet. So, once again we laughed at our earlier selves and their prudent ways and did something we never expected to- hopped onto a moped taxi to drive the 5 kilometers to our place. Fortunately, it was an uneventful drive and we made it to our bungalows safely.

Our bungalow was quite rustic, but very charming and unbelievably close to the beach. We could hear the waves crashing on the shore every night. We had no outlets and only had lights from about 6:30pm until 11pm and then the electricity for the place was cut. We did have electricity and outlets all day at the cafe at our bungalow. It was a bit of a free for all for the outlets though. There were power strips plugged into power strips to provide enough outlet space for everyone to plug in their phones, iPads and computers because we all have to stay connected! Mostly, it was wonderful to be so disconnected, but it was frustrating when we needed to use the internet (although the place claimed to have wifi, we could never get a strong enough signal to load anything more than our email. Fortunately, there was a place down the road renting pocket wifi that could be used anywhere. If you are looking for a great business idea and wouldn’t mind moving to Koh Phayam, pocket wifi is it! There was only one place on the island that rented pocket wifi- and believe me, we looked high and low- and they could not keep them in stock. We checked several times a day for 3 days before we got one!) and it was frustrating at night when it was still warm in the bungalow and we didn’t have so much as a fan to cool us down. The sea breezes were quite pleasant and the bungalow eventually cooled off to the point that we would even have to pull up a very light blanket (more like a heavy sheet) to keep warm.

We spent the time eating tons of amazing food, swimming, watching crabs run across the sand and collecting cool shells. It was a very peaceful and relaxing week.