Fancy Free Frolickin’ in Koh Phayam

When deciding where to go next, B-Rod finally made the call and we found ourselves heading South to the province of Ranong. Ranong is on the Andaman coast, is the least populated province in Thailand and is known for its long rainy season (like 8 months long!)

So . . . why Ranong? Years ago we went on a live aboard dive trip, and we were picked up from an island in Ranong called Koh Phayam. We LOVED it! No cars, only scooters for transportation, fairly small, beautiful beaches, super nice people, not a party scene and not crowded (or maybe just spread out enough that it can feel like you’re one of the few people swimming and vegging on the beach at any given time!) We spent a few days after our dive trip here and decided one day we would come back. That day finally came!

Koh Phayam is not the most convenient place to get to, but it is so worth it! We spent a week here sometimes wondering if a week was too long (there’s not a lot to do on island), but honestly I could have stayed longer and some of the people who come back repeatedly (many of whom are German) often do.

The pace and life on Koh Phayam (like many islands that I’m drawn to) is so simple. It was an amazing opportunity for a “recovering overthinker who has been known to put a lot of pressure on themselves lately” (not that I know any!) to pause and remember what is truly important.

So after a day or two of shedding the constant activity and busyness of the big cities we had just come from, we settled into a simple, comfortable and spacious rhythm.

The days started off enjoying a choice of our provided breakfast on the beach (oh yeah . . . did I forget to mention we chose to stay on the beach? More on that in a bit)

Promply after breakfast we headed straight for the ocean to boogie board, body surf, float, swim, paddle board, watch the surfers and paddle boarders catching waves and just be in the ocean for at least a couple of hours!

We rented a scooter to get around and explore the island (you can easily do that in a day!), so in the afternoons B-Rod chauffeured me around for lunch, island exploring and often dropped me off for a massage (where he went off and had his own me time!)

B-Rod navigating the streets of Koh Phayam.

Because of its vicinity to Myanmar, Burmese tea leaf salad was available at a few places 😋 and of course mango sticky rice was on regular rotation!

*Exploring different pathways on the island.*

The bridges to Morgan town, a local village, were interesting.. Neither of them went all the way there and instead there was a rope from one side to the other that we saw kids using to pull themselves across atop some kind of rigged up floating device.

*Exploring and crawling around in the hippie bar.*

*Rows upon rows of trees like this were everywhere. B-Rod of course was curious and even I found it fascinating when we found out they were rubber tree/latex farms,*

*I had regular massages with my AMAZING “massage lady”*

In the afternoon it was more water time, sometimes walks accompanied by the resident dogs, supper and then walks or drinks by the beach where we looked out to the horizon to see so many lights from fishing boats off in the distance.

We both commented about how unthreatening the dogs here were (if you’ve travelled to Asia . . . . you know what I’m talking about) and just before we left we met a lady who had been involved in a fundraising effort where a vet came in and neutered the dogs in the area. It’s been a few years, and she was saying it’s starting to get to the point where they need to consider doing it again.

By far the best place we ate (and possibly the best food we had our whole trip so far) was at a place called Shambala. The owner was super nice and so interesting!

*Fishing boats have different colour of lights to attract different kinds of fish,*

So what did Koh Phayam remind me about what’s really important? It’s simply about being in and close to nature, having a reverence and respect for the natural world with its natural cycles and rhythms and how truly important, healing and rejuvenating the element of water is for me (and the more I can walk around in shorts and no shoes . . . even better). When booking a place to stay, we knew which beach we wanted to be on, and we found a place that sounded interesting. They had two choices of accommodation available – a tent and a family suite with two bedrooms and a balcony. We did consider the suite for a bit, but in the end it wasn’t about the cost (which was not expensive by any stretch), and it wasn’t about the extra space that we didn’t need, it was the thought of sleeping in fresh air, being that much more connected to nature, AND seeing the pics that made it look more like glamping and less like roughing it (we do have some limits!)

*We were tent #1 which meant we were closest to the ocean. Our only “complaint” . . . . sometimes the ocean was too crashy and loud! 😆*

*There was a vestibule we spent a lot of evenings hanging out in*

*Attached was our own private outdoor bathroom.*

*I was surprised how much I LOVED having showers outside . . . even though they were cold showers!*

Nature was also apparent in the beauty around us and the critters we marvelled at.

Just a few of our “little” friends . . .

Now . . . . if only that last little guy would have eaten a few more bugs around me. For the first time that I can EVER recall . . . . I got EATEN alive!! Mosquitoes, sandflies, noseums, probably spiders . . . . if it could bite me, it probably did. Interestingly, not B-Rod. Needless to say, I was sad to leave Koh Phayam, but I’ll be reminded of it continually as I itch my way through a new destination! More on that later!