Month 2: Impressions from Koh Phangan

August 03, 2017

Since we've settled down in Koh Phangan (we have rented a place here for a month), it doesn't seem to make sense to stick to the "Week 1"/"Week 2" schedule we had going as we started this blog. Indeed, this post is designed to give a bit of an insight into how we've found Thailand so far, including how it's been with the kids, and perhaps what we think of how we've done things so far.

"Not so cheap"

Now this is an only partial grumble, and is almost certainly related to *how* and *where* we've conducted our travels so far. It's also one of the things that I wasn't really prepared for: Thailand ain't so cheap. My appraisal of course is based on my experiences with living in other countries with a large "poor" population (Guatemala and India), and being able to find access to the basics of living a little above those of those poor people. In Thailand, by necessity, things are different: we have two small kids, and therefore that minimum level of comfort is higher- bigger rooms, more comfortable (and safer) transport, and eating "wishes". You can add to that the fact that we are treating the first leg of our journey as a holiday- where we want to splurge every now and again- but that doesn't mean we wouldn't take a cheaper option if it was there! It just doesn't seem to be.

When looking for a house, for example, we didn't really see anything nice (read: in a decent area with basic facilities) for less than €450 per month (and again, I hope this makes it clear I'm not complaining about the price, just that I expected to be able to have the option of something cheaper). Most meals end up being in the range of €10-€12 (yes, for three people, but always the simplest dishes), and not having access to a decent market (Thongsala, the main one, is about 20 minutes away by car) means that you are always paying slightly inflated fruit and vege prices. Getting to and from Thongsala by pick-up sets you back at least €8 per person, and often the drivers won't take you for that price if they think they can squeeze an extra 50-100 Baht out of you.

Summary: Price-wise, it's almost comparable with some of the cheaper, middle or eastern European countries (see Romania or Montenegro for example). Not really the "backpacker" destination I was expecting (naively, as it turns out).

Kids' idea of paradise: Beaches and activities; Our (revised) idea of paradise: Relaxing

We're still getting used to the idea of being able to travel (that means for us seeing and experiencing things) and having two kids (whose broad idea might be the same, but the execution something very different).

Firstly, there's no getting away from the fact that being somewhat restricted to a "community" of four means that the kids want to spend alot of time together, or more specifically, with you/us. That leaves the travel-planning parents with two options: (1) Stay at "home" and try to balance the kids playing alone/with each other with playing with them, or (2) plan an outing and do something with the kids.

Obviously as parents who also want to see and experience things, option #2 is the logical one: You get to see something new, the kids are (usually) also excited, so everyone's happy, right? Sure, when everything goes well, which with our kids, it usually does. But, this type of touring means that you are on the go all day. There is practically no time on such days for relaxing during the day, and you know, that at the end of the day, when most sit down for a rest, beer, cocktail (something like that), your kids are most likely to insist on playing another round of "dinos" before they go to bed (which they might not do so willingly, being still so excited from said activities).

In short, option #2 is exhausting.

And option #1 is often also not so relaxing, especially if you have two kids that are rather active and oft not content to simply "play" or do activities around the house.

We still mostly opted for option #2 though- usually half-day outings, where we would visit a beach, waterfall, playground, maybe a market, with a little time at home, if practicalities permitted. One thing that allowed us to tweak option #1 was a local playgroup, where the kids could go from 9am until 1-2pm, which we ended up using perhaps 6 times. This meant we really could do what we wanted, whether it be an outing together or simply doing something alone such as writing this blog!

Summary: We're still trying to find the perfect balance, but having a large play area for the kids and a playgroup helps!

Lunch time at Mama Poohs

Scooter bandits

Niklas the explorer

Rare family shot!

Don't take my photo!

All those things Dad wrote above are not true- here's proof we can do things by ourselves!

Oscar and his unfortunately-named friend Manu (Yep, after the football team :-/)

Koh Phangan: Beaches and Relaxing (it does have both)

Lastly, a little about Koh Phangan, if perhaps you're ever thinking of taking some time in the Thai islands. It fit the criteria that we ended up defining above, and we were certainly very happy here; as a family holidaying, in terms of a variety of beaches within scooter distance of each other, as a place with a variety of nice places to eat and have a coffee, with a nice main town and night market, with a few more "adventurous" destinations, and with a few places (beaches) even more off the beaten track. And some decent diving as well.

Downsides: a little expensive (see above), and you have seemingly little contact with local or Thai culture.

I might leave it to Ilka to write a little more about it, if she feels inclined.