Stopped off at the Elephant Safari place, interesting but expensive. Then another boring waterfall.

Found another hostel - Not lonely as there a few people staying there. ... then found I was unlucky 1. the workers are not hostile, but neither interested 2. the other guests typically begin drinking beer at 9am and are stoned by 1pm so their conversation is meaningless rambles. .. so it is lonely

walked around town more Thai atmosphere, better than Thon Sala, but not much. The restaurants are empty and unatmospheric; everyone of them has the crappy Thai soap opera playing for the covenience of staff rather than to draw in customers.

Thu- overdid the walking- walked to Thong Lang .. over the hill to Ko Ma Island bay... pushed on, found a marked path through the forest, rain, got scratched going off path... Down in Salad bay .. along through Cookies Resort to Had Yao bay, more resorts, convenience shops.. rushed out. Walked back along road dark when arrived back. bit boring all you see is beach, sea and empty resorts.

First I walked up the mountain, but the trail faded out 50m before the top. Even if I had cut through the trees would havee prevented me seeing the view.

Mainly You can see Chaloklum Bay, over the hill to Thong Lang then the Koh Ma island and the next Mae Haad bay

Mainly You can see Chaloklum Bay, over the hill to Thong Lang then the Koh Ma island and the next Mae Haad bay

Then I took the road to Coconuts Resort. The manager told me the path to Bottle bay is so far and so difficult more than 2 hours he said. It wasn't easy easy, but I was on Bottle Beach 50 minutes later. The trail is fantastically well marked by bottles every 10m.

People go to Bottle Beach cos it's isolated & quiet, but actually there is the constant supply of noisy boats bringing people in and out.

there I hired a bicycle and cycled down as far South as I had walked from Thon Sala and back up to Had Yao. So now I have been almost completely around the Island on my feet. - again it wasn't anything special just resort/restaurants pretty spaced out. Though I did stop to watch the guys harvesting coconuts with trained monkeys.

- Despite the testimonials from big names,this is a crap book. Some dozy middle-aged Hampstead woman goes to be a teacher. When a pupil falls in love instead of dealing with it properly being dozy she falls into an affair with him. The narrator her friend another slightly less dozy teacher knows about it, but doesn't stop it cos she doesn't want to interfere ! when of course professionally it is her duty to.

Eventually in a rage she tell's the "evil" male teacher. Despite the male teacher being a baddie what else can he do but alert the authorities ? thus starting the judicial process. and causing the woman's downfall as the papers portray her as evil. She is not evil, nor is male teacher in the same situation, but she had numerous occasions to stop after making the first error. The book is boring, doesn't tell us anything new and seeks to gain sympathy for dozy people who break fundamental rules of their job.

It is a bit crap It's maybe good for couples who want to hang out together on nice beaches, but nothing like the atmosphere the great beach travellers hangout of Dahab Egypt which I visited 1991. It was a Bedouin village with a few very basic huts. But what made it great was the promenade cafes, which were half on the land side of the road and half on the beach with carpets and shade. So you wander from one down to another. Here there is no similar atmosphere. - Things are too spread out, prices too high, the Thais too uncreative towards business and unsmiley, the other travellers too mainstream and boring.

A beach like Bottle Beach could be like Dahab ,but it isn't. People come for the the full moon party, but actually few places play techno or chillout music. Festivals I have been to in UK have 10 times the atmosphere

Some resorts have friendly staff/ possibility of atmosphere, but not many. It seems if you are lucky you can stay at a resort which is small and has friendly staff like Cookies or Coconut Bay and if there are also good guests there might be a good atmosphere. As it is for me it has been boring.

The Miserable Island

- is apparently it's nickname. The thing about most of Thailand is that most people smile. but not in Ko Pha Ngan. In other places many people are interested to speak to you, but not here you are just another tourist. it's low season so there not enough tourists for them to make much money. so they are miserable The KPN Hospitality Industry is now jaded and cynical Cynicism - not hospitality 50% of people are typical Thai, while the others see foreigners as money machines. When I hitch some people won't accept money yet others demand it.

I've spent time trying to figure the place out and I've decided it's a bit crap. OK I never really liked beach, I find the sand and sun quite irritating, but this place could be good, if it had a nice atmosphere and good fellow guests. The atmosphere is lacking cos the Thai people here don't seem interested, unlike the rest of Thailand where they walk around smiling. Though I wouldn't say they are bad they are just generally uninterested. Other travellers hangout places in the world have a buzz, but here the resorts tend to be spread out from each other and the Thai restaurant owners are only have half an idea the menu's and layout are good, but otherwise every restaurant is the same, with bored staff sitting watching the stupid Thai novelas on TV. Now if you had good people staying in the same resort that would help make a good atmosphere; you could have a good conversation or get a game of beach cricket going. But cos there's so many resorts the people are spread thinly among them, and half the people are stupid kids or dopeheads etc. I stayed at 2 places where I was the only person and in this one the people are dopeheads/ pissheads and I didn't endear to them anyway, cos I refused to agree that all the world's problems are caused by the Americans and a conspiracy of Jews.

Actually apart from tourist rip off things there's nothing to do. It's OK to read a book, but I could d do that in a Thai city and see real Thai culture and festivals as well. I've walked almost around the island and it's all the same coconut plantations, spreadout resorts, waterfalls with no water and perfect beaches.
Let's get out of here.

So since my visa is expiring I'll go back to the mainland to the city of Chumpon for a few days then Ranong to go to Burma for a day to renew my visa.

A hotel pickup stopped and I rode in the back for 10Km, on arrival he demanded 100 I gave him 45B .. another bad taste of KPN

Hired a bicycle and went upto Ban Tai, again didn't find any places with any atmosphere.

I rode the nightboat, which I expected to be completely empty. Actually there were 10 people mostly rushing to Ranong to renew their visa and return to KPN the same day "cos it's so cool "... what ??

In their off season there are 1000s of unused budget resort rooms in Thailand and Indonesia. They would be very suitable for conventions, training seminars and even winter universities. Someone could be a broker hooking up empty resorts with conventions etc. the chalets are only $5-$10 per day