The Hippie Bar on Ko Phayam. A place that I’ve heard stories about from friends who have visited several times and I wanted to find out what all the fuzz was about. I was ready for another batch of sunny beach days and a visit to the legendary bar.
I took a ferry from the city of Ranong, where I had spent a night. It took about 2 hours with the local ferry and as soon as we hit land, I jumped on a moto-taxi and headed to my guesthouse, the ”Flower Power”. It was located on the north top of the island, just a few minutes from the beautiful Buffalo Bay beach. It was the first time that I wasn’t in a hostel but had my own private room, which felt weird and a bit lonely. There was one hostel on the island, but it was right next to the pier and I specifically wanted to stay by the Buffalo Bay. I met a Bosnian girl already at the hostel in Ranong and she had booked a dorm bed in the hostel – and damn was I happy that I didn’t go there, she told me a rat (!) ran across her body during the night. After this happened two nights in a row, she fled to another guesthouse. So finally I was quite pleased that I’d chosen my room from the beginning…
The island itself felt quite big, especially in comparison to the small Ko Mook where I had been earlier. I don’t ride a scooter so I mainly stayed on my part of the island. Which was perfect, since it had everything I wanted: a beautiful beach, a few cozy beach bars, good food close by and of course the Hippie Bar 🙂 It’s basically a construct of heaps of drift wood, a big adult playground to get lost in: several balconies, hideouts, stairs, bridges and nooks make it easy to lose your orientation. It’s a great hangout though and the food was nice too.
During my four days here I did exactly what I had planned on doing: not much. I enjoyed a fruity breakfast at my guesthouse, hit the beach, read my books, went swimming – all these things you do on an island. The only timetable I had was breakfast and sunset, making sure I’d be at the beach in time of the latter, it’s amazing to just lay in the water watching the sun go down.
I’d definitely recommend Ko Pahyam – it’s such a beutiful place and seems to be relatively unknown. There were tourists, of course, but it was not crowded. During the days there were maybe 10 people at the beach! So I guess in comparison to many other places this one was basically empty. What a place, so glad I came!
on the right track 