A Normal Vacation in Koh Phangan

Beach resorts haven’t been our usual destination, but this wasn’t our first visit to one either. Our trip to Thailand five years ago ran a circuit through Bangkok temples and included a visit to play with tigers in Kanchanaburi. This was our first visit to a Thai beach. The steps to arrive at Koh Phangan make it feel especially remote. A one-hour domestic flight from Bangkok takes you to Koh Samui, a similarly sized island in the south of Thailand that caters to foreign beachgoers. Koh Phangan is a 30-minute ferry ride from one of the piers on Samui. However, the ocean conditions around Koh Phangon typically preclude traveling to the far side of the island by boat. Once you reach Koh Phangan, you’ve got another 45-minute ride through narrow hilly passes that cut straight through the jungle and across the island to the opposite coast. When we finally touched down at our resort, I definitely thought that I wouldn’t be exploring much more than the grounds around the place on foot.

We attended a friend’s wedding here at Santhiya Resort. It also worked out as a great excuse to relax for a few days ourselves. Weddings, whether of friends, family, or your own, can be stressful and even downright annoying. This trip highlighted just how sound the “destination” wedding is as a concept. For the couple, you’ve got an easy honeymoon padded right into the trip. The guest list is typically limited to a smaller, more intimate group. The guests themselves have plenty to stay occupied with, limiting the strain on the couple’s time trying to keep everyone entertained. Also, a destination wedding simply can not be planned with the kind of obsessive detail of a local ceremony, which may force the couple to just relax a bit more and roll with it until the day finally arrives.

It’s hard to know how much a non-western “traditional” ceremony is tweaked for appeal and marketing to foreigners. In the Maldives, the couple plants a palm tree together. Whether or not that tree is subsequently replanted a few times, it remains a sweet gesture. The traditional Thai wedding ceremony that was held at the resort had some really nice symbolic components that I haven’t heard of elsewhere. One prospective spouse (traditionally the groom) arrives to the venue in a sort of parade and has to pass several “gatekeepers” to gain entry to the ceremony. Each gatekeeper (a close friend or family member that has been selected) asks the person a question about their partner that they know the answer to. If answered correctly, they can pass. Otherwise, they have to fork over some money. At the close of the ceremony, each guest has to run water through the couples’ hands into flowers below, offering wishes for the couple out loud. The whole thing was very nicely done here.

Outside of rich meals overlooking the ocean, wading through the sand, overpaying for souvenirs and beach accessories, and spacing out for hours at the spa, there aren’t many adventures to be had or reported on here. The spa part was actually a new experience for me. It’s a different sort of thing to just try to still the mind and be passive. The Thai massage was pretty intense, but we still sought them out almost daily. In the “village,” an hour is about $8, while in the resort you can multiply that by almost ten. Ambiance doesn’t come cheap.  At the resort spa, they did seem to have some kind of time-dilation portal in the place that made four hours seem like fifteen minutes. Alas, our time here is up though. We transit back through Bangkok for a day and are spending the rest of the week meeting up with friends and family in Tokyo.