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After island hopping around Southern Thailand, we had finally found our perfect tropical island paradise on Koh Phangan. For our first two days on the island we had been complete beach bums, just lazing in the sun, swimming in the warm tropical water and swinging in our hammock, so we thought it was finally time to get up and see more of the island than just our one little perfect beach.
Our perfect little beach
With intentions of renting a scooter to explore the island, we went to a shop nearby which was recommended to us by the owner of the bungalows we were staying in. The shop owner was a lovely elderly man who spoke good English, and with more care than any other shop owner we had come across, he completely talked us out of renting a scooter as I didn’t have the riding experience. We walked out of the shop feeling quite bewildered. We hadn’t come across someone in Thailand who would do his best to talk us out of a sale, but we appreciated his honesty and consideration for our safety.
Now that our plans of riding around the island were out the window, we decided to use our feet instead and headed up the road in hope of finding another beach to explore. After a couple of kilometers and climbing up and over a headland, we came to a lovely little deserted beach where we took a much needed dip in the ocean.
We didn’t really want to head back the same way along the road back to our bungalow, so we decided to explore the end of the beach and see if we could make our way around the headland back to our own beach.
At first the going was quite easy, with small stretches of sand between clusters of rocks and boulders. A few easy rock scrambles then bought us to our first big obstacle. Ahead lay what seemed to be the rocky tip of the headland – a large rocky outcrop sticking out into the water and blocking our way. We had come too far now to want to turn back, so with a closer inspection I decided that we could definitely scramble and climb our way up over it.
The rocky outcrop that we climbed over
The rock was heavily weathered and contoured, so there were lots of hand and foot holds to make our climb quite easy. With a lot of scrambling and climbing we were soon on another section of beach on the other side.
The hardest part was now over and the rest of the way had only smaller outcrops scattered between the small sections of sand. The great part was that we certainly had the entire place to ourselves. No one else was crazy enough to go here!
Standing on top of some rocks
After a few more hops and scrambles we eventually made it back to our lovely little beach, where we went back to being beach bums and relaxing after our morning of adventure. And of course, we watched yet another beautiful Koh Phangan sunset.
Watching the sunset
Although our original plans didn’t work out, we ended up having a great adventure and seeing a part of the island that we never would have seen otherwise. Sometimes it’s best to just go with the flow and see where it takes you.
Have you had a great experience that happened due to a change of plans? I’d love to hear about it.
Yes, I had an unexpected but delightful experience. Went to the Greek island of Meis and ended up in a blue cave that was never mentioned in any of the guide books I read. It was a wonderful surprise. Your beach looks wonderful as well. Kind of a Robinson Crusoe where you could easily shut yourself off from the rest of the world.
Natalie recently posted..French Street in Istanbul
Wow that sounds fantastic Natalie. It’s often those surprise locations that end up being the greatest experience. It was definitely easy to shut myself off from the world on that beach..and I did 😉
Great story! I had an entire trip happen *just* because of having *no plans at all* 🙂 It was my trip to Curacao lat year and it has been one of my best trips to date:
http://www.latinabroad.com/2012/03/travel-without-a-plan-my-curacao-experiment-report/
I now “plan to have no plans” when traveling more often! 🙂
Nomadic Translator @latinAbroad recently posted..Iceland waterfalls photos: Photo essay of my favorites
I find that I plan less and less as well. If you just go with the flow you can never really be disappointed with a place, and you’ll almost always have experiences that you never thought you could have 🙂 Cheers… And I would love to visit Curacao!
I’m definitely not a climber, so that looks to me like a proper adventure. Last time I went down a canyon near my hometown it took half a day to get my breathe back 😛
Angela recently posted..In Sardinia, hitting the wine trail between myth and tradition
Hehe, climbing certainly is exhausting! It was definitely an adventure in itself 🙂 Cheers Angela
What an adventure! Going with the flow definitely worked out for the better this time.
Brock – Backpack With Brock recently posted..Exploring Franconia Notch State Park – New Hampshire, USA
I find that it often does 🙂
Dean Wickham recently posted..Unintentional Rock Climbing on Koh Phangan, Thailand
I thought that you are going to climb the highest rock mountain but it is very down low. Well anyway, sounds like that you are having so much fun in climbing and also in the beach.
Danyelle Franciosa recently posted..bifold doors brisbane web-site
Hehe yes it wasn’t much of a rock climb really, but still lots of fun! 😉