Bantai Revisited

Bantai is now the second most popular beach in Koh Phangan after Haad Rin. And just like Haad Rin just down the road, its popularity is largely based on the party business.

Over the past few years Bantai parties have dramatically increased in number. The Jungle Experience and the Half Moon Party has been joined by Rhythm and Sands. There are also the after parties at Baan Sabai. Last year saw the opening of Loi Lay Floating Bar that holds regular DJ events. Most recently the Ku Club opened its doors offering supposedly Ibiza style events on the beach.

The party goers are flocking to Bantai. The long beach has some good hotels and resorts. It also has plenty of budget backpacker places.

Another draw for Bantai is that it is located on the main road to Thongsala. There are plenty of bars and restaurants along this road including the small but infamous red-light district in Koh Phangan. The less seedy bars have live sports and some have live music.

However, putting all this aside, what is Bantai beach like? Well it is a beautiful long stretch of white sand. The sand is fine and is mostly kept clean. The biggest problem is the tide. There is a seasonal tidal shift that affects the waters around Koh Phangan. The high tidal months are October to April. At other times the water recedes a long way at low tide.

The photographs above were taken from the Lime N Soda Resort in June. The tide gets really low on Bantai beach during June and July. Indeed sometimes it’s awkward for big boats to get into the main ferry pier just down the coast in Thong Sala during this time.

At the time the pictures were taken you had to walk 1 kilometer out from the beach before it became deep enough to swim. There are also lots of rocks just below the surface that can cause injury.

Considering July and August are the high season for the island, I would suggest that many people who don’t choose the beach exclusively for dancing to techno and trance will end up disappointed with Bantai.

The best all-year-round swimming beaches in Koh Phangan are found on the East Coast of the island where the tidal changes have minimal impact. The most famous of these beaches are Thong Nai Pan Noi and Yai and Than Sadet.

Monitor Lizards in Bottle Beach

The picture is a scan of a photograph taken at Bottle Beach in 1999. I remember the occasion fairly clearly. One of the Thais working at Cookies had caught a giant monitor lizard and had put it in a wicker cage.

The lizard had awful smelling breath. Its tongue flicked menacingly through the gaps in the cage. From head to tail the creature was nearly a full arm-span in length.

The lad who had caught the lizard was full of pride and glee. He kept making the joke that it was going to be chicken curry tonight.

That same holiday we saw more giant monitor lizards sunning themselves on the rocks below the Panviman swimming pool in Thong Nai Pan Noi.

It seemed at that time that these harmless (if left alone) but nasty-looking creatures were all over the island.

In 2008 I encountered a group of Thais and Burmese on a building site. They were a friendly bunch and I sat and had a glass of lao khao with them (Laotian white spirits). They also offered me some sun dried meat. Much to their amusement I declined their offer when they had managed to explain to me that the meat was lizard.

Since that time I have spotted fewer and fewer monitors around the island.

It is tempting to suggest that as beaches such as Bottle Beach and Thong Nai Pan Noi got more developed the lizards had less space to lounge and prey on insects (and whatever else they eat) in peace and quiet.

There are also deer on the island around Than Sadet. They were released as a tribute to the King who loved the waterfall next to Haad Than Sadet. I’ve never seen these deer. I hope the East Coast changes caused by the new Airport don’t reduce the numbers of deer.

The challenge for Koh Phangan is to develop its infrastructure and tourist industry without damaging its beautiful natural environment.

Bangkok to Koh Phangan Travel Prices May 2013

I recently made the trip from Bangkok to Koh Phangan. I stayed one night in Bangkok and then took the Air Asia flight from Don Muang Airport to Suratthani Airport.

The biggest city in the south of Thailand is Suratthani. It is a travel hub. It has an airport, a train station and a port. However, none of these travel options are close to the city part of Suratthani. This means you always have to factor in the time and money needed to get between the city, the port, the bus station, the train station and the airport.

Suratthani is on the main north-south train line. The station is actually in the nearby town of Punpin. It is about an hour away by minibus.

Songserm has a pier in Suratthani; however, the other ferry companies use piers in the Donsak region that is about an hour away by minibus.

All of this means that the Bangkok Airways flight between Suvarnabhumi and Koh Samui remains an attractive, if more expensive, option. It also involves less moving from one form of transport to another.

I took the Air Asia flight to Suratthani and then the Raja Car Ferry from Donsak to Thongsala in Koh Phangan. It takes a few hours more but it saves nearly 2,000 Thai Baht, and makes the journey possible in a day rather than the over-night options of train and boat or bus and boat.

At the airport

I arrived at Suvarnabhumi Airport on Saturday 27th April.2013 at 7.30 pm. I had to wait 1 hour in an immigration queue. Most obvious were large groups of Chinese people on tours. None of them were filling the arrival/departure cards in correctly and this slowed the process down even though 95% of the police immigration desks were open. Queues reached down the ramp into the main concourse. In fairness to the airport staff they set up a snaking queue system that made the process slightly less chaotic.

Prices

Surat Thani Airport to Koh Phangan by bus/raja ferry = 445 THB per person

Suvarnabhumi airport to Central Bangkok by taxi from Kiosk: 400 THB fare, 50 THB service charge, 70 THB toll (total cost 520 THB).

Suvarnabhumi airport to Central Bangkok by meter taxi: Approximately 220 THB fare, 50 THB service charge, 70 toll THB (total cost 340THB). I got the taxi at the kiosk but the guy decided to do it by the meter anyway.