First time at Koh Phayam, booked 2 weeks, stayed over Christmas. We (David and Maia) spent 13 nights at Koh Phayam island in Thailand in 2023. This is how I experienced the island including recommendations and practical tips.
What we expected before booking
We wanted to relax on an island, which is less touristy and where it is possible to surf also as beginners. We were not interested in luxury or high standards, and wanted to keep our expenses low. You will not find any luxury vacation based recommendations in this blog post.
How we arrived
We arrived in Thailand with a direct flight from Vienna, Austria to Bangkok, Thailand, flying with EVA Air. After spending a few days in Bangkok, we booked a flight with AirAsia (through their homepage) to Ranong. Instead of going to the island Koh Phayam the same day, we decided to stay in Ranong for 2 nights at Sino Mansion (we were very happy with our accommodation booked via booking.com, the accommodation was quiet and safe, room was big enough, close by shops, market, banks) in the city center, and explore the city and surroundings first.
The airport in Ranong is very small. Just outside the airport you have a few options (no uber, no grab – current locations in Thailand where grab is available) to choose from to get to the city center or directly to the pier. We chose the cheapest option – a shared type of minibus (Songthaew), which was 50 baht per person to get to the city center of Ranong – the same one took other people directly to the pier.
On the day of going to the island, we travelled to the Tai Kak Pier with a Songthaew, there is a bus stop directly in front of our accommodation “Sino Mansion”, which was very practical – just make sure you get on the right one, as not all of them go to the pier from the same stop. Because we had time and wanted to save some money, we decided to take the slower option and travel with the slow ferry, which is cheaper, and takes around 2 hours to get to the island. (the speedboat is quicker, takes only around 45 minutes). The slow ferry goes only once per day, at 10am Ranong > Koh Phayam (at 3pm Koh Phayam > Ranong). You can buy tickets at the pier, no need to buy them online. We left the pier only around 10:30am, because loading up the ferry with different goods for the island took longer.
General recommendation for buying tickets (bus, train, …) online in Thailand, you can use one of the following two websites:
Note that in high season (not rainy season) many buses and trains often sell out, especially for the popular routes/destinations. So it’s best to buy tickets at least a few days in advance. If you can’t buy or it’s not practical to buy at the local main bus or train stations, you can buy tickets online. It’s usually a bit more expensive to buy online, but you also get more payment options to choose from.
This is how the slow ferry looked like from the inside:
There are just 5 rows for sitting. Everybody had a seat when we were travelling with the ferry and everybody who was at the pier could board the ferry, nobody was left behind. Most tourists take the speedboats to get to Koh Phayam.
After arriving on the island at the pier, when you walk from the pier to the land (beginning of the beach) there we found drivers who can take you to your accommodation.
The price is fixed (we asked several people, at our accommodation, people who have been to the island in the past already several times), there is no price negotiations possible, the price is 100 baht per person (December 2023). There are no cars on the island, and no uber, no grab. Don’t worry if you have more luggage, they can transport it to your accommodation.
Which part of the island for surfing
If you are interested in surfing, then you have to go to the western part of the island, Aow Yai Beach. You can rent surf boards there. The place we rented from, and were super happy with and would definitely recommend it and it is actually the main place on this beach to rent surf boards is: Phayam Surfers, at Phayam Lodge.
Prices (surfing pricelist) valid December 2023:
To my knowledge, you cannot surf on any other beach, but this one, because no suitable waves elsewhere.
Our breakfast
We decided to eat breakfast at our bungalow, “self-made”, and eat out for lunch and dinner. Fortunately we had a small fridge at our bungalow, which was great and I would highly recommend to find a bungalow (bungalows are the main type of accommodation on this island) with a fridge – not just to good for keeping your food cold and making it last longer, but also as a protection from ants or other animals. When booking a bungalow, be aware that many are only with a fan, so if you need AC, be sure to double check, that yours has it, because it is not standard.
But back to our breakfast. It consisted of instant oats mixed with coconut milk and drinking water (not tap water, do not drink tap water in Thailand). Small local bananas – they are so delicious, much more delicious than the traditional bigger “European bananas” (bananas which can be bought at supermarkets for example in Austria or Slovakia)! And either a dragon fruit or papaya, and often a passion fruit as well.
You can buy other fruits as well such as very common are also: mangos, pineapples, watermelons, we just decided not to get it, because they are slightly less convenient to prepare without a kitchen and certain utensils. We also wanted to keep our bungalow and terrace clean, not to attract ants and similar unwanted animals. All of these ingredients we bought at the island. Note, that the minimarts here have just a small selection of food here, so you cannot buy everything you could buy or have been perhaps used to in a 7-Eleven or a bigger supermarket. So if there is anything (a certain type of snack) you like a lot and want to eat it often at Koh Phayam, please buy it before your arrive at this island.
Special recommendation: dragon fruit + raw chocolate
A very tasty combo is eating a dragon fruit (for example cut it in half length wise, and use a small spoon to eat without a plate and without cutting it into small pieces) together with raw chocolate or a chocolate with cocoa 60+%.
There is one place, where we found out that it is possible to buy chocolate (they were selling only the brands Ritter Sport & Lindt, but when they sell out, you have to go check almost every day when they get new, they may get only max. 10 pieces total): at the bigger mini mart at the corner of a road crossing opposite the Ban Ko Phayam School.
Our favorite restaurant
Our favorite restaurant was the one, where we went the most often in total. The name of it is: TUM Restaurant. It is not on google maps yet though as of 25th December 2023. It is located on the same side of the street somewhere between Baan Nam Cha and Blue Owl Indian.
The reasons we liked this restaurant was:
- close to our accommodation, just a few minutes walk distance
- several vegetarian options/dishes available for 50 and 60 baht (that’s cheap especially for an island)
- not too tiny, several tables, so even though it was almost always full, there was still usually 1-2 tables free to choose from
Cheap and vegetarian was an important criteria, because we decided to travel with spending less. Even though you can find really good food at places such as Shambhala or Cha Chai Home and several others, they are more pricy there. And even though pricy would have been still cheap (half the price of a cheaper restaurant in Vienna, Austria) for a regular vacation (1-3 weeks then go back home), we were going for cheaper, especially, because we want to travel for a much longer time, so saving money on a daily basis is essential.
We didn’t take much pictures of the food we were eating on this island, but this one time I was alone at TUM restaurant, I actually took a picture of a late lunch containing spring rolls, pancake with fruits and honey and a watermelon shake – price in EURO only about 4 EUR to 4,5 EUR for all 3 together:
The Gecko experience
It started with seeing a few small ones, but a few days later there was a big one on the inside of our bungalow.
Then I connected the pieces together and finally knew what was making the scary sounds in the first two nights, where I couldn’t sleep properly due to these noises. The sounds were: bigger animal walking fast on the floor and walls, and some of our stuff falling down on the floor.
Around our bed was a mosquito net, and we didn’t have a light switch accessible from inside the mosquito net, and I was not feeling comfortable leaving the bed to go to the light switch and find out whether there is really an animal inside and if yes what kind of animal.
Something surprising (for me)
Last time I was in Thailand was in 2017. Now in 2023 I was surprised to see, that it is possible to buy weed at so many places even on this island, and it was not uncommon to smell it, because people could smoke it openly in the streets or in some restaurants as well.
Renting a scooter
Getting around the island is easier and faster with a scooter, especially when you want to go and explore it, or try out restaurants further away from your accommodation. It is not fun to walk 30-50min one way in a hot weather. Many people use a scooter. You can rent one for 200, 250, 300 baht per day, depending on how good you want it to be.
At several places on the island, you have stands with plastic bottles containing 1L of petrol for 50 baht each. Please don’t drink it, even though it may look like a lemonade of homemade coke, this liquid stored in plastic water bottles is for a machine like a scooter.
We rented a scooter twice during our stay, and each time, we needed only 1L (50 baht) of petrol to get around to all the places we wanted to visit and explore.
I am not sure whether there is police on this island, but we never felt in danger in any way.
Be careful of the many dogs though. There are many dogs on this island including the beach (Aow Yai Beach). Many are lying on the side of the roads, or may suddenly cross the road (usually they don’t, but rather take care), also at night people are walking on the street (some are narrow and have no sidewalks) and some are walking without lights or without any reflecting elements.
A special tip from a tall person: be careful when turning right/left at a crossroad with a scooter, the size of the scooter might be too small, and you may end up blocking your “steering wheel” with the upper part of your knee/leg so that it becomes very hard to get it back straight again – you have to carefully move your leg out of this blockage, and make sure this does not happen in the first place – for example sit further at the back (this is not an option, if you are 2 people – someone sitting behind you), or turn your legs outwards in general, so that there is a big enough gap, so you cannot unintentionally block yourself when turning right or left.
Driving in Thailand is on the LEFT side of the road. For comparison: in Austria and Germany cars drive on the RIGHT side of the road.
Laundry – washing your clothes
You can let your laundry be washed on the island, no problem at all – you will find many places across the island. It is the same price on the whole island – 50 baht per kg. Laundry is usually weighted after washing and drying and you pay when the laundry is ready.
Christmas on Koh Phayam
In general just a few places had some Christmas decoration. At some restaurants the stuff was wearing red Santa-hats and there were playing some Christmas songs, but only on 24th – 25th (not before). Tourists on this island (the ones we talked to) rather prefer to escape the traditional Christmas related stress, and just appreciate being at a place where they can just relax and be left in peace. There were some Christmas party’s at some bars, but we did not visit, because we were not interested.
Some of my favorite pictures
Here is a selection of some of my favorite pictures taken on Koh Phayam.
Final thoughts
Yes the island is less touristy and yes you can surf here (some days have better waves, it is more suitable for beginners, not for pros who seek big waves). Are there mosquitos? Yes there are, but in a normal amount (not eating you alive in a few minutes). You can buy anti-mosquito products on this island and you can also buy sunscreen (for example at the Shambhala shop) on the island. We found the Aow Yai Beach pleasant and nice, it was clean with as good as zero plastic (water and beach). Several people went for a walk, run, swim often around 8am (not too hot – very pleasant weather) and there were also more people walking on the beach before sunset after 5pm. Most people avoided being out in the hot sun on the beach between 1pm-3pm. In general you cannot see people sunbathing, people here are just not doing it, they prefer staying in the shade. Some bars do have live music or bands now and then, and usually you will see posters about it at hot spots and popular restaurants of the island, so you find out about them in time, but this is definitely not a typical party island at all. The most common foreign language we heard was German (many tourists from Germany).
One of my highlights was the ice cream man, who was riding his motorcycle on the beach with an attached ice cream stand on the Aow Yai Beach a few times per day. He had 3 types of ice cream, and 1 portion (5 small halves) including an optional topping was just 20 baht! It was very tasty!
We definitely loved our stay here! It is fun to rent a scooter and explore the island. It is also nice to just spend several days relaxing at the beach and reading a book, playing some games (for example we like to play card games) and playing with the waves, drink some coconuts and fruit shakes and simply relax.
English 
German
Just wonderful. Sitting in U6 reading the Blog – almost feels like being there 😊😍