Scooter Riding in Koh Phangan

Driving a scooter through the jungles and mountains of Koh Phangan has got to be one of my most favourite experiences on this trip yet. Everyone on this island seems to drive them -the "motorbike" parking lot at one of the waterfalls we went to was twice the size of the regular car lot, and the roads are dominated by them. Locals zoom by in their flip flops and shorts, small child clinging to them, with no helmets in sight. Apparently most of the backpackers we met were old pro's at riding a scooter as well, and encouraged Deneca and I to rent one.

Deneca and I

I had heard horror stories online and from other backpackers about untrustworthy bike shops renting out bikes to tourists and then claiming that the scratches present on them were their fault, charging them hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Because these shops require a passport to rent a bike, this can result in a pretty bad situation! To keep this fate from becoming my own, I was careful to take a quick video of the motorbike, with the owner in it of course, detailing any scrates or dents just to be on the safe side. It took one slightly wobbly ride down an alley to practice, and then home, adrenaline pumping, to figure out the basics of riding a motorbike. This was made a bit more tricky by the fact that the drivers can be a bit more... shall we say, ambitious, than they are at home. Drivers also drive on the left side of the road, which took some getting used to.

Random beach we found.

Once we figured it out though, the amount of freedom we had was amazing! Taking turns driving, and sitting on the back (with Den taking more than her fair share on the back just to keep from having to listen to me yell at her to slow down), we made our way around the island multiple times. We drove at night, we went during the day, we drove to fancy resorts on the other side of the island to swim in their pools, and we disovered small beaches with small bungalows that required some driving through some questionable "roads".

A resort we snuck into!

The island of Koh Phangan (Koh, or Ko, just means "island" in Thai) is composed of jungle covered mountains, and the beauty was just indescribable. The pictures honestly do not do it justice. So many times I wanted to pull over and photograph what I was seeing, but of course I couldn't do that too often. We passed small houses occupied by some very poor people, we saw elephants multiple times, and we listened to cicadas who almost drowned out the sound of the engine as we puttered up steep hills. When Deneca left the island to continue her travels, I went with a couple of the guys I had met from our bungalow to check out some of the waterfalls on the island and go to Bottle Beach, which we had heard was beautiful and good for swimming.

One of the nicer roads.

None of the roads here have names or signs, but thankfully, the island is not big enough to get seriously lost. So, when we found a road in approximately the right area going in approximately the right direction, we took it.

We didn't find Bottle Beach, but we did find a pretty cool rock formation, and spent the day jumping into the warm, wavy ocean, practicing our rock climbing, and sunning ourselves under the hot Thai sun. Not a bad way to spend the day!

If anyone finds themselves in any other the southern islands and beaches in Thailand, I recommend getting a scooter. Zipping around the island was probably my favourite part of Koh Phangan!

 

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