Walking from Thong Nai Pan Yai to Than Sadet

I have never met anyone who has walked from Thong Nai Pan Yai to the beach at Than Sadet. It’s something I am always meaning to get around to. I was greatly impressed by Tezza’s blog. He not only does this walk but does all the hikes along the mountainous east coast of Koh Phangan.

http://tezzasthaiinfo.blogspot.co.uk/2006/12/ko-phangan.html Gives a detailed account of these hikes and is an invaluable resource for those visitors to Koh Phangan who want to get off the beaten track and experience the natural beauty of the island. Although the east coast holds the leading luxury resorts on the island as well as the construction site for the new airport, it is an area that remains mostly untouched by the development sweeping Koh Phangan. Beaches like Haad Thong Reng, Haad Yao East and Haad Wai Nam are places that time seems to have forgotten, places that feel a million miles away from the hustle and bustle of the Full Moon Party.

Haad Sadet to Thong Nai Pan Yai

The trail to Thong Nai Pan Yai starts on the main access road, near the Rangers Station. Follow the signs for viewpoint bungalows. After 5 minutes the track divides. The right turning goes to Viewpoint Bungalows. Take the left turn. Follow this path and you get to Thong Nai Pan Yai. The path goes up and down and at parts is no more than a narrow path through the jungle. The journey cannot be done on a motorbike.

The trail comes out on the road where the Funky Buddha is located. It takes about 55 minutes to walk the trail. Considering it would take about 40 minutes to drive a motorbike between Thong Nai Pan and Than Sadet this is a good route.

You are unlikely to meet anyone while on the trail. Be sure to wear boots, carry water and use sunscreen. Also don’t set out late in the afternoon as the sun goes down quickly in the evening.

Future Roads

The local government plan to connect all the beaches up by concrete roads in the future so now is the time to enjoy this adventure before the trail is made redundant.

Tezza

Respect to Tezza for his independent researches. We recommend checking out his blog for information about other walking trails in Koh Phangan. I can think of few better things in life than exploring the stunning beaches on the east coast of Koh Phangan.

The Ring Road

The Koh Phangan authorities set themselves an ambitious goal in 2013. That was to build a circular road around the island, similar to the one that circumscribes Koh Samui. The idea is to create a better transport system on the island. The proposed island circular road will have implications for the Thong Nai Pan area.

No doubt the idea behind the proposed ring road for the island is to reduce travel times between key spots on the island. At present those wishing to travel from Thong Nai Pan to the west coast beaches have no choice but to drive south to Thongsala and then take a road north up the west coast. It is a circuitous route that takes over 40 minutes. The road system as it currently stands divides the east and west coasts, and means that visitors tend to choose one side or the other for their holiday experience.

The plan is for the rough road between Thong Nai Pan Noi and Bottle Beach to be concreted. It looks like they are going to improve the road that goes over the back of the beach that starts near the beginning of the village and that goes past the turning for Sunrise Villa. The idea will be to push this road on through the jungle and mountainous terrain and join Bottle Beach with Chaloklum. Once that is done the east coast will be joined with the north coast and to the good roads that link the north with the west.

Once this is done it will be a much quicker journey to go from Thong Nai Pan to Chaloklum with its fisherman architecture, seafood restaurants and piers. It will also be a much shorter trip over to Koh Ma in the north-west, Koh Phangan’s only protected marine park.

Once the Thong Nai Pan to Chaloklum is completed it will be easy to get to many of the best spots on the island for snorkeling, diving and site seeing. People can check out the chilled feel of the pirate beach in Koh Phangan, better known as Salad Beach, the trendy Haad Yao and can make it to waterfalls such as Wangsai, Paradise and Phaeng. Groups will also be able to make it over to Laem Son Lake to enjoy aquatic fun on the Wipeout obstacle course.

The proposed Koh Phangan circular road will be a great draw for families staying at Thong Nai Pan, especially those renting private villas and renting jeeps and 4x4 vehicles.

However, for every winner there is invariably a loser. In this case it will be the numerous people running boat tours around the island. These will be made slightly redundant by the faster journey times by road. It might also be the case that cheap songthaews plying the route around the island offering cheap stop and ride services will appear. This will be dependent on the taxi mafia allowing competition on the island.

The proposed circular road seems to have many positives, but it is not an exclusively positive plan. Koh Samui has suffered environmentally from its circular road, as it opens up more areas for development and invariably leads to deforestation, littering, pollution and a long line of tin shack businesses.

As with most development projects in Koh Phangan, time will tell, and it will be later rather than sooner as things rarely get done on time. Moreover, local politics always play a hidden role in decision making. For example the Bottle Beach family are resisting offers from developers to turn the secluded beach into a luxury resort enclave. The plans to make a circular road is partly apart providing better infrastructure for '5 star guests'. The hippies can obviously make do with rough roads and longtail boats! For updates on Bottle Beach see http://www.kohphanganhotelreviews.com/bottlebeach/

Note: In the map above the road joining Thong Nai Pan to Chaloklum (Haad Khom) is in blue. This is only a ‘rough’ map and not an official route plan. Also it is unknown whether the east coast will have a coastal road, especially since this is the most mountainous and difficult area to build roads in.

Flora and Fauna in Thong Nai Pan

I was aimlessly surfing the net today and discovered the official website for the Department of National Parks and Plant Conservation – www.dnp.go.th. It’s a really clunky website; typical of government websites in Thailand, but it does contain some interesting information.

I have always been curious about what flora and fauna you can expect to see in Thong Nai Pan. I have seen large birds, snakes, lizards and a plethora of insects. I have also spotted lots of different types of tree and flower. But beyond personal experience and anecdotal accounts of huge snakes etc., I have been unable to get a definitive list of what you might hope to see in the Thong Nai Pan area. That is until now. The national parks website has a page about Than Sadet, just a few kilometers down the coast. It is a safe bet to say that most of what Than Sadet has got Thong Nai Pan also has.

Here is what the website lists for Than Sadet:

Flora and Geography

Interior: lush primary forests filled with evergreen trees. The forest floor is important as it contains such flora as hopea odorata.

Hillside: dry primary forest with stone channels where important plants such as chukrasia velutina are found. It is a limestone mountain containing Portia tree and hibiscus.

Fauna

Mammals: cervus unicolour (deer), monkey, spectacled langur, slow Loris and Javan mongoose

Birds: brahminy kite, white-bellied sea eagle, hill myna

Snakes: both venomous and non-venomous such as cobra, king cobra, green cat snake, python.

Amphibians: frogs, Blyth’s mountain frog

Other aquatic life: striped sea catfish, striped snake-head fish, crab, shrimp, land tortoise, splendid squid, rainbow cuttle fish.

Shell: oyster, scaly giant clam, abalone.

Sea turtle: green turtle and hawksbill turtle.

Notes

1) The deer, as legend has it, were released under the orders of King Rama V around Than Sadet. I’ve never met anyone who has seen one of these deer. They are protected by royal edict but who knows if they established themselves into the island’s eco-system.
2) To this list I would add monitor lizards, geckos and numerous birds (see bird’s of Thong Nai Pan post) and water buffalo (domesticated), dogs (domesticated) and cats (domesticated)