SIAMSMILES

Conveniently located on Sukhumvit Road between soi 27 and 29 you will find the RetrOasis hotel. It's tucked away from the busy Sukhumvit road therefore quiet but still in the middle of all the action.   The hotel provides 63 rooms all decorated nicely in a funky retro design. Size of the rooms is ok, not to small with good bathroom. Rooms come with mini fridge and water cooker for tea or coffee.  All the rooms are located around a court yard which gives it an intimate feeling. Here you can also find the swimming pool and reception. The hotel provides breakfast at the small coffee corner in the same building as the reception is located. It has a small living room atmosphere to relax and order some nice coffee during the day. About 5 minutes walk will bring you either to the Emporium shopping malls. This area is known for it's fashion boutiques and boosts some of the biggest names in the industry. Walking the other way brings you to Asoke with easy access to t

Thailand is famous for its seafood. Large tiger prawns and lobsters are displayed on ice in every village or towns restaurant along the coast. Also at local markets you can buy lots of seafood. Together with spicy sauce and a cold beer every seafood meal is a feast. One of the stranger creatures of the sea is cuttlefish. Fresh it looks like a slimy scary thing with its large eyes and tentacles. But cooked over hot coals or boiled it's delicious. The texture of the meat is great with the first bite being firm but at the same time like soft fishy meat. It is at all not chewy unless not prepared the right way. How do you know when cuttlefish is fresh? Well just watch the below video. This one came right out of the ocean and ready to be put on BBQ.

When you have visited Thailand a few times you will probably have noticed these small places of typical Thai entertainment. On a small piece of bare ground a few stalls are placed, it looks like a mini fair. You can throw darts at balloons for a few baht and go home with a lovely teddy bear.  Also catching fish with a small spoon made of rice paper together with a small cup to keep your fish is popular. As soon as the rice paper hits the water it will disintegrate and become useless so you can only dip once. 5 baht per shot, the Thai love it!

So there you are at Koh Phangan having fun at the full moon party, half moon party, black moon party and all the other excuses to have a drink. Having fun with your new friends is a great way to spend time on this magnificent island. But sooner or later you might want to get active and the island offers some great tracks. One of them is the hike from Than Sadet to Thong Nai Pan beach or vice versa. The distance is about 3,5 kilometers and your going from sea level up to about 200 meters and back down to sea level. Make sure to brink a rucksack with at least one liter of water, some sunscreen and put on a hat and some good shoes. The track is a dirt path which is steep at some parts and sometimes covered in vegetation. I made this roundtrip in May and it was very hot even in early morning. One way took me just over an hour but if you take some time to rest and maybe spot some lizards you can do it in 1 hour 30 minutes. At Thong Nai Pan beach you can probably rent a