CHALOKLUM

Chaloklum is a sleepy fishing town famous for it's dried squid.

AO CHALOKLUM

Ao Chaloklum is a long bay located in the north of Koh Pha-Ngan, famous for it's dried squid.

HAD KHOM

North East of Chaloklum is the superb Had Khom which boasts beautiful white sand and an good offshore coral reef for snorkelling.

HAD KHUAT

Had Khuat is better known as Bottle Beach, one of the island most well-known beaches and a Mecca for long-termers and old skool Phangan aficionados.

HAD THONG LANG

Had Thong Lang or ﾓGolden Deserted Beachﾔ is exactly that. At present there is still no permanent settlers there, although recently a couple of huts have gone up, but are rarely inhabited.

CHINESE TEMPLE

The Chinese Temple was built in honour of the Chinese Buddha, Jaomae Kuanim, and is a place where many people come to try one's luck or trust in luck.

From Had Thong Lang to Chaloklum, there is no accommodation apart from a few inland houses for rent. The western side of Chaloklum Bay heralds the start of resort accommodation with a couple of well run, spacious and clean resorts - Chaloklum Bay and the immaculate Wattana. Both have fan and A/C bungalows, many with beach frontage; with Wattana at midrange prices and Chaloklum Bay at the higher end of the scale.

The village of Chaloklum is a popular place for house rentals and there is allsorts of accommodation available, from fisherman's shacks and purpose built bungalows to A/C residences with satellite TV. As it has a large Thai community, it's possible to live here pretty cheaply with loads of good noodle stalls, cheap seafood and fresh local produce at Thai prices.

The Eastern side of the Bay has undergone a bit of a facelift of late, with a couple of resorts currently under construction and the long established Fanta has refurbished to go with the times. Fanta has a big plot thus many of its bungalows have beach frontage, it also has a cool beachbar with monthly pre-Full Moon parties. Khlong (River) Ok then splits the beach, where Try Thong resort has older cheaper 100 Baht bungalows along with some newer more modern bungalows for 250 Baht. It has less beach frontage than Fanta and the beach starts to get a little rocky here as the coast heads up to Had Khom.

In between Ao Chaloklum and Had Khom is Thai Life, a long established old favourite run by an extremely laid back family. It has cheap 80 Baht shacks and some more modern rooms for 200 Baht.

Had Khom is a small quiet cove with just three resorts with a total of about forty rooms at present. Coral Bay Resort is popular oldie, and Ocean Bay and Haad Khom have some nice fair sized new rooms. All have fan rooms in the mid price range (200 to 500 Baht), and Coral Bay still has a few 100 Baht rooms with no bathroom. The beach is still waiting to get connected to the main electricity grid, thus all the power currently comes from generators. Although this can make for a more real desert island getaway feel, the resorts normally shut down their power around midnight, so it can leave you without a fan in the heat of the night and no electric lights.

Had Khuad (Bottle Beach) is only accessible by boat from Chaloklum, or by foot from Had Khom (though Helmut the Austrian said he did it on a 250 Motocross). It is well known for its laid-back ambiance and old skool Pha Ngan vibe. The sea shelf drops at a steep gradient from here round to the east coast of the island, meaning that no matter how low the tide is, you can always swim here; the downside is that there is no coral to check out as the conditions are unfavourable.

The secluded and beautiful beach is flanked by lush forest and thick jungle, isolating its inhabitants from the rest of the island, in their own little paradise. In the high season, people sleep in the restaurants of the bungalow resorts while they wait for a room to vacate. This is a popular beach for long-termers, with many guests staying for over a month. As yet there are no A/C rooms with most of the rooms in the mid-range of prices, however there are still a few old shacks without bathroom for bargain rates.

The beach is still waiting to get connected to the main electricity grid, thus all the power currently comes from generators. This can make for a more romantic desert island feel, as the resorts normally shut down their power at midnight, protecting the punters from all night techno and satellite TV. The downside is that when the power stops, so does your fan, and in the heat of summer you may be driven to sleeping out on the beach for a cool nights kip under the stars, or worse still, you may have to take your warm beer with ice! Not quite the hardships that faced William Crusoe, but worth noting if you have just arrived and are still acclimatising to the tropical climate.