One of the perks of living in China is having the 7-day Spring Festival national holiday to celebrate Chinese New Year. Everyone is off work and school, which translates into the largest human migration in the world. People pour out of big cities, and most streets, restaurants and shops become eerily quiet and deserted for one week. Locals travel back to their hometowns to spend time with their families, and most expats take the chance to travel around Asia Pacific.
Robert and I originally wanted to travel to Palawan in the Philippines, but we started looking into it waaay too late and missed out on good deals and reasonable prices. We decided to push Palawan into next year’s travel calendar and go for comfy and easy beach adventures in Thailand instead. Good choice, although Thailand is maybe just a tiny bit too touristy for my taste… But whatever was lacking in authenticity, was certainly made up for in gorgeous turquoise waters, infinity pools, coconuts and mango sticky rice!
We extended our 7-day national holiday to a proper 2 week beach vacay, which is pretty much the best thing you can do in the middle of a cold and grey winter, right? We stayed at the beautiful island of Koh Phangan, which is (unfortunately) mostly known for its infamous Full Moon and Half Moon Parties. But luckily there’s so much more to the island than drunken backpackers, and we headed up to the northern parts to some beautiful, more quiet beaches for a more “grown-up” holiday.
We spent the first week in the north-western tip at Maehaad Beach. Now, our hotel was absolutely gorgeous in every way – huge oceanview-rooms, AMAZING pool, nice beach etc – but it had the grumpiest staff I’ve ever encountered. So much for the famous Thai hospitality! Robert and I had of course read all recent TripAdvisor reviews and knew not to expect top-notch service, but it was still bizarre. They were definitely in no way rude or making us feel uncomfortable, but just grumpy. Oh well, we had a nice stay nonetheless, it’s not like we relied on the level of service to make or break our holiday.
For our second week we moved along to the north-eastern part of Koh Phangan to a little peace of heaven called Buri Rasa Village. And let me just say, wowza! So, if you imagine the grumpy staff at our first hotel, and then imagine the TOTAL opposite — that’s Buri Rasa Village. These guys were the nicest, most service-minded, yet relaxed people ever! And the hotel itself and the surrounding nature with dramatic hills, white beaches and crystal-clear turquoise waters made this place so gorgeous. We had a ridiculously nice stay at Buri Rasa, I honestly can’t recommend them enough.
All in all, great trip and it certainly served its purpose. I could have easily stayed at Buri Rasa for another week… or month! Now we’re back in Shanghai, which has by the way been absolutely beautiful this week – sunny and 15-20 Celcius – but in a few hours we’ll be heading north for the weekend to subzero temperatures in Harbin to cross off another destination on my China Bucket List! Brrr and woohoo! Stay tuned and head on over to my Instagram for more updates. x Jenna
Shanghaista 