Our Koh Phangan Holiday- Relaxing at the Haad Son Resort

“Compasses are a girls best friend.” Harriet, First Lady of the Adventurer’s Club 1937

We stayed in Koh Phangan for 11 nights and most of that time was spent in our hotel as it rained for 10 of those days. We went during the dry season, I would hate to see the wet season. The rain must be biblical.  We still managed to have an exceedingly relaxing time. Lots of long lie ins, afternoon naps, film watching and observing the rain from the comfort of our balcony hammock.  I got a definite head start on my pointless challenge to read 50 books this year. It was also during this down time in our room that The Miss Adventure Journals and Harriet were born

The resort we stayed in was beautiful. Lots of luscious greenery and a perfect private beach which we could just see from our room. When the sun decided to make an appearance we would run to the beach and catch every last ray of sun we could before the dark clouds would roll in and the rain would start up again. Next to the main beach was a little private beach. When we made the climb over some rocks and through some trees we were rewarded with complete and utter privacy. It felt like we were on a desert island (with the bonus of being able to run back to the shelter of our room when it inevitably started to rain). You could get a massage right on the beach, including a one hour face massage (WHAT?!). I didn’t have one though, anymore relaxed and I would have been asleep. During breaks from the rain the pool was a safe close by choice. It was just outside our room so I would patiently wait by the window in my bikini and the second the sun came out I would be there in a flash all oiled up ready for some intense tanning time.  We spent most of our time at the pool trying to out horse play other couples and getting in the way of kids swimming lessons.

With the amount of time we ended up spending in our room, I was very glad we had been given a better room on the first night.  After starting off on the wrong foot with the hotel, we kept coming across a number of headaches during our stay. The staff were pretty lazy and despite the hotel being empty they always gave the impression you were inconveniencing them. We would wait for ages to be served in the restaurant and then the waiter would show up topless, sit beside us yawning, then walk away every time I tried to give him my order.  We had to ask for our room to be cleaned repeatedly. Then we had to ask again and again for it to actually get done. Having to go to reception to ask for toilet paper is embarrassing.  We were there for 11 days, clearly we were going to need more than one roll. The laundry prices seemed pretty reasonable and hand washing all my clothes was becoming tedious so I handed 5 items in. I was told to pick them up in the morning, the things weren’t ready until the evening. Four of my items came back, plus someone elses top and with the zip on my only jumper broken. I was told by the receptionist that I was the 4th guest that day to have my laundry mixed up, and our hotel wasn’t even busy. The restaurant/bar constantly played the worst trancy Euro-trash shit which I despise,  most of the time when there was no one around to hear it. Some of the staff were friendly, especially the longer we were there and the food in the restaurant was always nice. The breakfast buffet was OK. Unless we went first thing the food was always cold and covered in flies. I was happy with a coffee and honey on toast every morning and the view over the sea from the breakfast room was lovely. A few nights we ate down by the beach and watching the sun set over the water, especially when we had been cooped up in our room all day, was magical and very romantic.  We were planning on staying in shit holes during our travels but we wanted this part of the holiday to be really special. It must be said that I am extremely anal and I can not stand bad customer service and all of these complaints are pretty trivial. Nevertheless, the hotel is advertising itself at a level that is definitely not. For a hotel that, “prides itself on great service”,  the  Haad Son Resort has a long way to go. Overall we had a great time; with a beach, days of relaxation and the best company ever in Dan it is difficult to ever have a bad time.