“Do you have fresh coconut?” I ask the waiter from the restaurant in Haad Yao, the beach where we just arrived.

“Yes,” he answers and points upwards to the coconut tree above our heads. He counts “One, two, three, four, five, six…” fresh coconuts and laughs. Then he fetches a long stick and starts hitting the coconuts; Salome and Fernando have to get up lest they be struck by the falling green hard ball. A few minutes later, the waiter serves us the delicious coconut water and as we suck happily on our straws, feeling the sun on our skin, watching over the white sand with the deep blue ocean beyond and hearing the waves, all four of us agree: we just arrived in paradise.

   

One evening, back in Koh Tao, Fernando had taught Jose and me how to drive a motorbike. After this initial lesson, we now feel up to rent a bike on our own and discover Koh Phangan on wheels. Luckily, we start off early in the morning for the road is full of good and bad surprises…

 

And all too soon, these beautiful days on the lovely islands in the Gulf of Thailand come to their end and we heavy-heartedly pack up our backpacks, take the ferry back to the mainland and head north to Bangkok again.