Thailand: Detour

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Koh Phangan to most people means just one thing: full-moon parties and all their attendant ugliness, sleaze and lagered-up backpackers. But Haad Rin, the site of the parties, is just one beachand Koh Phangan is a big island.

Journey to its eastern side, and the skull-pounding throb of techno music begins to fade. Tong Nai Pan's gentle twin crescents offer all that Koh Samui's spin doctors want to sell you but can't deliver anymore: pristine seas, often deserted beaches where giant, rounded boulders squat upon powdery white sand and, best of all, blissful...