Mai Pen Rai Bungalows — Hotel in Ko Pha Ngan

Back after 11 years and things have changed a lot. I can't agree with another recent review that little has changed. At a glance, yes, but after a week....||||Than Sadet is now a protected area apparently, so you'll be relieved of 100 baht each on the way in. No big deal. What is a big deal is the road. You can get to Mai Pen Rai all the way by modern road now. No more 45mins off road in a 4x4 taxi. This means it is no longer a mostly cut-off sanctuary. You get day trippers, LOTS of them.||||The beach is no longer tranquil. Full of hectic holiday makers and screaming kids. The mass arrival happens around lunchtime and clears at around 5 so things do return to normal.||||The bar has moved to the middle now. The old middle bar & shop has gone. The restaurant on the entrance side is now derelict. So only one beach at now, instead of three. The reggae is no longer played, infact, music is rarely played. The female staff seem indifferent at times, and service can be glacial at lunchtime due to sheer numbers, and a very very laid back waiting style. No hammocks or lounging area. It's just a bar now. We used it rarely. It was almost empty most evenings. When we did eat there at night it felt a lot like they were waiting for us to leave (put some music on!). After 9pm they clear up all the table candles as people leave, then sit watching videos on thier phones at full volume ( I watched customers moving to get away) clearly waiting to go home . On our last night we tried the bar in earnest . Had one drink. After that no one offered another. All on their phones. We gave up at 9.15 ||||They also have a limited lunch menu, with it returning to normal in the evenings. Not seen this in Thailand before. I want no-name for lunch, and at their prices, I kinda expect it.||||We ate almost exclusively up the cliff side, mostly at Plaas, and often at Silvercliff restaurant. It's a schlepp up the hill but worth it. Much much better value food and beer.||||It's a shame because I've spent at least a month here in the past and never felt the need to eat up the hill.||||The "secret beach" is fenced off but still easy to get to.||||Our cliff side rocks family bungalow was great, and they now have a gas heated shower which was a joy to discover on the 3rd day ( you had to turn it on and off a load to get it to ignite).||||Progress and the road are not their fault, along with the crowds of day trippers that brings, so I'll still mark high at 4 stars. But it's not the paradise I once knew any more. And the staff have some odd ways of dealing with people. We noticed it often. Nonchalant would be the word I'd use.||||Would I return ? No. Would I recommend it, absolutely, as long as you are not expecting serene peace all day long ( there is some construction going on behind all day too, and often in the bar itself. Chainsaw for breakfast?) or attentive service.||||Edit. 3 stars now. They totally messed up our ferry and bus booking to Krabi. They forgot to book it. We were then told they had booked it on a different service. It was supposed to be high speed ferry, then bus to Krabi by 17.30. It was actually a car ferry, an old bus, and now, instead of a minivan we are being put on a local bus at 6pm that takes nearly 4 hours so we will end up in Krabi around 10pm. Not happy at all. 12 hours of travelling and I paid far too much for it. My partner gets travel sick on long coach journies so we now have that too...

We arrived at the restaurant asking for a bungalow ( two days before.. Wich was the 5th of july we visited and they said that the price was 350 b per night) the lady at the reception did not pay attention to us , she was talking in thai and laughing at us ... Wich was very annoying: she said that from the 1st of July the prices were 650b .. I couldn't understand and I kept asking her why...I did not even had the time to talk with her that the owner came screaming at me out of the blue and I could see he wanted to hurt me ... My boyfriend got in the way and the owner tried to scare him too pretending to hit him ... Not happy he took his rice and threw it at us .. together with some sand ... I mean not even kids or animals do this ... And he is supposed to be an adult.. the customers in the beach were all watching and I could see they couldn't understand why he would do something like this for no reason at all.. later on they told us they were worried he could do something to them too.. it was so unexpected and there was really so not a good reason to do something like this ... We left before he could really hurt us . But we were so mad we had to go back and say we wanted them to apologize . ||The husband was such a baby he didn't want to speak ... And the wife sat comfortably like everything was normal .... Is it ? She said I came in their house pushing for a cheaper room, that I was disrespectful and she behaved like nothing happened ... ||You know what I might have pushed for a cheaper room when I was told the price at the beginning and I might look stupid with my backpack and all sweaty from the humidity .. but for no reason at all, in all the world you are allowed to treat someone else like this . I hope for you this is not normality (but reading your rewiews I can see you guys are not number 1 in hospitality ...) I hope it was just a bad day for you and I was the trigger that blew you up ... I hope no one else will be treated like I was treated today ... I hope you won't be treated like I was treated today . I hope this horrendous man does not hurt his kids..today I saw a beast in his eyes..||Stop caring so much for the environment and start being a little happier, only than you will be able to fix why is around you... You live in a beautiful place and still you are stressed and don't appreciate it...||You have some serious issues and I ||hope you can fix it before I visit ||this beautiful...

We booked a room here for 4 night and I have to say the only good thing there is the beautiful beach and the view honestly nothing else … it was 2 minutes walk on razor sharp stones from the reception to our room , we booked a room with fan the fan was so tiny it made more noise than actual cold air and especially in the morning the room is soo hot you can’t stay inside A few hours after we checked in a HUGE lizard welcomed us on the room’s ceiling if you leave the light on after the sun set be ready to sleep at night with hundreds of moths and other flies in the room to be fair there is a mosquito net but still it is soo bed that one night I forget the light on in the bathroom ,woke up the next morning to moth covering the whole bathroom hundred of them everywhere! There is Luke warm water in the shower so if you want to shower in hot water forget about it , no WiFi in the room , one night there were weird noises and lights from outside and the toilets were leaking constantly… to be fair we didn’t say anything because it was during our last days and we were so fed up with this place, we are backpackers so our standard are not super high to begin with … we booked a room here because of the beautiful beach and we wanted to sleep somewhere a bit nicer and honestly we stayed in nicer places for way cheaper , very disappointing, to sum it all up facilities are poor , far from everything which for us wasn’t that big of a problem because we had a scooter but even if you want to stay somewhere quiet there is better options of cheaper… staff were nice but would...