does a paradise island still exist without tons of tourists

Usually a songthaew taxi waiting at the pier for Had Salad bound people as matt says - not too hard finding it among the fleet of other vehicles.

Cookies will also come down to pick you up if you contact beforehand. But I gotta admit they were not there when our ferry came in - we waited 10 minutes and then a local transport guy phoned them, waited another 10 and the pickup arrived. I guess they were on their way, just a bit late.

I'm not sure if the public taxi soghthaew would take you into Cookies on the separate southern access road. Maybe they put everyone off at the main beach access towards the north end - it's a bit of a lug along the beach to Cookies on the southern headland.

Hey matt - loved your description of Mae Had and surrounds. Going back to Phangan in April - was gonna do an east coast crawl. But now............

Edited by: tezza

Be careful what you wish for.

I read about paradise, it features relatively early on in the Bible, and it did not feature a lot of entertainment of any kind. No nice cafes, easy going bars with some guys playing Marley tunes, coconut shakes required monkeying up a tree and then shaking them yourself. Also the accommodation situation was pretty dire; building your own @#()&@ hut on the beach FFS.

So you may not actually want paradise, but something with just enough infrastructure and amenities to suit your own personal requirements at this particular point in your life.