![]() The Sanctuary is a good balance between hedonistic and healthy. That’s prevalent on the island – people work hard and then come back for six months and chill.” “You see guests at the start and they are quiet and nervous and then they might do something like a course or a fast – and get great support from the others doing it – and they are friends for life.”ĭalby adds: “People become friends then come back with each other. “One of the most beautiful things I find is that people really bond,” she says. One Irish guest, Anne-Marie, loved it so much she moved into the bay area permanently. There have been people who get to the airport on the boat and they turn around and come back.” We find people changing their flights all the time. “A number of yoga teachers and healers go between the two. “There’s a current between here and Bali,” says Dalby, who co-manages the property. The community aspect is strengthened by the fact that many people aren’t just passing through on their way somewhere else – it’s one of those places where people come for a week and stay for months or, in some cases, years. People work hard and then come back for six months and chill. It’s paradise because it operates like a community but without the boring chores like cleaning, cooking and governance. And not just because it’s devastatingly pretty with an azure bay circled by palm trees. The Sanctuary easily fits the description of paradise. Conscious, colourful party people come here.”Įach year more dorms and bungalows are added to accommodate the growing word-of-mouth crowds but costs are kept down, which results in an eclectic mix of budgeting backpackers and older, monied travellers having a week or two off from their banking jobs. Ten to 15 years ago they built the wellness centre. “It started as a communal thing 20 years ago. “The Sanctuary in the early days was a few hippies on the beach,” he says. ![]() An Irishman, he lived and worked for a time in Australia as a psychiatric nurse before he went travelling around Asia and discovered “the beach”. Photograph: The SanctuaryĪs soon I got off the boat, carrying my suitcase aloft as I waded though the water, I was greeted by managers Michael Doyle and Nolan Dalby.ĭoyle has been on the island for almost 20 years. The main bar and restaurant is the hub of the community. We pulled in at Haad Tien, which is made up of three bays and is the home of The Sanctuary. I flew from Penang to Koh Samui and caught a boat to Haad Rin wharf, then scrambled down rocks with a suitcase, which got tossed on to a fishing boat, before we took off, away from the hectic beaches that are home to the full moon parties, and headed towards a string of beaches that sit at the start of steep hills, covered in jungle. When the weather is wet you can pay a guy to take the sometimes-treacherous route inland though dense jungle to get to resort but, if it’s calm, you can arrive by sea. Accommodation ranges from dorm rooms to self-contained air-conditioned bungalows, high up in the jungle hills.īecause it was paradise it was not easy to find. The Sanctuary is a hippie resort that specialises in yoga, spa treatments, detoxes and alternative therapies yet also offers a hedonistic, party-vibe if that’s what you want. “Get on a plane, do what it takes, just get over there,” she urged. One friend who was getting over a breakup went there for a week and ended up staying several months. But there is one place I kept hearing about that was the original inspiration for The Beach: The Sanctuary on Koh Phangan. There are many places that claim to be the inspiration for The Beach including the undeveloped Ang Thong national marine park near Koh Samui.
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