This is a pretty typical cottage. This one was high on a hill on Ko Tau, and overlooked a large valley with palm trees and a couple of teak trees. The bathroom was down the hill and around the corner. At the time, room and board for a place like this worked out to less than $10.00 US a day. For me the main attraction to Thailand was the beaches. Although the area is being developed, you can still find beautiful beaches. This picture is of Haad Yao bay on the north west side of Ko Phan Gan, taken facing south. The picture doesn't do the beach justice, but you can get the idea. There are bungalows in the woods along the beach, and probably about 200-300 people, residents and tourists, were here, so it's not deserted, but sill it's a far cry from Myrtle Beach. This is one of my favorites, but I wish I had had a better camera. This is the same beach as above, and shows a couple of tourists and a boat in the distance. BTW, one of the reasons the beach is so clean is that the residents running the bungalows sweep the beach in the morning of trash and organic matter (palm fronds and seaweed) that wash up over night.     Another bungalow, but this one was hardly typical. This bungalow was nicknamed the "spooky bungalow" since the original owner was a travelling shaman of sorts, and had decorated it with mystical symbols. It was also unstable, being a large person I had to be very careful where I stepped to avoid going through the floor. The location is outstanding; on top of some rocks about 30 feet above the point overlooking the ocean to the west. This is not typical in any way. One of the tourists, Volley, is a German oven maker who lives in Greece, and he convinced Pia, the owner of one of the bungalow groups to let him build a wood fired oven. Construction was of rock and cement. Pia used it to make pizzas, which were quite good if expensive (given that cheese and the other ingrediants are non-native to the area and thus costly in comparison). Also one of my favorites, this picture is of a small inlet to the north of Haad Yao. This picture was taken from the balcony of the last bungalow I stayed in, on a hill overlooking the ocean (it was one of the last bungalows on the north side of the bay.) An obligatory sunset shot, from the same balcony as immediately above. The picture pales in comparison to the real thing.