Here is what I found as a vegan on the southern islands of Ko Samui and Ko Phangan.
KO SAMUI: This island is quite big and even though there are a number of vegetarian restaurants they are quite sparsely spread out and you will need time to be able to travel to all of them and find them.
The Yogarden is an excellent veggie place that I found via the HappyCow site. See the full review here.
Green Space was another that I happened to spot whilst out on my run and went back there later. See the full review here.
KO PHANGAN: This island is much smaller although some beaches are still quite a distance from each other. I have watched this video all about one of them called Sri Thanu in Ko Phangan from HappyCow: Vegan Island Paradise
I was delighted to be staying a couple of kilometres away from here with all these places in the same area. I came up here every day. As well as having an abundance of veggie restaurants it is a beautiful beach to stay on.
Green Gallery, featured in the HappyCow video is an amazing all vegan place which is my new all time number one favourite restaurant. I'm not suprised they chose to focus on here in the video. See the full review here:
Eat.co is another fantastic vegan eatery in the same area. I found it during a terrible storm and was so happy that they were open and serving food, despite the storm causing them to have a power cut! See the full review here:
Unfortuantely many of the restaurants were closed due to the Songkran holiday. I then moved on to Thong Nai Pan where I found The Vegan Cafe, although unfortunately also temporarily closed on my visit.
Ko Phangan is very vegetarian and vegan friendly. I travelled with non vegan friends and found I was able to order meals in non vegan restaurants quite easily. I wasn't just left to the usual Thai food but was finding some other western style alternatives such as a tofu burger with chips. I also found the usual veggie Thai food such as red or green curry with tofu and vegetable spring rolls.
These islands are well worth visiting as a veggie, especially in Ko Phangan particularly Sri Thanu where you will be overwhelmed by the choices. I plan to go back later this year so that I can visit all of them.
Air Asia fly directly from Chiang Mai to Surat Thani and you can easily get the bus and boat from there. A trip worth making for the top notch vegetarian and vegan cuisine.
Dee
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