Twenty-one years ago, a young unmarried British mother and her six-year-old son stepped off a longtail boat onto the shores of Thong Nai Pan, on Koh Phangan’s northeast coast. Two decades later, Nicola Bunchuay’s journey, from marrying a Thai local who later adopted her son to opening Koh Phangan’s first licensed international school, has helped create a pathway for international families to build long-term lives on the island.
Koh Phangan, located in the Gulf of Thailand, covers just 57 square miles and has a population of 10,094, rising to about 16,000 when including its subdistricts, migrant workers and non-permanent residents.
As one of Thailand’s tourism destinations, the island welcomes nearly half a million visitors each year. Once best known for its Full Moon parties in the 1990s, Koh Phangan is reached by a 45-minute catamaran, a 25-minute speedboat from Koh Samui, or a two-hour car ferry from Surat Thani.
The island was originally placed on the map by backpackers travelling by bus or sleeper train from Bangkok’s Hualamphong Station, often using cheap second-class bunks and the local dining cart. Today, visitors are just as likely to arrive after flying into nearby Koh Samui International Airport and spending a night or two at high-end hotels.
Some continue onwards to Koh Phangan, which also serves as a transit point to Koh Tao, a popular diving destination just over an hour away by boat across the Gulf of Thailand.
If The Beach, released in 2000 and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, reflected an earlier generation’s search for untouched paradise, The White Lotus, filmed in neighbouring Koh Samui, reflects a more recent shift. Thailand’s islands are no longer only places to visit, but places to live, invest in and reshape.
Dance music events remain popular on Koh Phangan, but the island’s population has become less transient. Travellers with businesses elsewhere, digital nomads and families increasingly find themselves living in Thailand without giving up many of the comforts they had at home.
Visitors who once passed through as part of longer trips across Asia are now more likely to find somewhere they like and stay. This has been supported by the former ease of visa runs and newer visa options designed to make longer stays more practical.
Koh Phangan is now associated with palm-lined beaches, yoga retreats and a curated sense of balance, but Bunchuay’s arrival was far from effortless. While many young travellers arrived with backpacks, she came with her six-year-old son, a large suitcase and no clear plan beyond trying to build a quieter life.
She had heard about Thailand from a friend and decided to visit for a three-week holiday. Two decades later, she is the owner of Koh Phangan’s first licensed international school, although her path to that point was far from direct.
On her first day on the island, she struggled with a giant suitcase while getting off a longtail boat at the remote end of Thong Nai Pan beach, on the east side of the island.
With her young son beside her, a local man helped carry her bag and took her to a beachfront guesthouse. Relieved, she put down her bags and sat at a table to get a cold drink. She did not realise she had sat at someone else’s table while they had stepped away briefly.
Wijetson “Meo” Bunchuay, whose relatives owned the resort, returned to the table. The two began talking.
A year later, they were married, and their conversations had continued throughout her trip, and for Bunchuay, it was love at first sight in more ways than one. She wanted to stay, but with her life still back in the UK, she returned home. With the help and blessing of her father, she got rid of her possessions and came back to Thailand.
Bunchuay, then Nicola Barrington, had arrived in Thailand less than a week before reaching Koh Phangan. Hot, tired and unsure where to go next, she first found herself at a temple in Bangkok, where people attending a funeral sat her down and gave her food.
Unlike many travellers at the time, she was not following the well-worn route mapped out by the Lonely Planet guidebook, then widely known as the “Yellow Bible.” Instead, guided only by a Ministry of Tourism pamphlet, she ended up in Pattaya, a few hours southeast of Bangkok.
There, she was unsettled by the contrast between the Thailand she had imagined and what she described as sleazy over-commercialism. She then made it her mission to find somewhere quieter, somewhere with no tourists, as she put it.
Bunchuay found the solitude she was looking for on Koh Phangan, drawn by its undeveloped dirt roads, potholes and sense of adventure. At the time, long-term life often involved monthly visa runs and difficult journeys to border crossings for new stamps.
That way of life later became permanent.
The practical challenges of staying in Thailand eased after Bunchuay married Wijetson. Her son, now in his late 20s, was officially adopted by him in 2019, in what was one of the first cases of its kind involving a local Thai man adopting a British adult child. He was 20 years old at the time of the adoption, with the process delayed so he could decide for himself.
As Si Ri Panya International School approaches its 13th birthday, Bunchuay reflects on how her interest in education began through the schooling of her son, Carl. He had completed his Reception year at a Christian private school in the UK before the family moved to Thailand, where he later became a fluent Thai speaker and fully rooted in island life.
At the time, the local village school in Thong Nai Pan served a community of resort owners.
“There were no outsiders,” Bunchuay recalled, describing the mix as giving the school a special structure.
“Thai families with more choice often sent their children elsewhere, including to bilingual schools on the mainland.”
“Over time, the local school came to increasingly serve Burmese migrant families.”
Bunchuay found that many foreigners who settled on the island eventually felt they had to leave once their children reached school age.
After selling baked goods on a trust basis, leaving a basket of treats for customers to take and pay for honestly, as well as handing out flyers on the beach, nannying and making the odd cocktail for visitors, her path into education began to take shape.
She decided to take over a small homeschool that had lost momentum after several families moved away.
After a brief return to the UK, where she taught Maths and English, Bunchuay founded her first small education business. After securing her own premises, she began rebuilding it from the ground up by hiring Thai staff and a chef, buying furniture and gathering prospective parents looking for a place for their children to learn.
Some parents helped decorate the space, giving the school its earliest sense of community before it had officially opened.
With just 70,000 baht left and only three families confirmed, she decided to open.
“It was scary not knowing if I could get to the end of the month without borrowing money,” she said.
While her son enjoyed an idyllic life by the beach, Bunchuay never forgot the difficulty of sending him to boarding school in Surat Thani Province simply so he could continue his education.
“There were many challenges before we built the school,” she said.
“The school helped transform what was possible for families on Koh Phangan.”
Koh Phangan’s first government hospital opened in 1987, a reminder of how recent much of the island’s formal infrastructure still is. As the island developed from a backpacker stop into a long-term home for families, demand for wider education options gradually increased.
Si Ri Panya International School became the first licensed international school on Koh Phangan. What began with a handful of families has grown into an international school community serving students from 28 nationalities.
The school follows the UK National Curriculum in Primary and the Cambridge Curriculum in Secondary. It aims to provide a high-quality international education that fits alongside Koh Phangan’s lifestyle and close-knit community.
Koh Phangan is no longer known only for its monthly parties. Overseas families and Thai families seeking wider education options for their children are now able to raise them on the island while still accessing international schooling.
The island has become one of Asia’s destination-living locations, where families can combine community life and island living with reputable education options, something Bunchuay did not have herself two decades ago.
While Koh Phangan has seen significant construction over the years, with a small number of high-end hotels and plenty of budget-to-mid-range accommodation, limited education choice no longer forces families to live apart so their children can continue studying.
Some families and extended families now living on the island come from countries affected by war or conflict, with Israeli, Russian and Ukrainian nationals forming a visible part of Koh Phangan’s international community. Many have found a sense of sanctuary and peace on the island.
The arrival of long-term foreign residents has contributed to Koh Phangan’s development, with property development, land transactions, housing, imported goods, education, restaurants and lifestyle businesses becoming more important parts of the local economy.
This has brought new opportunities, but also raised questions about affordability, land use and how the island protects its character as it grows.
Despite the development, Koh Phangan has retained much of the character that first drew travellers to its shores. Its mix of community life, co-working culture and slower pace continues to appeal to long-term residents and remote workers.
The island is also home to a growing number of digital nomads and remote workers, supported by visa options that make longer stays more realistic. Their presence has increased demand for accommodation, co-working spaces and a more upmarket café culture.
The downside is familiar in many desirable destinations: prices rise, and the island risks becoming less accessible to the people and communities that helped give it its original character.
For many local Thai businesses, younger backpackers, often travelling on smaller budgets than families relocating more permanently, still help keep parts of the island active each month. While long-term residents have increased demand for wellness cafés, international restaurants, villas and lifestyle services, backpackers continue to support Thai-run guesthouses, beach bungalows, food stalls and simple local restaurants.
Si Ri Panya International School currently provides education from Year 1 to Year 11. Over the next two years, the school plans to expand downwards into Early Years Foundation Stage provision and upwards into Sixth Form, covering Years 12 and 13, with A Level qualifications for students aged 16 to 18.
This would allow the school to offer a complete British-style education pathway on Koh Phangan, from early childhood through to university preparation.
The original partygoers of the 1990s have also grown older. Many are now professionals seeking work-life balance, drawn by fitness, yoga, alternative therapies, remote work or the appeal of living in Thailand’s climate and culture.
For many newcomers, Koh Phangan offers their own version of paradise. Some have invested in homes, businesses and long-term lives on the island, helping turn what was once a quiet stop on the backpacker trail into a place of opportunity.
Like many places that grow quickly, Koh Phangan may offer island living, but it is not without complications. Recent news about business compliance across Thailand has reminded families to look carefully at the schools and services they choose, especially when moving somewhere new.
For parents, trust matters. Licensing, curriculum, safeguarding, staffing and long-term stability are all worth checking before choosing a school, particularly when relocating to an island community far from home.
For Bunchuay, that trust matters deeply. After more than a decade on the island, Si Ri Panya International School has grown into a well-established, fully licensed international school with Thai and British ownership, offering families a stable and long-term education option on Koh Phangan.
To find out more, visit the Si Ri Panya International School website.
Press Release
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