Chaloklum — Koh Phangan's Diving Capital
Chaloklum is where Koh Phangan's working life still shows through. Wooden longtail boats and trawlers ride at anchor in the wide semicircular bay, racks of squid dry in the sun along the back lanes, and the harbourfront restaurants serve seafood that came in on those same boats that morning. It is the island's only real fishing village, and the gap between it and the yoga-and-sunset world of the west coast could not be wider.
What has put Chaloklum on the map for travellers is diving. The village sits at the island's northern tip, which makes it the shortest crossing to Sail Rock — the submerged pinnacle between Koh Phangan and Koh Tao that is widely regarded as the Gulf of Thailand's most impressive dive site. Whale shark encounters, huge schools of barracuda and a vertical chimney swim-through draw divers from across Southeast Asia, and several well-rated dive centres base themselves here precisely because of that proximity. If you are on Koh Phangan for the diving, Chaloklum is where to sleep.
Beyond the water, the village is a gateway to two of the north coast's best-kept spots: Bottle Beach (Haad Khuat), a wide, jungle-backed bay with no road access reached by taxi-boat from the pier, and Haad Khom, a short drive east along the coast where a reef shelters a calm cove and earns it the local name Coral Bay. Together they give Chaloklum a reach that belies its small size. The mood is unhurried and genuine — a few good cafes, a Muay Thai gym, a couple of comfortable places to stay — and that is exactly the appeal.
The less obvious reason to linger here is Wat Maduea Wan, a Buddhist temple in the Chaloklum area that most visitors to the north coast never notice. It is an active place of worship — ornate, quiet and completely separate from the beach-and-diving world that dominates the village. For anyone spending a few days in Chaloklum, an hour at Wat Maduea Wan (dress modestly: shoulders and knees covered, shoes off before entering any building) is one of the more grounding things to do between early-morning dive briefings and afternoon seafood. No entry charge.