Advertisement
Published: July 26th 2008
Edit Blog Post
Ok so after Ao Lang I headed back off to Ko Phangan and hit a Pool Party and then the Full Moon Party once again, it wasn't planned that way its just how it goes. The Pool party was one of the best parties I have ever been too, its held almost every night leading up to the full moon party at a place called Sunrise Bungalows, complete and utter debauchery, there are people getting pushed in the pool left and right, the music is pumping great tunes, and there is a big dance floor with all these wet, painted and drunk bodies grooving in mysterious ways. The buckets are only 120Bht, ($4CND), and ya girls and guys getting naked and jumping in the pool together (you know what happens). The party goes all night, and we managed to go to the biggest of them, just happened to show up on the right day. The full moon party was the same as last time, the only difference is that there were less "Travelers" and more Vacationers. Vacationers seem to travel in larger groups and are really clickly and don't seam to be up for meeting lots of people, however I still
met a lot of people, but I am happy to fall into the Traveler category at this point.
Ben and I had been told about a cool place to see while on Koh Phangan thats worth mentioning, I had almost completely forgot about it till now. During one of the days, in which we normally slept in anticipation for the night to come, we headed over to the next few bays over, there called Hat Yaun, and Hat Thian. The only way to these bays is to charter a taxi boat, and it takes only about ten minutes to reach. The bays are way quiter and more relaxed than in Hat Rin where we had been staying home of the Full moon party, there are a few places to stay in each bay, and aside from the people staying there, no one else is around. If I could do it over I would recommend to stay in one of the bays (after you hit the pool party of course), and then just take a taxi boat over for the Full moon party, and back in the morning.
We were suppose to leave Koh Panghan at 11:30 two days
after the Full Moon party, however instead of putting us on a 15 minute taxi, the Thai's running the travel agency put us on a boat over to the main dock from Had Rin and it took an hour, typical planning. However we should have asked the details when booking!! "MY BAD" Soo we missed the boat we booked (not our fault), ended up on a slow ass ferry, just glad to get a boat at that point, missed our bus to Had Yai, and ended up sleeping in Surat Thani, .... brutal. However we did get free accommodation and ended up meeting two other travelers in the same circumstances (the missed the bus club). We ended up going to an authentic Thai restaurant 8 blocks from our hotel, we hadn't seen any other westerners the entire night out. The restaurant actually had items on display like - Dead skinned Rat, Fried animal parts that I couldn't even begin to identify, and deep fried wasps. I opted for the chicken stir fry with cashews. We sat and drank there all night, each of us had a meal, and it only cost us each $8.00 --- very good value.
The
following morning we caught our originally planned minivan to Had Yai, we wanted to be in Malaysia by then but instead of one long ass travel day we stayed in Had Yai for a night. Despite all the no good reviews lonely planet had for it, Had Yai was an awesome little city, clean, quite, and very friendly. BTW I feel like throwing out my lonely planet book as they are shit, only good for the maps inside!!!
As I said, Had Yai was an amazing city, we stayed only one night but I wish it were a few more, a very clean city with a very friendly demeanor. We ended up catching a flick at a local theater, Batman Dark Night --- very cool and it was even in English. It was a great way to see how the locals do similar things as us.
Next day we caught a VIP bus across the border to Malaysia, to Kuala Lumpur. When I say VIP, I mean VIP, I can't even begin to explain what crap we have been passed off with at work. (but once you see better its hard to go back, lucky no-one knows!) The
border was a complete gong show, we ended up walking to the other side rather than getting back on the bus and crossing with it (totally my fault - Ben said we should get back on the bus), long story short, we lost our bus, we couldn't go back across into Thailand without major hassles, so we waited about 20 minutes to find out the bus was waiting for us on the wrong side. Eventually the bus driver left Thailand without us, which was good only because we where already on the other side, otherwise -- goodbye luggage. When we got back on the bus the locals had already claimed our seats, and taken Ben's guide book. They offered it all back once they found out we where actually back on the bus, it was kinda funny getting all our stuff back, honest for them I guess.
Kuala Lumpur is an other amazing city in which Lonely planet doesn't do justice. I would put it a miles above Bangkok. We seen the Petronas Twin Towers, the tallest buildings in the world, well they were until Taiwan built the Taipei 101 Tower in Taipei, (see I can still learn on
vacation). Then we went over and seen the Kuala Lumpur Tower, also very tall, I think it ranks 4th, The CN tower in Toronto is still the tallest (tower), however the viewing platform in the KL tower is higher than the view platform on the CN tower, so it depends on how you measure. It was a great day spent viewing the sites, we also went to the Aquarium and checked out a bunch of marine life.
That night was the topper, we ended up getting into one of the nicest hotels in the city, I would say top three. We drank beside a crazy swimming pool on a roof top bar, very Rock-star. That was until we got kicked out of the bar for not wearing pants. Can't wait to show all the pictures of that!! Through out the day we also utilized public buses and the sky train, very cool, every time we where the only westerners on them, so you get a better feel for how everyone lives.
The next day Ben took a bus to Singapore, and I flew right from Kuala Lumpur to Bali Indonesia. I can't speak for Ben but my day
Veiw from KL Tower
Notice the pool bar, this is the same one we headed to afterwards. was complete chaos, I walked 6 blocks to find a subway station, then took a sky train to the central station, then a high speed train to the airport. I need to interrupt the story for a second.. lonely planet says to this as it saves time .. and it did, what they don't say is that there is two separate airports. So once I arrive at the airport I find that I am flying out of the other one, well thank god I had left time for unexpected events, I had to catch a local bus, only $0.50 to the other airport and its only about 10 minutes away, but still, what a gong show. The airport I was in was complete chaos, I don't think they have a very good plan for it, but I managed my way through.
Once I landed in Bali, the Visa line was a mile long, so I went and had a smoke and visited with airport security. The one had asked how long I was planning for Indonesia and I had told him that I could only get a 30 day visa. He gave me his number and said that if
I want he could hook me up with a 90 day one.. no problem. I still opted for the 30 day, as I don't know how long and how much there is to do here, but if I do decide to take my dive master course on the Gillie islands, I will be calling him. I finally got through the airport and managed to talk down the taxi rate into Kuta, where I am staying. Kuta is the party party central of Bali, and is mostly an Australian destination, its close for them. Today was uneventful, just getting my bearings and finding out what else there is to do around here.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.045s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 8; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0238s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb