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Published: August 10th 2009
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After an epic journey from coast to coast we made it to the island of Ko Phangan situated on the Eastern coast of Thailand….it had only taken three buses, a boat and a crazy taxi ride to get there. As always we were warmly greeted by a horde of touts offering hotels, bikes and other useless things we didn’t need the second we stepped off the boat but as we had already booked our accommodated we simply waved at them as we whizzed pass in our taxi.
James has visited the island a few years ago and suggested going back to the same area he stayed at before, a small resort on the North West coast called Hadd Yao. We had decided to splash out and booked ourselves into a bungalow located on the hill overlooking the beach. We didn’t realise how good the view was until we woke up and were amazed we could see right out to sea from the comfort of our balcony. The bungalow complex also had a fantastic swimming pool, which as you can see from the picture offered breath taking views!
As you can imagine we didn’t do that much on the island
apart from relax and drink many brightly coloured cocktails. The most strenuous activity we did was playing beach tennis which only highlighted how unfit we really were. The days were taken up with swimming and sunbathing and at night we enjoyed fresh fish dinners and of course the occasional bucket! One evening we decided to ‘live it large’ and join a group of newly made friends in a boozy party on the beach which was fuelled by one of the bar men we became friends, a guy called Pan. Kim unfortunately had to go to bed early as she didn’t feel too well and left instructions to James to get Amy and Sarah very drunk. As always the buckets were flowing and before we knew it, Pan had cracked out a bottle of Jagermeister to make sure everyone was well and truly on their way. Predictably the next morning we all felt pretty rough so spent the day around the pool and detoxed.
We had been umming and arhing about hiring scooters to explore the island and eventually James persuaded Amy and Sarah to give it a go, much to the dismay of Kim who refused blankly to go
on them, saying ‘James we have no travel insurance at the moment! And if my friends get injured or killed I will never forgive you!!’ As the girls had never ridden motor bikes before and James was a little rusty the lady in the rental shop made us do a practice lap around the car park, which we all passed with flying colours. Armed with maps and Oreos James, Amy and Sarah set off on their trip around the island leaving a worried Kim wondering when she would see them again.
At first we were all a little shaky, getting use to the bikes and the unpredictable steering. Quite often we would either under-steer or over-steer when going around corners causing us to end up in a field or in Sarah’s case; 2 inches away from a moving car’s bonnet on the other side of the road. But after 30 minutes it was clear we had become more confident as we raced each other down the road beeping our horns at the horrified onlookers. For the next couple of hours we whizzed around the island stopping off at waterfalls and an elephant sanctuary where Amy got friendly with a
very sociable monkey who jumped up on her shoulder and started ‘de-fleeing’ her hair.
James was responsible for going first in the convoy so that he could keep an eye on the girls in his mirrors but got a fright on a few occasions when Amy thought it would be funny to speed up behind him and beep her horn a few feet from James’s ears causing him to swerve into a ditch! He was also nominated map reader, but when the girls questioned where we were and we realised we had actually done a full lap of the island and were at the bottom rather than the top he was quickly dismissed. Considering he went to cubs and scouts all the girls thought his map reading skills would have been a lot better, maybe his out door skills only extend to erecting tents and playing with fire.
On returning back to our bungalow to check on Kim, we zoomed passed a random English style pub called The Mason Arms and decided to nip in for a traditional English pint. As we sipped our pint of Tetleys Smooth we noticed it was getting incredible dark outside and thought
it best to get back on the bikes before the storm hit. No such luck! Sure enough as we drove home a hurricane hit the island causing our driving to be come more erratic by the minute as we swerved out the way of fallen trees and coconuts. What made it more difficult was the fact that we had to wear our sunglasses to keep the rain and debris from going into our eyes. After a nerve racking 30 minutes we arrived back at the rental office to a surprised looking lady who was shocked that we had made the epic journey back home and laughed at us as we looked like drowned rats.
Unfortunately Ko Phanang was our last destination before we had to make our way back to Bangkok and say good bye to Sarah and Amy. They had insisted they wanted to fly back to save time meaning they could spend the extra day shopping down Khao San Road for cheap bargains. Over the last three weeks our budget had been smashed so we said we would take the cheaper option to catch the boat and bus and meet them there 10 hours later. Much to
Kim's delight the bus was full meaning we had to pay the extra costs and fly with the girls. Kim's smile soon turned into a frown when she saw how small and rickety the plane was that we were flying back on and despite the plane landing at a 45 degrees angle we touched down safely.
The next couple of days was spent chilling around Khao San Road while the girls went off to spend lots of money on souvenirs and presents for their families. Sarah would be turning 24 a few days after she got back to the UK, so we decided to throw her an early birthday party, Thailand style!! Unfortunately our plans for buckets and ping pong shows got ruined because that weekend was ‘Budda Day’, meaning that all bars were closed and few restaurants sold alcohol. Luckily we found a bar willing to serve us a cocktails or two.
Our time with Amy and Sarah had come to an end and as we waited for our bus to Pattaya the girls said their goodbyes which obviously lead to them all bursting into tears….leaving James standing there in the street a bit bewildered. We had
had a superb time with the girls and it had been great fun sharing so many memorable moments with them. It was nice to show them how we have been living over the last year and are pretty sure the girls still prefer their high heels and fake tan to the backpacker lifestyle and it only reminded Kim of how she missed her home comforts.
Cheers Girls!! We will have a bucket in your name ;O)
So we head from the hustling streets of Bangkok to the notorious sex capital of Thailand, a city called Pattaya where Kim spent 2 years growing up as a child. James only wondered what was in store for him……
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