Krabi/Ao Nang/Railay - Ko Samui - Ko Phangan

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June 26th 2010

Published: June 26th 2010

We are VERY behind on the blogs - Apologies to our large fan base.

So after Phi Phi we got a boat trip to Krabi where we decided we wanted to be in Ao Nang, not too far from it. Ao Nang is more beachy in comparison to Krabi's city environment, but more importantly it is just a short boat trip to Railay, a place recommended to us even before we set of travelling (Thanks Will's sister Natalie and bro-in-law Jimbo).

Sticking to the bible we know as The Lonely Planet we arrived at "Ao Nang's only real backpacker hostel" known as 'Bernie's Place'. Most definately our least favourite place to sleep, we roasted in our twin bedroom room being pathetically blown at by an awful rotating fan and both of us, for some coincidence, suffered from the worst nightmares over the course of those two nights. One evening we even stayed up talking to the owner, Bernie himself! He lectured us on his 7 years of backpacking himself, and after almost an hour of "Mmm's" and "Yeah...'s" from us desperately trying to keep up with his thick Danish accent we were hoping for complimentary beers, room discount or perhaps not to pay for the tea we drank that evening. But no, the guy instead sends one of his Thai workers up to our room to pay for the chips we ate which they forgot to put on the bill!

So Ao Nang was quite quiet, our first day we rented some cheap mopeds and explored - we found some nice white sand beaches we practically had to ourselves, ate some fried squid and basically had a much needed chill out after the noisiness of Phi Phi. Our second day we got a long boat to Railay beach, which was a stunning place...however we felt like it was ideally a couples retreat, with everyone walking around holding hands and swimming together...

In terms of things to do there were some amazing rock climbing walls, but we instead went on a quest to find the famous lagoon which Natalie had spoken about. This required some free climbing, so we climbed up one side of the mountain which was fairly strenuous and saw a magnificient view point across the entire canopy of trees and beaches. Further on we had to practically ab sail, with no supervision, down jagged rock faces - dangerous to say the least! Ultimately we arrived at the lagoon, where there was only four other people - tranquil waters, only the sound of birds singing, and if you look upwards you see the surrounding palm trees and sheer rock faces which make the place so remote. A once in a life time sight.

The next day we took a 6 hour long journey by bus and boat to Ko Samui. Similarly to Ao Nang we decided we would stay two days, which was probably wise as it was not too busy and this allowed us to get accomodation just at the right time in Phangan. We stayed in The Loft in Chaweng, and it was a bit quiet here. We didn't get up to too much, felt a bit un well the first night so had an early one, but visited the bar strip at the Green Mango on the night of the 21st, where Will obviously turned 20 at midnight - met some lovely people who we spent the night with and was overall lovely. During the day in Samui there was not too much to do - it rained heavily one day right as we were inches from the sea but we decided to go in anyway, which was a strange experience as it was the temperature of a bath even though the skies were cloudy and the rain was pouring. One evening we decided we'd settle for fish for dinner, but got quite adventurous and settled on eating Shark. Actually turned out to be delicious, will order again in the future! One of the more expensive meals as it came to about 180b (which is... about 5 pounds?) but absolutely worth it. Another animal added to the strange meats we plan to eat whilst travelling.

From Samui we took a short boat trip to Phangan, excited to finally reach the destination of the Full Moon party! A bit nervous as we had no accomodation booked but ended up getting free transport from the port to Coral Bungalows - pretty much the best place to be, famous for its pool parties and social buzzing atmosphere. We luckily got a fan room with ensuite, a bit pricey as prices double in full moon period, but cheap in comparison to the rest of Haad Rin - also with our friend Zosia who we met in Chang Mai/ Phi Phi arriving soon we mnaged to split the costs to 200b each per night. The weathers very hot and sunny here - we're finally looking brown! (ish).

Unfortunately at this point Will got an eye infection which last around three days, got some eye drops but this put Will out of action in terms of swimming, shades in sunlight, and basically.... seeing everything as he could not wear his contact lenses! Tom also now has an infected foot which we are trying to keep on top of, hopefully it doesn't drop off or snowboarding in New Zealand might turn into sledging.

The days aren't too cultural and the place is definately dominated by westerners, however we made friends with two lovely girls named Steph and Steph and explored the island one day on mopeds (again - the last time) of course driving extremely safely with our precious passengers. We looked for some waterfall which were unfortunately dried out, however found a nice high view point where we could see Ko Tao (50km away), found a nice quiet beach, and naughtily visited an English pub where Tom got his fix for his need for Tea.

We type this on the 26th, the night of the Full Moon party. It's going to be an adventure, we feel like we are about to embark on a quest - mission is to still be partying by sunrise, go home any sooner and you are officially branded a weakling. There will be no pictures of this event as we will be sporting merely shorts and glow paint, so do your best to picture it, as we will try our best to remember it!

We go back to Bangkok on the 28th, we might visit a temple and buy some gifts for the loved ones back home - then we fly out to New Zealand and collect our camper van.

Look forward to updating you then, lots of love Tom and Will x

Krabi/Ao Nang/Railay - Ko Samui - Ko Phangan

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