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Published: September 3rd 2006
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It's taken us a few days to write as it's been difficult to pry ourselves off the white beaches of southern Thailand. It's hard to believe this is the rainy/monsoon season. Every day on the beach has been sunny and blistering hot with almost no clouds. The Gulf of Thailand is so warm that jumping in the ocean to "cool off" seems like a misnomer.
Last week we flew from Luang Prabang, Laos to Bangkok on possibly the worst flight of my life. I'm not a great flyer to begin with and I absolutely cannot deal with turbulence. Our propeller plane was the most turbulent I've ever been on to the point where I was clutching the arm rests until my knuckles turned white with fright. Bordering on a panic attack, I sufficiently frightened Nathan to the point where he had to scramble to find a reason for every move and noise the plane made: "Clouds. Rain. Wheels coming down. Wind. We're not falling, I promise." Ack. We made it safe and sound, of course, with a few hours to kill in the Bangkok airport. We spent them with a guy we met in Laos. Harvey's an American IT specialist
working in Japan so the three of us had dinner together and chatted, making new friends and contacts in the process.
We took a connecting flight into the island of Ko Samui, about an hour south of Bangkok and smack in the middle of the Gulf of Thailand. We found a great resort on Lamai beach (2 bedroom villa with king-sized beds!) where we did the equivalent of nothing for three days but sit, either by the ocean in the white sand or by the pool on top of the nearby mountain. Ko Samui is a very developed island in the sense that there are paved roads snaking around the island, resorts and highrises towering over the beaches and large shopping centres minutes of any accommodation. On the way from the airport, we played the "Spy the 7-Eleven" game and we counted at least a dozen lining the main road during the fifteen minute drive. Samui is not my ideal as it reminded me pretty much of Florida but Nathan enjoyed it, especially the view from the pool on the mountain. We had a great lunch one day with the American expat owner of the resort who runs the
place with his Thai wife. Gary's been in Thailand for about 12 years and opened the resort with his wife after his retirement. It's a gold mine. So much so, that Nathan's contemplating getting into some sort of real estate deal on the islands.
Three days later we took an express boat an hour north to the island of Koh Phangan (pronounced "pan-yan") which is generally known as the backpackers island although that reputation really only pertains to one of the many beaches on the island. The island is significantly less developed than Samui with nary a 7-Eleven in sight (except at the pier). It still has hundreds of places to stay on the beach but it hasn't become a complete Floridian tourist mecca which is refreshing. Our place is on Haad Yao beach on the sunset side of the island. We've had the beach practically to ourselves this whole week. Every night we've had amazing sunsets and barbecued seafood outside on the beach.
Koh Phangan is also (in)famous for its monthly "Full Moon Parties" which are huge raves (up to 12000 people in peak season) on the beach. The organizers bring in international djs and people just
party and dance the night away on the beach under, obviously, the full moon. This month's party is happening after we leave so we figured we'd missed out. But, we soon realized, that travellers don't have to go very far to find a reason to party. Turns out there is also the Half Moon Party, the Black Moon Party and any other Moon they can think of. Alas, we found ourselves at Koh Phangan's "Half Moon Party" the other night. It's held the week before *and* the week after the Full Moon Party. It varies from Full Moon in that it's generally a smaller event and instead of being on the beach, the rave is held in the jungle! There we were, dancing until the early morning hours with about 3000 other people in the middle of the Thai jungle. Stocked bars line the venue with southeast Asia's answer to Western backpacker comforts: the ten dollar plastic sand bucket containing an entire mickey of whiskey, a can of Redbull and a Coke. Glow in the dark body paint and glow sticks abound, sold by local Thais including a woman who had her dancing three year old son with her; easily
Thank god for the palm trees
Taking refuge in the shade was necessary at times the best dancer we saw all night! The music was great (dance, trance, house, whatever it's called), the crowd was fun and interesting and we had a great time. I was ambivalent about the idea at first, given that we'd heard these parties were essentially overgrown frat-type parties giving travellers an excuse to trash the beach in the worst possible ways and relieve themselves in the ocean, but I was really surprised at how much fun it was. Realizing we were partying with people from all over the world in the middle of the jungle was pretty crazy and definitely one of our trip's highlights.
Other than that, we have done the following this past week:
Sleep.
Eat.
Apply sunscreen.
Sleep on the beach listening to ipod.
Rotate. Sleep on the beach.
Reflect on where we've been the past few months.
Apply copius amounts of aloe vera gel.
Eat.
Get massages.
Check email.
Sleep.
It's been a glorious end to the trip although we are tanning/burning at an alarming rate given that we're using SPF 45! Tomorrow we're back to Bangkok to recoup for a day or so before we fly home on Wednesday! We were discussing
tonight over dinner how difficult it will be to say good-bye to southeast Asia, but we agreed that it's time to go home and see our loved ones. That, and we're running out of money. Same, same.
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Sara
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Holy crap - that view from the pool!
Looks like you guys had lots of fun in the sun =). That jungle aprty must've been awesome!