Ko Phangan & Ko Samui

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Well my trip from Phuket to Ko Phangan was a long 13 hours from a mini bus, 2 coaches, a boat and a tuk tuk I finally arrived at my hotel in Ko Phangan 13 hours after I departed from Phuket.

The trip was standard but I did get talking to a girl from the UK who was also heading to the full moon party so we swapped emails and said we should head to the madness of the full moon together with some of her other friends she has met up with on the island. I also have plans to meet up with some of the guys I met up with in Vanvieng when I stayed there.

I had an early night and woke up to a downpour of rain which I was not particularly happy about so I read my book and relaxed for the day; I also read up on the full moon party to prepare myself for what I had in store for the night. The full moon party is on 28/11 so I had a day to spare. I found lots of pictures and read a few articles; below is one of my favourite...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/gallery/2010/sep/06/koh-phangan-thailand-gap-year#/?picture=366450497&index=9

So the night before the full moon party; what is there to do? Nothing but get warmed up and have a pre-party!!

I got chatting to a couple of English girls called Helen and Faye who were talking about the full moon party and I was asking them how they were going to get there etc. We ended up deciding to head out to the Jungle Experience which I would describe as a smaller version of the Zoo Project in Ibiza.

Before going to get ready I saw a couple of girls (later to find out that they were Zoe and Jodie) were checking in and so I asked them if they fancied coming to meet us on the balcony when they were ready! We all met at one of the apartments which was only a couple along from mine where there were a few others and had a few drinks before getting a taxi to the Jungle. We left around 10pm and got a taxi (or should I say we paid a man with a truck) 100B each to take us on a 30 minute drive to the entrance of the Jungle Experience.

The weather was still pants but it had stopped raining and we all went in. As soon as we got there we pretty much lost each other but I stayed with Faye and Helen and we headed off to get a drink. We then met up with Zoe and Jodie and danced for a few hours in the jungle.

It was a good night and a great way to warm up for the full moon party the next evening.

The next day was a bit of a hangover and I didn’t really do much apart from read and eat, in preparation for the full moon party. We all met at about 8 and got some buckets to share sitting on my balcony drinking, chatting and drawing UV paint on us. We got a taxi into Haad Rin at about 10.30pm and it was so busy; heaving with party goers ready for the full moon.

We got another bucket and went onto the beach and danced and drank for a couple of hours, time was a blur and I lost my camera somewhere on the beach, I wasn’t too sure if It was stolen or if I had dropped it but it was nowhere to be seen so unfortunately I do not have any pictures that I took of the evening.

We all decided it would be funny to go and get a bamboo tattoo and all have the same cross on us somewhere, Faye chose her finger; Helen, Zoe and Jodie all had theirs on their foot like me but I had mine on the top and they had theirs on the side. It was such a small tattoo but we had only known each other for less than 2 days and we thought it was hilarious.

We then headed back to dance on the beach and after about half an hour the heavens opened and it poured with rain! We didn’t care though, we continued to dance as most of the party goers had decided to get out of the rain; we decided to stay in it, get wet and dance the night away!!

Eventually at about 6.30am we decided to get a tuk tuk back to our hotel and found a couple of others from the group that had left earlier in the day on the way. We eventually got back to our hotel about an hour later and the sun was up! I must say that it was one of the best nights ever and I would not have changed it for the world. Full Moon Party you exceeded my expectations!!

The next day was pretty much wiped out as it rained and I felt like a zombie all day; I met the girls for dinner, discussed the night before and headed for bed at around 9pm.

After a refreshing sleep, we all met at around 9.30am to go and hire a jeep for the day to explore the island. It was nice and sunny and a perfect day for cruising in a jeep!! We only had to pay 200 Baht each for the jeep and we went off to explore the island stopping at waterfalls, animal sanctuary's and a market so I could buy a new camera.

It did rain a couple of times but we didn’t care it was an awesome day and we ended it with a nice English pub for some tasty grub!! I had a cheese and marmite sandwich which I enjoyed too much!!

On the way back to our hotel I offered to drive and after a while Helen pointed out that the engine looked as though it was smoking and so we all freaked out and jumped out of the Jeep thinking it was going to blow up!! This jeep was definitely what we paid for it, it wouldn’t go up any hills in any more than first gear which of course the engine didn’t like and there were a lot of hills when we were around Haad Rin.

After a while of standing on the road not really knowing what to do; Zoe jumped in and said let’s just take this jeep back and be done with it, hoping it would not blow up on the way! We made it and were pleased that we were all still alive! We decided that night to have a few drinks with dinner in our hotel and this led to us buying 2 bottles of vodka and playing ring of fire.

The owners of the hotel had been so lovely to us and treated us like family, letting us buy bottles of vodka on the cheap, setting up a tab for Faye and Helen as their money was late going in their account and they didn’t have much left; they also gave us a free night stay to say thank you for spending so much time there! I would definitely recommend this place to anyone. (Smile Beach Resort, Haad Salad, Ko Phangan).

On the last day which was the Sunday we all decided to head to the English Pub for a good old fashioned English Sunday Lunch. We were all so excited for this meal and it was definitely worth being excited for! Zoe had a Chicken Roast and there must have been about 2 chicken breasts sliced up on her plate along with lots of roast potatoes and plenty of veg! I had bangers and mash with peas, onion gravy and a yorkshire pudding, Faye had Lamb Hotpot, Helen had Steak Pie with Mash and Jodie had a Beef Roast. The portions were huge and the food was so delicious, however we all struggled to finish our plates. It felt like a real Sunday in the UK, as the pub was so British and it had been raining all week!

We all had a few drinks with our meal and Jodie ended up getting Zoe 4 shots of Sambuca throughout the afternoon, we all ended up doing shots and drinking a fair amount before heading back to the hotel. I didn’t drink as much as the lads as I my stomach hurt so much from being so full.

The next morning the sun was finally shining and myself, Jodie and Zoe were all heading off to Ko Samui and we were to leave Faye and Helen behind as they were due to be in Malaysia by 4th which was the following day. We all said goodbye and I confirmed that Helen, Faye and me must meet up in Oz when they arrived there.

We got the ferry over to Ko Samui and it literally took 20 minutes to get across from one island to the other. We got onto the bus which was to take us to where Zoe and Jodie were staying; as their friend had booked a place with their friend who was due to arrive that evening, when a young lad got on and sat in the spare seat next to me, Jodie and Zoe. He did not know where he was going and decided after talking to us that he would look at the place Zoe and Jodie were staying as I was going to look there too as I had not booked anywhere to stay .

It turned out that this guy was called Gil and he was from Israel. He was travelling alone and had been travelling since December last year. He had been to many countries and Thailand was his last stop. He was thin and had curly dark hair that went down past his ears. His English was good although he did sound like he was from Israel, I could tell that straight away.

We arrived at the Z hotel and the girls checked into their room, I had a look but the cheapest room was 600B per night and the room was not worth that price. It had a funny smell to it and so I decided I would look elsewhere. Gil decided to come with me and the girls also helped us look somewhere. We looked through many hotels and guesthouses but most were 600B per night and the cheaper rooms were full.

After looking around for a while we found a reasonable guest house for 350B per night (£7). Gil decided he was going to stay too and after we put our bags in we paid and headed for something to eat. We found a lady making phad thai on the street just round the corner from where Gil and myself were staying. We all headed to the beach and lazed all afternoon getting some sun and enjoying it so much as for the past week we had not seen any sun what so ever.

The girls headed off to go and meet their friend from the airport and so Gil and myself headed back to the hotel. The girls had said that they would call me later if they were heading out and so I had a snooze and then got up and got ready to head out. I went to find some wifi as my hotel didn’t have any and then Gil came and found me. We got some food from the Market to eat. Gil wanted to look around the tourist information centers for prices on trips etc., so we walked around whilst he looked and then we came across one that he seemed happy with. In the meantime I was distracted by a tattoo shop and went into ask about tattoos and prices.

It turned out that I got myself another Sailor Jerry addition to my left side; it was a butterfly and i had it added to my leg. The tattooist was from Italy and he had moved over here 10 years before but had been tattooing for 20 years. The tattoo cost me 2500B (£50) and took around an hour and a half to do.

During my tattoo I had a guy from next door come in and have a look who then told somebody else to come and look.

When my tattoo was finished it was around 12.30am and I went to leave the shop and the guy who looked at my tattoo was sitting outside a bar next door. He invited me over and he was European; from Amsterdam, on a holiday for 4 weeks. His name was Mo. He had met the owners of the bar and they had become good friends. The guy who did my tattoo (Joe) came and sat with us and we all chatted for a while. The owners of the Bar were a young couple who nicked named themselves Alex and Ann who had met and worked in a restaurant just over the road. They had bought and owned the bar together after being together for several years.

They were very welcoming and I sat with them for a couple of hours chatting and drinking some beers. I was getting a great vibe from this island and was very happy.

The next morning I had to be up at 7am as Gil and I had booked a trip to the 42 islands around the area. The night before Gil had gone off to "party" as he called it, whilst I was having my tattoo done.

The tour was really good and it was an awesome day. We got onto a 3 deck boat that supplied us with breakfast, beverages and lunch. It took us around the waters passing 42 islands on the way stopping at an island for trekking and snorkeling and then taking us to do Kayaking, we then went to see a lagoon on another island. I enjoyed the entire day and the lagoon was simply stunning.

When we arrived back to the hotel we discovered that the electricity had gone out and there had been none since 8am this morning. I got into my room and it was like a sauna, I had no way of cooling it down except opening the window and even that didn’t help much apart from letting new air into the room. The bottled water in my room was hot enough to make tea with, and I was not happy about the situation. As there was no electricity there was also no water so a shower was off the list of things to do.

At around 8pm the electricity came back on and the entire street cheered, so I got up and raced to the shower enjoying the cool water! As I was in a better mood Gil and I decided to head out. We decided head up to the Green Mango club which was about 30-40 minutes’ walk up the road. I absolutely loved this place and I knew that as soon as I walked in there the girls back home would have loved it too. It immediately made me miss them!

Gil and I ended up dancing away until around 2am, in which time I had told him that I would buy him a drink if he snogged somebody, I had met a French guy and an English guy and danced up on stage. The electric had gone out again at around 10pm and the only places open where places with generators as they could get electricity. Luckily the Green Mango was one of them.

On the walk back it was so dark that we managed to walk past our hotel! When we got back my room was once again like a sauna and I slept with as little on as possible to stop myself from overheating.

The next morning Gil was due to leave to head over to Ko Phangan and so I went to the beach that day, bumping into Mo from the first night in a restaurant that I had eaten breakfast in. I had Salmon and scrambled eggs; it was the most delicious breakfast I had eaten for a while. Mo decided to join me at the beach a while later and so off I headed to get some sun.

I hoped that the electricity would be sorted out that day so that I could speak to Lydia on the internet as it was her birthday. Unfortunately the electricity saga continued and there was still no electricity. I had been told by a local that the power cable under the sea had somehow been damaged and so the job was not easy to fix. They had to call people over from Japan to help with this problem and it was obviously a huge deal. So many business's lost money as they could not open without electricity. They had electricity for 2 hours a day which they borrowed from other islands so that people could shower and cook meals for themselves; but nobody knew what time this would be from day to day.

It was nobody's fault and I felt bad for the locals who were losing money due to this problem. Unfortunately I had not been able to access the internet for 4 days in total and so the chance of me doing any diving in Ko Tao was slim as I was waiting for an email back from a diving company in relation to a course that I wanted to do.

That evening I went to have dinner at a restaurant and met Mo again after. We decided to head to an Irish bar that he had found earlier that evening, which had a generator and we stayed there chatting to everyone in the bar until around 3am. They played football on the TV and the owner had come over from Ireland 2 years before. He had a nice friendly little bar, and most of all I loved the name; The Thairish Bar.... how awesome.

However opposite this bar was a bar called the “sexy bar” where there were ladies selling themselves to men. I was pretty fascinated to watch how they hollered to guys as they walked past and how they danced sexually on the street to get attention. I was a little shocked about how open they were about it.

The next morning I was to go on a trip to see some temples, waterfalls and the Grandmother and Grandfather Rocks. I was picked up at 9am and we headed to see the temples. The first was a Temple that was over 100 years old and built by a Chinese Lady Monk. The Buddha Statue was a female Buddha with 14 arms, each holding a different item. There was not much information on this temple but I walked around admiring the strangeness of it.

The next Buddha was the Big Buddha. Here there was an amazing view of the beach from where the Buddha stood and you could write wishes on a brick to be placed onto a new building that they were beginning next year for a small fee of 50B. You will see from my pictures that I did one. I also had Holy water sprinkled on me by a Buddha for good luck.

We then headed to the view point for 10 minutes where we could take pictures and then we went to see the Grandmother and Grandfather Rock. This was a story of two lovers who ended their life together during a big storm; the symbol of their love turned the granite rocks into what looks like female and male genetalia. As you can imagine these were the only ones shaped like this in the world.

After this we went to a waterfall and then a Monkey Show. The Monkey show was a short show where we were showed how the Monkeys were trained to get coconuts from the trees. They are trained for a few years and once able to get coconuts from the trees they can supply the Thai people with up to 1000 coconuts per day; per animal. After a few years they are released into the wild so that they can enjoy the last years of their life. They are not treated badly and I admired this greatly. I also got to have a photo with the monkey!

The next stop was the Khunnaram Temple which is where the body of Samui's most famous mummified Monk; Loung Pordaeng is on display in a glass case in the same mediation position in which he died over 30 years ago. This was very strange but not as aerie as I thought it may be.

After I arrived back to my hotel I was so tired and there was still no electricity. I had some dinner and fell asleep just after sunset around 6.30pm. I had wanted a shower and was fed up with the fact that there was no way I could have one. I woke up and looked out of the window to find that the restaurant below was packing away and it must have been late as they do not close until around midnight. I had slept for most of the evening. There was still no electricity and so I decided to go back to sleep.

At around 5am I woke as I was very cold. This was something I was not used to! I then realised as I began to awaken that the electricity was on! I was so happy I danced to the shower and bathed for as long as I could, hoping that the electric would not turn off whilst I was in there. I then charged my phone and went out to the cash machine as I had run out of money and with no electricity there were no ATM's working!

I was so happy I almost danced back to my hotel and got back to a cool room and working electricity! I was not sure if this was only a temporary thing or it had been fixed but I was simply happy to have a shower. The next morning I woke to find that my room was still cool and that the electricity was back to stay! I was sure this was the work of the gods as I had been blessed by the Buddha the day before….lol.

That evening I was excited to speak to my dad to say happy birthday as he was celebrating his 70^th birthday. I spoke to him for a short while and I went off to the beach to light a lantern for him. I was happy but sad to speak to him as I wished I was home to celebrate with my family who I was missing. After lighting the lantern I headed back to my new local hangout; Nowin’s Bar. Mo had met some people at the beach that day and they had arranged to meet him to go and watch some Thai Boxing so he went off around 9.30pm. I stayed at the bar and chatted to Nowin for a while and before I knew it Mo had come back with 2 ladies from South Africa who were very intoxicated and very bolshie.

These ladies were on holiday with their other friend who was asleep after drinking too much on the beach that afternoon. One of the ladies was very sweet and kind but the other was very harsh and passed a few comments to me that were not of the nicest nature so you can imagine how glad I was when they left. I went to sleep much earlier that night and I needed it.

The last night I spent in Ko Samui, myself, Ann, Alex and Mo all decided we would head out to the Green Mango again as our last night out. I got ready and met everyone at the bar at around 11 and we headed off to the Green Mango meeting Alex and Ann about an hour after as they had to finish work and wanted to meet us there. We all danced and had a lot to drink and stayed out until sunrise, it was a great night which ended with a big mac before bed.

I woke up in a haze to look at my phone for the time and was shocked to discover it was 1.50pm!! I had slept through and missed my transport to Bangkok!! I ran around packing my things and went to the reception where I explained that I had missed my transfer and I was told the only way I would be able to get to Bangkok in time for my flight the next morning would be to book a flight from Ko Samui airport. It cost me £100 and was due to leave at 8pm that evening.

I was so angry at myself for not setting my alarm and for having too much to drink when I had to travel the following day but after I while I calmed down knowing that mistakes happen and I was definitely to learn from that one!

I spent the rest of the day around Nowin’s Bar and speaking to Joe (the guy who did my tattoo). I managed to get myself a piercing in the middle lobe of my ear (I cannot remember what it is called…) and was very happy with it. I found out from Nowin and Ann that Mo was asleep – and he remained that way for the day so I never got to say goodbye. I got my flight on time and went to stay at a local airport before my flight in the morning.

I was really sad to leave Thailand as I had fallen in love with the place, but I was looking forward to my next embarkment to Australia…..

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Comments

[Lyd]

Keep em coming hun, love u loads and loads xxx