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Published: January 14th 2009
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Phan Ngan Dining
Dinner with friends on Koh Phan Ngan Back in Bangkok! 72 Days after we arrived in this bustling Mecca with wide smiles, fat wallets, sporting milk bottle skin, we spend a night huddled in our cheap hotel, burnt, spent, dishevelled! Despite our current state the last five weeks have been a whirlwind of entertainment.
We left Cambodia in a frenzied race against the clock to reach the southern islands of Thailand as we had spent too much time travelling Laos and Vietnam. So after spending hours on rutted Cambodian roads and the straight endless highway to Bangkok we were quite aggravated to find that there were no overnight trains to the south and an entire day and night was due to be lost in travel. Nevertheless we arrived in the brightly lit and ever so crowded ‘Patong beach’ in Phuket, teeming with its scantily clad Thai ladies, wealthy foreigners and its abundance of ‘questionable’ Thai Ladies. Patong Beach is a huge ‘hook-up’ destination where Thai women come to meet wealthy western men, sometimes for love, often just for money. This jungle of dollar wielding westerners brings out the comedic but ever so charming LadyBoy population.
In Thailand is not strange for a young man to 'divert' his Phi Phi Diving
All the lads after a good day at sea diving in one of the worlds top dive sites. sexuality at a young age, taking hormone replacements tablets and undergoing operations to achieve his or should I say her, ultimate goal. So the results seen at first hand can be quite startling and off-putting but lead to good natured hilarious nights of drunken paranoia. So with our nights full of alcohol fuelled hilarity we spent our days sunning, snorkelling and swimming on Thailand’s finest beaches.
Phuket has only so much to offer the meagre backpacker so with the wind on our backs we took the ferry to Koh Phi Phi. Phi Phi (pronounced ‘Pee Pee’) is backpacker’s paradise. A small island with a strip of sand raising no more than a few meters above ground separates two limestone mountains. The island, I learned, has grown extensively since the release of the film ‘The Beach’. Backpackers and tourists alike swamp to the shores of Phi Phi looking for deserted beaches and pristine waters. Phi Phi has all this, along with the usual abundance of thumping bars with all day happy hours and free shot promotions. A beach loving party animal can easily get lost in this paradise and I myself would love to spend at least a month or
Slow days
A boat docked in Phi Phi's port two working there if I pass through Thailand again. Since we were now diving junkies we decided to waste no time and do our ‘Advanced Open Water’ course there, as its cheaper than anywhere else. The advanced course basically adds on to the students previous diving skills, bringing them to a further depth (30 Meters) and dragging them through a sunken wreck.
We dove through a large car ferry that sunk off Phi Phi a few years ago, The experience while an amazing and wonderfully new experience, was quite scary. There is something eerie about diving in and around a ‘disaster’. However it was not all fun in the sun, there were some fights. Mainly in the infamous ‘Reggae Bar’ where Marcel, on his birthday, stepped up to the plate to fight for a free bucket and his manhood! This bar nightly hosts Thai boxing fights and entices drunken tourists with free buckets if they provide ample entertainment to their peers. With fists of fury and a belly full of alcohol, Blackie O’Connor (Marcel’s alter ego) trounced an Israeli muscleman in the fourth round leaving him a bloody nose and Blackie with the victory.
With time against us we
Market Mayhem!
Marcel dumbfounded at the Chatachuk market raced to Koh Phan Ngan with a quick overnight stop in Krabi. The scenic coastal town of Krabi is home to some of the best rock climbing in the world. So the day of our monstrous journey to Phan Ngan I signed up for a morning of rock climbing. Rock climbing is a great experience, however one must be mentally and physically fit to succeed. I, after weeks of beers and restaurants, found it quite challenging to hang on when tackling the sheer limestone cliffs. It was great fun and I would definitely love to try it properly with more time (and maybe an ounce of fitness).
Koh Phan Ngan is not such a popular island off season as it does not have much to offer in the way of sights and activities. However it is notorious for its full moon parties. The infamous full moon party attracts crowds of up to 30,000 people (for new years eve) to the beach of Had Rin for a night of drunken fuelled beach party madness. Stages, lights, alcohol buckets, fireworks, glowing body paint and a lot of sand is mainly what the average ‘full mooner’ can expect. We met our friends from home, Conor and Gaffo on Phan Ngan for their two week holiday. We spent days touring the island on our mopeds and sipping cocktails while dining on local fare in the Thai sunset. We spent new years at the full moon party which was incredible, a truly indescribable event.
With days dwindling to our flight to Sydney and our Asian adventure getting to its end, we decided to backtrack to Patong and Phi Phi so that the lads could see more of Thailand. Unfortunately the weather in the gulf of Thailand was overcast and poor and more importantly Conor for one needed to work on his tan to impress the folks at home (ha ha apologies conor). So we back tracked and spent some great days with the lads boozing, tanning, squeezing in another cheeky dive and basically exhausting the last of our Asian coffers.
So after a quiet day in Koh Samui and our goodbyes given to the lads, we took a flight to Bangkok where we now prepare for our onward journey to the vast continent of Australia. Today we spent a good 60euro on clothes, shoes, jeans, shirts and other bits for Oz as we travelled Asia we nothing but a few days worth of clothes. We visited the Chatachuk market in Bangkok with over 15,000 stalls and 200,000 visitors a day. This market is a shoppers dream with every item you would ever need to buy at knock down prices. Marcel and I lasted 4 hours before departing for the comfort of our hotel beds, my Mam and Granny would certainly have been proud of my bargaining skills had they seen me in action!!
All in all, Thailand is a charming and delightful country to visit. As you hear from anyone who comes back from this land, the people are superb, the food is scrumptious and the landscape, breathtaking. It is quite easy to understand why so many expatriates retire here and how so many backpackers get 'stuck' and mammy loses a son/daughter for a few years. It is a country that is built on tourism. I read in a local rag that Phuket alone gets a whopping 7 Million visitors a year! Due the number of Tourists visiting here Thai service is second to none. Whether it be a 60euro/Night hotel in Bangkok or 3eu/Night room in Chang Mai, the owner and staff aim to please and you will always have your own room, usually with a private bathroom. Regrets? Thailand is a huge country and to try see everything in four weeks while relaxing at the same time is without doubt, impossible! We had just under four weeks in the south and I still have the beaches, parks, sights and excursions that slipped by to dwell on while I board a plane for the southern hemisphere. Not to worry it is decided that I will visit this country again and maybe journey the road less travelled next time.
Alas on to the worlds smallest continent we go. Im looking forward to going from a hot Asian winter into a hot Australian summer. Summer is Oz means festivals, beaches, Australia day BBQ's and flushing water in the toilet going the opposite way...madness! As our travels slow down so will the frequency of my reports so next time you hear from me I may hopefully have a job and be living on the eastern coast near Brisbane.
Until then, slan go foil and Happy New Year to you all!!!
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Paul
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bazzz!
sounds mighty! baz. getting really jealous here sitting looking out the window at the drizzley january weather. I NEED SUNSHINE! fair play on the scuba course... the scuba diving scared the bejesus outta me. especially when they said "remember NEVER stop breathing or your lungs will collapse"