Koh Pa Ngan

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After recovering from our huge full moon party experience Pete and I decided to rent motor cycles(sorry mum) and discover more of the island. We quickly learnt a few disturbing things about riding motor bikes on the island.

1. Only about 1/4 of the island's roads are actually asphalt. The rest being dirt, steep and down right dangerous.
2. The maps don't make much sense

So with our mid-20's "pffftt as if chicken out" attitude we headed off as fast as we could! Our first stop was Wat Purna - a Budda who was erected approximately 100 years ago (we think, documentation is slim). The funny thing is, we had to turn off the main road, down a dirt track and then down another smaller dirt track to find him. It was like nobody cared about him, which I'm sure isn't true!
Then we headed off to find another Budda but we never found him (but did find what we thought was the steepest decent on the island). In the end we stumbled across a little monk monastery which had an incredible lookout point and (believe it or not) another gold Budda!
We then went in search of waterfalls, enter lesson number 1. With each hill we went up, a more steep and dangerous one appeared on the other side. In the end (after Pete had a minor accident) we came to the conclusion that using a Vespa with flat bald tyres is probably not the best vehicle for these conditions! So we actually stopped and turned back and then headed north to Haad Thong Noi Pan beach

After having a bite to eat we headed off to find the waterfalls - enter lesson number 2 - the map said right, the road went left! So after using a bit of "lets look and see" logic we finally stumbled upon Wang Thong waterfall. As I mentioned in my last post none of the monsoonal storms have been hitting the island. Although this is normal for this time of year, the island has actually been in drought so the waterfalls are at only about 1/3 capacity.

After this we made a brief stop at the kings initials (on a rock in the middle of the jungle, why there? Your guess is as good as mine) and went and found Wat Noi (another Budda!). After hanging out here for a little bit we shot off (back on asphalt now) and stumbled across another temple. This temple (once again we think) has been around for about 200+ years. Afterwards we headed back into town and caught some very very kitch pictures of the sunset.
Then as we were heading back towards the hotel we couldn't help but notice all the signs for pirates bar! Now some of you may know that deep down, Pete and I actually wish we were pirates (Darrrghhhh ya darrghhhh). So we felt obliged to go have a look. And I have to say - it's a very cool bar. You have to "walk the plank" around some rocks which leads you onto a little beach (the dance floor) which on the cliff side has a stack of 30'inch speakers and on the far side has the bar. During high tide the beach/dance floor disappears and you're conveniently stuck in the bar. The bar itself is actually shaped like a ship and the guy who owns it (the captain) has his quarters in the aft of the vessel!

So after a hard day's riding we retired back to the Pirates Bar with what remained of the Koh Pa Ngan Krew (Chris & John) and got into the buckets (Red Bull, Vodka, Rum & Coke - a local favourite). It is fair to say by the end of it, we all were slurring like pirates and I even had a pirates swagger!
With that ended our time on the island - I can't wait to get back!

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