Advertisement
Published: January 7th 2007
After Christmas we left for the island of Ko Pha Ngan. Excited to see a new place after a long time spent on Ko Tao, we took the fastest ferry. We lucked out and found a nice room for a great price of 400 baht a night. The island was extremely touristy but very fun. This was the first place we saw large amounts of young travellers. On the first day there we were both tired and Andrew was a little sick so we took it easy and took in our new surroundings. The next day Trev and I went to the party beach to see if what we heard was true and it truly was the biggest party spot we had ever seen. The party beach itself fills up during the day and night. We arrived a few days before new years to secure a bungalow, which was lucky as we heard stories of people camping! We had to search for around an hour to get a bungalow. New Years Eve itself was quite fun, the beach was full of people and there was a large fireworks show. The fire dancers were really neat.
After New Years we decided we
wanted to go for a jungle hike so we hired a taxi and asked to go to "Khao Ra", which is the tallest peak on the mountain. The cab dropped us off at the wrong place, an elephant trekking tour so we had to try and find it ourselves. We spent around an hour looking but could not find it so we decided to go for a jungle hike to a waterfall in the jungle. The waterfall was almost completely dried up because of lack of rain. We decided to go hiking further into the jungle with a Swedish traveller also interested. The jungle was thick and humid and very new to all three of us. During our hike we encountered a deadly centipede that we were previously told about and heard lots of strange noises. In the middle of the jungle we heard a noise similar to that of an electric saw but we were positive it was an animal. After the hike we were both tired but agreed that we would try to tackle Khao Ra the next day.
Bright and early we woke up for the hike, eager to hike the tallest point on the island.
We had to walk for about a kilometer off the main road untill we found the sign pointing us in the right direction.
The hike was very difficult to even get to but we were both proud we did. So we both followed the trail signs for around 20 minutes up to a waterfall marked at the beginning of the hike on our maps. We sat there for a little enjoying the scenery and decided to continue the hike. Another ten minutes into the hike we were both shocked to see a bright yellow monstrous snake! The snake had to have been 6-8 inches thick and didnt look to friendly. What scared us the most was the fact that we both almost walked right by it without noticing it because it camoflouged with the dead leaves. Unfortunately our hike was ended at this point as we were both scared out of our skulls. We were both glad we didn't get hurt and were both a lot more cautious on the way down. Sorry everyone but we didn't get a picture as we were both freaked out and wanted to get away.
Determined to get some exercise we walked 4
Buckets...
Thai whisky, coke, and redbull...kilometers to a secluded beach and laid back enjoying the sun. There was a reggae bar playing calm music and very few other people. After that we decided it was time to head back and get ready for the monthly full moon party.
When we arrived at the Full Moon party we had a slight idea of what it would be like but we didn't expect it to be as massive as it was. There were people every where with glowing paint or glow sticks draped over them it was really a sit to see and hear. Every step you took a new beat (from huge speakers pushed out onto the beach) would reach your ears. Trev and I both agreed it was the craziest party we had ever seen. There were still thoughsands of people dancing when the sun came up. The sun revealed how polluted the beach was and we both felt a little sad but knew that there was a team that would efficiently clean it up.
After slepping for some time we decided we ahd had our fill of Ko Pha Ngan and decided to leave the following morning to Surat Thani. We both agreed
Buckets for sale...
Thai whisky, coke, and redbull... to venture south into Maylaysia and Singapore so we went to the train station to start our long journey. We bought an over night sleeper ticket to Hat Yai and had to wait nine hours to board. We spent another 6 or 7 hours in Hat Yai waiting for our next sleeper train into Kuala Lumpur. Once we boarded we were greeted with comfortable beds and cheap food. The 17 hour train ride sounded worse than it was. We arrived in KL at 6 or so in the morning and got a cab into chinatown where all the cheap guesthouses are. We found a cozy little guesthouse for only 35 Rinngit per night, approximately 12 Canadian dollars. KL seems to be far more modern and wealthy than Bangkok or any part of Thailand we have experienced so far. We went to the Petronas twin towers but unfortunately all the tickets to the bridge in between them were sold out. We only got to enjoy the food court in the bottom of the towers 😞 KL seems a lot less touristy with less infrastructure orientated towards westerners. We are now in KL and have plans to leave for the Highlands soon.
Taxi ride
they would fill the back of a pickup with 16 people! After that we are off to Singapore!
Thanks for the comments everyone, we love to hear from you!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.165s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 12; qc: 67; dbt: 0.0863s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Dad
non-member comment
Great to hear from you, everyone has been waiting! Glad to see you survived the party island and the jungle hike. Even your father has not been to KL so I am quite jealous now. Hope you like Singapore when you get there.