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Published: June 26th 2005
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We had been on Koh Pha Ngan since 18th June as we heard you had to turn up to secure a room at least 3 days prior to the full moon party. It turns out this was good advice as the island was heaving when we arrived on an illegally overcrowded boat from Buddha Pier in Koh Samui. It's only a 12k journey on the boat, but you could see from peoples faces that they wished it was much shorter. We also noted that there were no life jackets or boats attached !!!
After an hour or so of looking for a place to stay and taxi drivers trying to rip us off, we found a nice place with a balcony near the beach, but far enough away from the party beach so we could get some sleep.
Koh Pha Ngan isn't very built up at all, the side of the island we were staying at was mountainous and the roads were dirt tracks. Getting in one of the taxi's ensured you got out of the back of it covered head to toe in dust. The island seems to be a mecca for hippies, but also alot of ''wanna-be''
Firedancer..
One of the sparks flew off and landed on my toe, ouch ! hippies. It's clearly a place for hardcore partying as the bars seemed to be packed all day and the beach has a massive party on it every night. We had wondered where everyone was as we were strolling around town on our first night, then turned the corner onto the beach and the search was over. Firedancers, lots of alcohol, thumping dance music stretched the entire beach. If this was just a Saturday night, what would the Full Moon Party be like ?
As the main beach was so busy during the day we chilled out around our beach which was pretty empty. The food on this island leaves alot to be desired unless you fancy surviving on burgers and chips from the local aussie pub. Needless to say, as both Laura and myself like a good meal, we felt the lack of it here in a big way. If you ever want to lose weight, the best way would be to do what we have done over the last few weeks, Thailand is the best place to lose a few pounds. You sweat pretty much all the time and hardly eat- but apart from that we have really
Wakey wakey...
This pic was taken at 11pm !!! enjoyed our time in Thailand!
We didnt meet too many people in Ko Pha Ngan as the majority are off their faces on one thing or another. I did however stumble across someone who I used to go to secondary school with, whilst ordering a drink at a bar/stall. Very coincidental, but it was bound to happen at some point or another.
The full moon party was soon upon us. We headed out at about 11 to see what the night had in store. We were suprised to see that as early as it was, loads of people had already managed to get completely battered. Our journey across the beach to the mountain bar was an obstacle course of bodies stretched out or unconscious. Even in the mountain bar a local dog had found refuge in the middle of the dance floor. The dogs here must all be deafened by the noise, but they dont seem to mind it. To sum it up the scene was as follows: Bodies covered in glowing paint, people vomitting in the sea (often in pairs holding each other up), people peeing in the sea, a mass of buckets filled with deadly conconctions
of cheap Thai whiskey, nutters jumping around to the trance beats and a swarm of police trying to catch people dabbling in things they shouldnt be. They mustnt have tried too hard though! It was all very amusing to watch.
We got back to our apartment at about 5am and slept alot !! We decided to leave the island the next day on an early morning boat back to Samui hoping to avoid the throngs of people that would also be making the same trip.
To get out of town that night we headed to a restaurant that was situated about 100 metres out to sea. It was a floating restaurant and was far enough away to leave behind the music that was still playing on the island (this place is non stop!) We had to get a long tailed boat out there which at first seemed the guy wasn't taking us to the restaurant at all as he was heading a different direction, then suddenly while out at sea we went past another long tailed boat and a thai guy leapt onto our boat shouting "BOO !''. His aim was to scare us, which he did a pretty good job of !!! Then our driver headed to the restaurant, he was merely picking up his friend. Phew..
We caught the 09:40 boat the next morning back to Samui, we were wrong about it being quiet, it was busy, but not to the extent of our previous journey.
Overall opinion of Koh Pha Ngan ? Interesting, but bit too hectic and touristy ! We imagine it is how Malia or Magaluf might be in the height of the summer.
Next stop Cambodia... We are looking forward to a change of scenery which I'm sure Cambodia will offer us!
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