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Published: August 1st 2007
Hi Everyone
As we sit, hungover to bits after the 'Full Moon Party' we decided to finally fill you in on what we have been up to for the past two weeks.....
On the 21st of July we arrived Railay, Krabi, a part of mainland Thailand that is only accessable by boat. It took two boat trips to get to this destination so all fingers were crossed that it would be worth it. As our Long Boat entered the bay we were amazed that this place looked even more idyllic than Phi Phi. We disembarked the long boat, backpacks on our backs and bare footed, balancing our way through the water. We hadn't booked any accomodation so we had to make our way around the tiny island in search for something decent. Lucky enough we didn't have to walk too far and checked into View Point Bunglows. It had been a long day but we still needed to check out what the island had to offer so after a bit of grub we went for a walk. Our walk took only 1 hour and we had been everywhere. We found two amazing beaches and the popular spot for
rock climing along with some beautiful luxury resorts and some really nice expensive restaurants.
Later on in the day we relaxed by the pool while some went for a snooze. The night life in Railay was little to non existant with only one backpacker type bar "Gekko" to keep everyone amused. One of our nights in Gekko as we sat chilling out sipping on cocktails we had a run in with a cockroach! It wasnt pretty, the cheeky bugger tried crawling down the back of Fionas pants! Needless to say there were quite a few screams and a lot of attention focused in our direction! We swiftly moved towards the bar to get another drink to steady the nerves!
After three days of relaxation we left paradise to venture to Ko Samui - longest day of travelling to date. We left Railay on a taxi boat which brought us to Krabi where we then got onto a bus to bring us to another bus which took three hours to bring us to the Ferryport where we got onto yet another boat which finally brought us to Ko Samui. We hopped into a Taxi from there and headed Chaweng,
the busiest resort in Samui. When we reached our final destination we again had no accommodation so it was backpack on and off we went. It took us quite some time to find a place that was within our budgets constrants and had availability. Finally we found The Coconut Hotel who only had a room for 3 people. We pounced on it and after paying extra for 4 people to stay in it we checked in for two nights.
We dropped the bag and off we went to find the infamous "Christies Bar" where we had plans to meet friends of Linda's parents who were at a wedding a few days earlier in Bangkok. After a lovely meal in a Mexican Restaurant we asked for directions to Christies Bar and luckly enough it was just around the corner. "Christies Cabaret" there was no way that the wedding party was going to be in a "ladyboy cabaret show" so off we went again looking for the infamous bar. After walking about 10 miles along the strip of Chaweng we decided to give up and went back to the Hotel. Linda rang the couple from there but again no joy so
out we went to enjoy a relaxing drink in the "Ark Bar". After one drink Linda's got a message to say that the weding party where indeed going to the afore mentioned Cabaret show. We were slightly shocked(but not as shocked was we where going to be when we got there) but off we went to the Bar. The show had already started when we arrived so we took a seat and order a drink. Linda soon found John and Lorranie so we all relaxed and enjoyed the show. Afterwards the "Ladies" took their poistion at their poles and began to give a show that we will never forget - unfortuatley the rest is x- rated! Lets just say that the mixture of pole dancing, drunk Irish men, skimpy dresses and Lady Boys aint a pretty sight.
The next day we took to the beach and lazed around all day reading swimming and soaking up the rays. The weather was sooo hot that the parasols were up for most of the day. Later that night we headed out for a few relaxing drinks on the beach which turned into a really fun night, we met some English people and
had a good laugh.
Come morning it was time for packing up and heading off again! We got a bus to the Ferry Port and what an experience it was! First of all there were about 100 people on a bus meant for about 40. It was two to a seat and people squished into the aisles. Luckily enough there was air con...of course that broke about half an hour down the road. You can only imagine how hot it was. Sitting down was a chore, we really had pity for the poor people who had to stand through it! Then, as we were sitting in pools of our own sweat (pretty sight!) the bus just stopped and by the sounds of it had no intentions of starting again in a hurry! At this stage we were 20 mins late for the boat and had no clue how far away we were. We were then ushered off the bus quickly by Thai people who were shouting at us and pushing us into waiting cars and jeeps telling us not to take our bags but to just go. We had no clue what was going on, was this a hostage
situation? 5 minutes down the road and we were pushed out of the jeeps again and told to grab our rucksacks (which had not yet arrived) and get on the boat! Who were we to argue, we only paid for this!!?
Finally we arrived in Koh Phangan and were never happier to be in a place in our lives! There was a taxi just at the pier which we hopped into to bring us to the main strip where we hoped to find accommodation. 10 minutes later we got out, donned our rucksacks and again went in search of somewhere to lay the head for the next week. Due to the Full Moon Party accommodation was harder to find and it worked out to be a lot more expensive than we had paid anywhere else. Our game plan was to stay in Haad Rin Village but to stay a bit away from the beach. When we got here we panicked and checked into the first place that could take us. We ended up checking into a room ON the beach. Seriously, we could have stayed in our beds and still partook in all of the action beach side. Needless
to say there was not much sleep the first night, it felt that the party was in our room instead of outside of it, it was soooooo noisy. Apart from that there was a slight security concern coming up to the full moon as we were on the ground floor. The next morning we inquired into moving somewhere a bit further from the beach in the same hotel, they were pretty sound and put us into 2 rooms on the 2nd floor of another block, of course they wanted more cash for that too. Ah well, at least we could sleep now!
The next 4 days included the now regular sun sea and sand mixed with a few fun nights and one day of sightseeing throughout the island. We went on a day trip which included Elephant Trekking, Jungle Hiking, Waterfalls, Snorkeling, Swimming in cold water Pools, lunch in a hillside Hotel with amazing views and a good laugh with the other people on the tour. We met two Irish girls, two Ozzie girls and an English guy who was travelling alone.
Last night was the highlight of our trip to Ko Phangan and the whole reason why
we came...the Full Moon Party. For any of you who have not had the chance to experience a Full Moon Party before and dont know much about it the photos should say it all. It was a CRAZY night! Just imagine about 13,000 people painted in illuminous paint congregating on a beach that is about three times the size of the pitch in Croke Park drinking from Sand Castle buckets that consist of everything imaginable and dancing their socks off until at least midday the next day. We are obviously not as mad as we would like to think and didnt quite last the pace. Two of us left to go to the loo at about 4.30am and ended up falling asleep in the room (gutted!) and the other two gave it a good lash dancing on the beach and any available bar until about 7.30am! I will leave it to you to guess who did what!
Anyhow, that should have given you enough to digest for the meantime. We are heading to Ko Tao at 7.30 in the morning where we are booked in with Asia Divers to do a two day Diving course. Laura and Linno are
doing their Advanced Open Water, Fiona is doing a Nitrox course and Jillers will (hopefully) be doing a try dive, failing that she will stick to the much trodden track and catch a few rays while we are there.
Hope you are all well and we are glad to hear that the rain has finally stopped in Ireland. No more snorkelling down the streets! Keep posting the comments and messsages, we really love to see them come in. Ciao for now folks, we will hopefully post again in a week or so!
xxx the girlies xxx
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Jack Madden
non-member comment
Hello Auntie Linno!!
[actual words from Jacko] Hello Linda. I love you. I missed you so much. I liked all your pictures on the elephant. I love you Linda. I'm doing things that I want. I'm doing messages on Daddy's laptop. I'll give Linda a big hug. I will give Linda a big kiss. I'm doing something for you Linda....I'm sending a message. I'm doing jobs for you Linda. Daddy is going to go to the Thomas website in a minute. I'm going to go to bed Linda. Goodnight Linda. Love, Jack xxxxxxxxxx (he wanted to give you 10 kisses)