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Published: February 12th 2008
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Fire Dancing
On HaadRin Beach Life on Koh Phangan
Hello from tropical paradise! Early on the 5th, we flew from Bangkok town to Surat Thani, which is the main port town on the Gulf of Thailand. We weren't exactly sure how we were going to get from Surat Thani to Koh Phangan, an island in the gulf, but Thailand is incredibly geared towards travellers. As soon as we grabbed our bags from luggage claim, there was a large sign directing us to buy tickets for "Bus + Boat Combo" to Koh Phangan, and off we went! On the island, we stayed in Haad Rin, which is known for it's "Full moon parties". Once a month, thousands of backpackers invade the island for a night of drinking, dancing, and complete chaos, from what I've heard. Thankfully, Ashley and I were there during a lighter time, but there were still plenty of people and things to do. Haad Rin is kindof like the Cancun of Koh Phangan, with bars all up and down the beach, tons of restaurants,travel agencies, used book stores, and all up and down the main strip, the restaurants would play movies, or episodes of friends, for when you just wanted to chill out.
Loving life @ the Coco Huts!
Doesn't it look like something from a postcard?? There are also a TON of tattoo shops in HaadRin, I can't even imagine how busy they must get with the drunk backpackers during full moon parties.
We stayed in a resort called Coco Huts. Our room was soo nice, we had our own little private bungalow, with A/C and hot water! (Hot water is considered a luxury here) Coco huts was nice because it was on its own chill beach, Leela Beach, about a 10 minute walk to downtown Haad Rin, so we had peace and quiet during the day, but could go in for the action whenever we wanted. The strangest thing about Koh Phangan is that it is just FULL of Israeli's. I think about 75% of our hotel was Israeli, and even a lot of the signs in town were in Hebrew, or advertising Israeli food!
The first few days we just spent lazing around at the beach, the sun was a little too strong for me, so I went running for the shade every hour or so, but Ashley put in a good 5 hours roasting in the sun....she is getting so dark! I am the resident whitey on this trip, I think
Arriving in Koh Phangan
Ash in the back of a Song-Thaew, an open backed taxi/pickup truck no matter how much time I spend in the sun, I will never get a tan!
Our tradition in Haad Rin was to head into town, and get a few pineapple lassi's while watching some episodes of Friends before hitting the town. A lassi is basically like a fresh fruit smoothie...SO good. I think I was up to 3 a day by the time we left. Haad Rin's nightlife is pretty infamous, one of the big things they do here is serve these disasterous "Bucket Drinks". A "Bucket Drink" contains a pint of alchohol, and a mixer, served with ice in a little kid's sand bucket. All up and down the beach are stands with vendors selling these buckets, and boy, do they pack a punch! Let's just say I was good with one bucket. 😊 Also, Haad Rin is also famous for it's fire dancers. Most of the beach bars have locals twirling fire batons, doing something crazy with fire. At one bar we went to, they started a game of jump rope, except for the rope was about 10 feet long, and on fire. Ashley + I were definitely content watching people make poor desicions, and fall
Beachfront @ the Coco Huts
Complete with a beach bar! repeatedly on the flaming jump rope. Surprisingly, no one seemed to be too bothered when they fell on the rope.
One day we signed up for an all day snorkeling trip, that went all over the island. We started out by touring an Elephant camp. I was really excited untill we got there, and I saw that the 3 elephants were tied to trees on chains less than 3 feet long. It was awful and made me sick to my stomach. On the bright side, they looked healthy, and didn't look like they were being abused, but this is one of the big issues in Thailand. Even though elephant tourism is a big source of income here, you never know how the elephants are being treated. It made me really look forward to my volunteer program at Elephant Nature Park, where I know the elephants are safe and happy! I'll be there the first 2 weeks in March. After the elephant camp, we spent the day snorkeling, and beach hopping on the north of the island. Pretty beach after pretty beach- I could get used to this! You can see in the pictures, we took a longtail boat throughout
the day, these boats are really common means of transport here, they are everywhere!
Bus Ride From Hell!
After nearly a week in Koh Phangan, we got up super early to make the long journey to Phuket, on the other coast of Thailand (see attached map if you're confused). After a 30 minute tuk-tuk ride, and a 3 hour ferry, we arrived back in Surat Thani. We had a bus booked to Phang Nga, which is a town about 30 minutes north of Phuket. A million people were milling around the travel agency, and upon entering the room, we told them where we wanted to go, and they put a sticker on us (for drivers to identify which bus we need to get on). After waiting like an hour, Ash decided to go ask about our bus. I see Ash talking and talking to the woman at the desk, who is nodding but clearly has no idea what Ash is saying, other than "Phang Nga". So they put us onto a Tuk-Tuk, which takes us to another travel agency. Here they give us another sticker to wear, and tell us to wait for the bus.
Coco Huts
Some of the cliffside bungalows After reading our numerous stickers, a man comes up to us and says "Phang Nga, you go to Phang Nga", and waves us into a large hockey van. We get into the van and drive to another place, that is a travel agency/restaurant, where we wait in the lobby confused, and someone places another sticker on us. We are rapidly beginning to look like a 1st grade art project. After waiting in this lobby for about 30 minutes, the man ushers us back onto the same hockey bus, which he proceeds to fill with 12 people (12 seats), a TON of luggage, and one bird in a birdcage. Now think of this combination, for 4 hours, on a bus with no A/C. We are definitely not in Kansas anymore! After about 10 hours of travelling, we made it to Phang Nga, where there isn't much going on, but we will be taking a snorkeling trip to the beach tomorrow.
Keep the comments coming people! I live for them!!!
P.S: Are there any symptoms to birdflu???
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Richard B
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Hey there! I keep hearing/seeing all these great places y'all are visiting and fun and amazing things y'all are doing- wondering how I will find time to duplicate even a small bit of the experience....