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Published: January 22nd 2006
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Lazy Leela beach
At the full moon party we opted for quiet Leela beach... white sand and turquioze water, hurrah! We can really say we feel like a proper travellers now. We can now join in all the conversations about awful transportation, rip off merchants and nightmare journeys. It's great to be on the road though.
Well after an awful journey from Ko Lanta to Kho Phangan we arrived. We left Lanta at 7am and got to Phangan at 7:30pm. (And it's really not that far!!!) Then it was a nice little tour of Haad Rin (home of the full moon party!!) to try and find some accommodation. The Rough Guide came up trumps and we got a hut on a lovely little beach called Leela beach. (Leela Beach Bungalows - 400 bht) The hut was grimy, but we're poor so it had to do. All the accommodation prices double or triple leading up to the full moon, so budget options are limited. We later discovered it had a rather bad amount of mosquitoes too, which attack you as you come in the door at dusk. We had a load of mosquito coils and spray on hand as we entered. It was a comedy moment to watch one of us frantically trying to unlock the door, while the other one
Full Moon Fun...
Thai love fire... you could smell the petrol on this the other end of the beach! Good fun though. is fighting off the mozzies. We hate mosquitoes!!!!! When we woke up the next morning we decided to re-organise (and clean) the whole hut. It was small, but still took about an hour. We took down the mozzie net and shook out all the dead bugs. We changed the sheets which had some suspicious stains and then it started to look a bit better!
It's only a pleasant ten minute walk into the action from Leela beach, so we headed in to town and had a look around. It had changed so much since Sarah was there last. (Sarah has been twice before, but only after drinking a bucket or too, so memories are sketchy) Stu said it reminded him of being on holiday in spain. We spent the four days running up to the full moon mainly chilling and conserving cash. We did go on a boat trip to a good snorkeling place called Ko Maa and a waterfall. It was called the 'wicked' boat trip and the guy who ran it was making us do so many cheesy things including introducing ourselves to each other and saying wicked a few too many times, eek!
We were
Cheeeeese!!!!
On the full moon beach somewhere... we made it bck to our hut just! Better than those we walked past face down in the beach!! really excited about hitting the full moon party. We stayed in our bar for a few hours at the start of the night. Everyone including the staff were well on there way by the time we left. When we got into town we headed to 'chicken corner' for you guessed it, a chicken roll, as we had forgotten to eat! After that it was straight on to the buckets. (Buckets of vodka, lethal Thai redbull and sprite) After some dutch courage we headed down to the main party on the beach. It was heaving, thousands of people, smiling and having a great time. We got there in time to see the Cactus bar light up their fire sign. Some poor guy had the unenviable job of pouring petrol on the metal then lighting it! The heat was intense!!! Typical full moon moment with people clapping and cheering! After another bucket we're feeling quite merry and the next few hours go past in a blurr of dancing, talking to randoms and queueing for the minging toilets. At 4am we head up to a bar that sits on the rocks at the end of Sunrise beach called Mellow Mountain. We chill and
Top of the World!
A grueling hike to the top of the waterfall in Ko Pha Ngan had it's rewards. I (stu) dived into one of the pools but Sarah daren't for leeches! chat to some messy people. Before we know it the suns coming up it's 7:30am. We walk home along the beach, careful not to tread on any of the sleeping dogs or drunkards that line the beach. You DO NOT want to wake up on Haad Rin beach, face down in the sand, next to a lady boy!!!!!!!
After a day recovery we head up to the North West of the Island to a place i've stayed at before called Ibiza bungalows. We nab ourselves a lovely room for 300 baht. it's spotlessly clean and we only share a bathroom with a nice Scottish Guy who lives next door. We have a huge veranda with a hammock. Cue three days of chilling... Only interrupted by a days sightseeing around the island by moped. We go to the little national park. Unfortunately we get a bit lost on the undergrowth and it takes three hours to walk the trail. We sweat so much as the jungles so humid; We have never been so sweaty!!! The waterfalls we find are stunning and the view from up the top was worth the effort. Afterwards we drive to the Northern beach and fishing
Ancient Ayutthia
The crumbling remains of Thailand's ancient capital Ayutthia (before Bangkok), which was destroyed by the Burmese... really atmospheric village called Chalaklom. There's a secluded beach called Haad Khlom, so we go in search of it. It's harder than we imagined though as the road has been washed away in all the rains they had a few weeks back and was so steep it was too trecherous to go on the bike. 30 mins later we make it, but by then we're ready to go home. A quick dip in the water is all we manage and then we head back to the Capital Thong Sala for some Thai food from the street stalls they have there.
Nightmare journey number two starts on the 19th Jan. We have to get back to Bangkok to get our Lao visa. We get to the ferry port in Phanngan at 11am. The ferry finally leaves at 12:45!!!! Then we get a so called VIP bus to Bangkok. VIP my ass!!!!! The coach is running late (no surprise we've come to realise in Thailand) and Stu breaks up a fight between a german guy and the 'boss' of the coach company, caused by the German guy asking what time he thought the coach might arrive. Not a good start. The coach arrives
Postcard Pic...
Found the temple in Ayattia where they took the picture on the front of our Thailand Rough Guide book and did our own... quite cool we think... 1.5 hours late and it is far from VIP!!! Me and Stu are horrified to find out we have the back row seats. Stu's seat doesn't even recline and we have the heat from the engine coming though a vent at the back of our heads and every-time someone uses the toilet we get the stench in our face. Never ever get a VIP bus, NEVER!!! We heard they were bad, but chanced it cause it was cheap. The staff are rude, the buses are awful. We kept having to stop, blatantly at their mates restaurants... We arrive into Bangkok at 6am. Knackered and p'd off, delirious from no sleep. We hunt around for accommodation, but there isn't any until 12. We have breakfast, leave our bags at one of the guesthouses and head off to the Tourist info office to find out how to get to the Laos embassy. About twenty touts try telling us the Lao embassy is closed etc. etc. But we persevere and eventually find out what bus we need to get. An hour later we find the bus stop. Thai's are lovely, all trying to help, but we get a different set of directions everytime we ask! Finally we get on the bus and make it to the Lao Embassy and get our 30 day visa on two hours, half the price of getting it at the border! We're fed up with Bangkok, so decide to get the train straight to Ayutthaya (the old capital of Thailand) instead. It's only two hours away by train.
We arrive in Ayutthaya at 6pm. There's no accommodation here either! One of those days I guess, but not so nice after 36 hours of no sleep, aaahhhh!!!! We finally find a room at a hotel. 500 bht (about 8 pound), expensive on our budget, but sheer luxury to us. No mosquito nets, hot water and A/C. We're sooooo happy, out first hot shower since we left England!!!!! We can't stop smiling!
The next morning we get up and hire bicycles. Ayutthaya is really beautiful. Its on a kinda island (rivers all around), so you get a small boat across the river (3 bht). It's so lovely to be somewhere so ancient. We visit lots of temple (Imagine Angkor Wat in Cambodia) Most of them date from the 1300's and are in ruins dues to lots of old wars, but they are breathtaking. We have an amazing day exploring and pleasing ourselves. Stopping for bottles of water and slices of watermelon. No hassles. The last temple has a 50ft white reclining Buddha and we realise that some of the Buddha statues are pictured on the front of our guidebook. There's bats in some of the temples (chedis) which fly about above our heads. We must have cycled 15 miles over the course of the day, we go to bed knackered, but feeling great. (The AC and hot shower help of course) More from us when we get to Laos in a few days time. Au revoir for now! x x
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Al
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Happy Travels!
Sounds like you had a 'wicked' time in Phangnan, and sooo glad that you are finally finding your feet with the travelling! WE MISS ASIA!!!!