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Published: April 25th 2009
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Sunset
Sunset over Sunset Beach (quite original with the name, huh?) Sorry...its been a week...being on an island, on island time, with island internet and a beautiful beach. I just couldn't be bothered with being inside for more than 2 minutes. So...
My bus from Bangkok was meant to leave at 6pm. This actually meant that at 6pm someone came to my hotel and walked me to a dark dingy alley. In the pouring rain (Thanks again Jackie for the bag cover!). I waited in this dark dingy alley for quite some time with a bunch of other people and then we were brought to another alley and then had to dodge traffic to get to our shiny pink bus. I remembered how I had said 1 year ago that I would never take another overnight bus in Thailand. I got on the bus and confirmed the suckiness that is overnight buses in Thailand. This bus was quite nice, but they still play super loud movies or music and not being able to fully recline is not fun. This experience was definitely not the worst though, things actually went quite smoothly. It did take over 2 hours to get out of the city, we did stop in some random places and
Fire jump roping
Shananigans I tell you...didn't even get a picture of Fire Limbo! I did get left on the side of the road at 6am for >2 hours. I was able to sleep though because at sometime around midnight, the guy sitting in the seat next to me was able to move when someone got off the bus and I was able to fully lie down. I really was grateful for my fluffy pillow, blanket and Nyquil. I was not thankful for the Nyquil at 6am when we were stranded and didn't really know what was going on-not a good thing with a fuzzy head!
Eventually we got picked up by another bus and got brought to the ferry pier to go to Ko Phangan. The ferry was a few hours and I lied on the top and it was really nice. I arrived in Ko Phangan and wandered around trying to find a place to stay. I ran into 2 British girls who were in the process of doing the same for them and 2 of their friends so I ended up joining them. We found rooms that were just a block off the beach that were super spacious and pretty good. They did end up having lots of ants and
Swinging
enjoying another sunset a giant spider, but I survived.
Each day was spent bumming on the beautiful beach (super white sand, turquoise, clean water) and wandering around the island. One day we got a boat out to another beach that is only accessible by boat and it was amazing. The beach we stayed on is the one that has the big Full Moon parties each month. Each night, it is a big party, but during the full moon, over 20,000 people come to the island to celebrate. There are lots of fire dancers, buckets and shananigans on this island. All the restuarants show movies all day which was a good break from cheap vodka and the sun. Liz (one of the British girls) and I twice went for runs and the first time was on the beach, but the second time the tide was too high so we went on the road. The beach run was great, except I tripped over a boat rope (my hurdling skills are not so great I guess) and skinned my knees and hurt my shoulder. I also slipped off a rock and ended up with one foot in the ocean. That made for a soggy run
on boat
Heading to Hat Yuan Beach! home. The other run was in the morning and it was super hot and sunny and we took the road which turned out to be a mountain. I'm talking seriously inclines that my butt is still completely sore. It was fun though!
The last night of Ko Phangan was the Black Moon Party. This is located on one of the other beaches and was a ton of fun. It is a bit chiller and there are neon signs all over the place and everything is glowy. It was a lot of fun, except towards the end of the night, I got a bit grossed out by all the people passed out everywhere from too many drugs (or maybe they were just tired? or took Nyquil? ha ha). Even though I am not into drugs and stuck to my cheapo vodka, I had a good time. I was pretty impressed that we made it out until after 4:30am-and that was without a nap!oh and I forgot...before the Black Moon party I had gnocci gorgonzola and it was scrumptous! Oh and quote of the week by one of my friends...we were going to walk on the beach to the party which
Hat Yaun
hanging out on the rocks would be an over 1 hour walk. We packed up our flashlights, but one said, well we'll be able to see by the moonlight...for the black moon party. Smartness! All the taxi drivers said we were crazy for thinking about walking, but we said, no we can do it. Then we got down the the beach and realized it was impossible and jumped into a tuk tuk.
The next morning we got up to go to Krabi. We had a bit of a time getting up (cheap Thai vodka + 3 hours of sleep=no good in the am) and the journey wasn't that fun, but we made it and it is great. The town is super small and there are not a ton of tourists around. It feels a bit more like a real Thai town which i like. We spent today at a beach nearby (where by the way...spa next to beach happy hour....50% everything...3 dollar massage!) and I hate to admit, but I ate at Subway. It was calling me and I couldn't resist a veggie delight sandwhich on honey oat bread. And gelato to follow it up (they had Tim Tam gelato...yummy!)
We got back
Boats
I liked the boats in a row to town (which was a bit difficult because we didn't know the name of our guesthouse) and had dinner at the night market. I had a super spicy veg curry that was so spicy it felt like a slow delicious death.
Tomorrow we are going on a snorkeling trip and the next day is rock climbing...can't wait! Oh and by the way...Happy RU day!! Wear your scarlet and do the chant all day long... R U Rah Rah!
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