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Published: September 29th 2009
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We decided to stay in Hat Rin, which is where the full moon party started. We thought about staying in Paradise Bungalows, the home of the full moon party but the lonely planet didn’t give it the best review so gave it a miss. In hindsight I would have liked to stay there and will when I return to the Island. Ko Phangan was fantastic, it was a lot more relaxed than Ko Samui, it had a better vibe and it was much cheaper. Sunrise beach was just as nice as Chaweng and the sea just as warm .We didn’t do too much sun bathing in Ko Phanghan as our malaria tablets made our skin sensitive to the sun and we got a little burnt and blotchy in Ko Samui. We spent the first day wondering around and checking out Hat Rin. Hat Rin has one main road with lots of little side streets coming off. There weren’t too many shops or market stalls selling clothes and other touristy items. The streets were packed with restaurants and bars.
We spent the second day at the beach. The sun rises on our side of the island and sets the other side
so as the day gets on you have to keep moving towards the sea to be in the sun. This was quite handy as we didn’t want to spend too much time directly in the sun because of our skin. The sea is like walking into a luke warm bath. The water is really calm and nice to bath in. You don’t really go in to cool off from the sun but it was nice. That evening we booked our diving in Ko Tao and a boat tour of Ko Phanghan called the Snoop Dogg Tour. We decided to eat at a restaurant on the beach, that conveniently had the football on a big projector screen. It was a good evening, we watched Chelsea win 3 - 0, had a Mexican and a few buckets of booze. We were certainly enjoying our beach life. On the way back there was one bar that had a few people there called Catus. They were playing R ‘n’ B so we decided against staying and called it a night.
We meet our guide for The Snoop Dogg tour at 11. The tour consisted of a Finish couple that had just been diving
in Ko Tao, two British girls, one of which now lives in Sydney and an Ozzy girl. Basically the tour showed us around the island on a long boat, which is a long wooden boat with a big diesel engine on the back. The first stop was Than Sadet Falls a waterfall that King Rama 5 visited 19 times during his reign. The waterfall was fairly small but had pockets of water that were deep. We were the first group to arrive and all jumped into the first section of the waterfall. I packed my waterproof bag with my camera and dived in. The guide took a few picks of me under the waterfall and then asked if I wanted to jump in. Obviously I agreed and hurried along before Liv knew what I was doing. The jump wasn’t very high but to get to the launch pad we had to climb round the face of the rock holding onto vines. If you fell you would have done some damage but I enjoyed nervously climbing round. As I was half way round I noticed Liv looking with an expression of what the fuck is he doing and horror but it
was too late for her to stop me. The guide back flipped off the rock, I just jumped. Not the same charisma but you had to hit a certain spot as not all the water was deep enough plus I can’t back flip. To get back to the group we had to climb through a cave which was really cool. I stopped to take a picture but my bag had leaked and my camera wasn’t working, oops. On the way back to the boat our group headed back slightly before us so we were playing catch up. As we started to catch them up I heard a noise in the trees above my head and something fell out. I looked up and then heard a thud on the floor, it was a snake! I jumped back and waited for the snake to rise up and attack. I was taking a few steps back when I noticed that the snake was still on its head, I looked closer and realized that the thing was plastic! I heard people start to laugh and it turned out the guide had thrown it from a tree. Fair play to the guy, it was a
good prank and I would have pissed myself if it had happened to someone else. I now know why the safest seat in a car is behind the driver. It’s because when faced with danger we instinctively save ourselves. And the driver will always swerve to save himself in the event of a crash. In that moment all I knew about was the snake and me, I didn’t think about anyone else.
We jumped back onto the boat and headed to bottle beach for lunch. On the way we checked out various bays. Some of the accommodation was lovely. They had £600 per night villas on the limestone cliffs overlooking the sea. It was luxury. To be fair I would opt for the 300 Baht (£6) a night bungalows on the beach, they looked good enough and the same beach was on your door step. Unfortunately we don’t have any pictures of these as my camera wasn’t working. The next stop was snorkeling but as the sea was a bit rough we couldn’t go round the other end of the Island to the usual spot. We snorkeled of a beach that the guy who owned Paradise Bungalow’s, (the guy
who started the full moon party) had brought. There was between 10 - 15 beach huts. I was chatting to a hippy looking woman that had lived on that beach for two years and the Island for 10. She said they were building a restaurant etc and were going to hire out the bungalows to tourists.
All in all, the tour was fantastic and I would highly recommend it to anyone visiting Ko Phangan. Before visiting I always thought it was a party Island, it is so much more and caters for everyone. Ko Phangan is by far the best place I’ve visited in Thailand and I think its going take some beating. That was pretty much it for Ko Phangan. The next day we were heading to Ko Tao for diving.
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Shaz Dave
David Thomas
Waterfall
cool shot with you in the waterfall and we are lovin the blogs....a lovely record of what u r both doing....luv Sharon and David