Ko Pha-Ngan


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February 12th 2011
Published: February 13th 2011
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Wednesday 2nd February



We've somehow managed to end up on the back of a pick up truck taxi and sharing with 8 other people. We are assured we are heading for Haad Yao. Its looking like a really nice island as we meander through some steep roads and pass through little villages dotted along our route. We drop some people off and after the last couple got off we were left with just the two of us heading north towards Haad yao. We arrived at the Haad Yao Bay View Resort and after negotiating our rates for the next few nights we were shown to our room which was very nice indeed as it was larger than we're used to and we had four windows looking out towards the hills.

We've decided to hire a couple of mopeds tomorrow and tour the island as we seem to be way out the way of everything up here in the North West.

Ko Phangan is famous for its full moon party at Haad Rin Beach aswell as a backpackers destination. Its is much smaller than Koh Samui and you could walk around the island in ten hours if you really wanted. The Main town is Thong Sala where we got off at the boat and its usually busy at nights down there which we will find out soon enough.
We had dinner at the hotel before taking a walk along the nice Haad Yao beach admiring the lights of the mass of fishing boats moored in the bay.

Thursday 3rd February


After we ate our complimentary breakfast we sought out a bike hire place next door to the hotel and proceeded to hire two 100cc mopeds at a cost of £4 each for the day which is excellent. Our hire attendant spoke very little Engish and check our bikes before letting us set off along the road.
Im not sure about the power of these things as Jills never gone a moped before so we take it easy going up to the main road. I crossed the road and turned down th street only to look back and watch Jill drive straight into a concrete ditch. Of course I panicked and jumped off my bike to see if she was ok and she was fine bar some scratches on her arm. The bike took the brunt of it and the mirror was smashed with some scratches down the side. Jill insists on carrying on so we took it easy and got about a half mile down the road and stopped at a pharmacist to buy some cream for Jills cuts. Again I stopped but Jill went whizzing by and zig zagged across the road before landing up in front of a shop window with the bike on its side. The already broken wing mirror had caught her arm and gashed a 4 inch cut across her shoulder. I feared the worst.
We quickly got her into the pharmacist where the guy in there was a gem. He treated her cuts and gave us some plasters for next to nothing.
Hat off to Jill, she actually jumped on her bike after a bit of persuasion and took my bike back to base and I took her bike. No wonder she had accidents, her bike that i was now riding had no back brakes at all! I was furious when i got back to the moped hire place and of course the guy with zero English was in denial to the point he walked away from me. We had no choice but to pay for the damage to the bike as he was holding my passport as a deposit. In all honesty we were lucky as it cost us less than £50 for repairs after we bargained with the guy. It could have been much worse as Jill could have been seriously injured or worse so with that the repair costs became irrelevant.

So after much drama on our first day Jill hops on the back with me and we're off and biking across the island.
We arrive in Thong Sala and pass through into Haad Ban Tai where we enjoyed a nice ride to the next town of Haad Rin where the famous full moon parties are held. Its actuallly pretty grubby at Haad Rin with lots of litter lying around with wild dogs roaming the streets, hopefully the actual beach will be nice. We eventually navigated our way to the beach and took a wee stroll along the beach and its not what we expected.
The beach is a tad dirty with needless rubbish lying around and its due to the fact that theres lots of bars right on the coast here and its popular with tourists who come just for the parties. Thank god we are not staying here is all i can think.

We hop on the bike and stopped along the road at the much nicer Haad Ban Tai Bay where the beaches are slightly cleaner but less busy. We had a beer on the beach while listening to music from a nearby beach house where a hip looking guy was lazily sitting in his front porch reading a book. This is more like it.
The suns beating down and we're getting hungry and Jill needs to change her bandages on her arm so we headed back to Haad Yao.
We stopped at Ao Wok Tum Bay and gazed at the amazing sunset that was starting before starting the bike up again and heading off north along the waters edge there. The views around here are magical to say the least and we leave Ao Wok Tum and head towards Haad yao. We needed petrol and stopped for fuel at a stall which sold gasoline via glass bottles. The old guy simply lifted the seat, opened the cap and poured a litre of fuel in at a charge of 40 Bahts which is around 75 pence, not quite your Shell garage but it works for us!

We chilled in our room for a bit and after dinner we got back on the bikes and got our helmets on for a night drive to Ban tai again. It was quite romantic for us huddled together on the back of the bike taking our time riding along the coastal waters on Koh Phanang towards Baan Tai. We passed some bars and clubs there and you can see that the place comes alive at night as everything looks much different due to the bright neons and disco lights that shine out from every building we rode by.
A hour had passed and we were still enjoying scooting along the roads along side the dozens of other couples doing the same thing.
We had a rocky start today and although Jills in a bit o pain we still had a good first day on Koh Phanang.

Saturday 5th February
We've had a couple of days chilling by the pool and relaxing in the sun before deciding to hire another bike for the evening and head for a black Moon party at Baan Tai bay. We hired

a slightly bigger bike this time and after dinner headed off around the island again towards Baan Tai. Maybe it was a blessing in disguise as when we got there is was quite busy and they were charging far too much to get into the beach area but it made no difference as muggins here had left the money for the night back in the hotel room and we had only enough change for more fuel! Never heed, we had a nice drive through to Thong Sala where we strolled around the night markets and food stalls which were full of interesting people.
Its our last night tonight so we got back to the hotel, dumped the bike off and went for a few beers down on Haad Yao Bay at a bar and watched the locals juggling with fire using batons and ropes. There were some people letting off Chinese lanterns which was pretty as we watched them float off out to sea and vanish one by one.
We're getting picked tomorrow at 615am as we are sailing back to Koh Samui to catch our flight to Pattaya on the mainland where we are visiting family for a couple of days.
Looking back on the last ten days we did chose the most popular Thai islands to visit so we cant really grumble too much about the state of them but i guess after the luxurious Belize Islands and Fiji Islands we have been spoiled too much and expected much more of the Thai Islands.




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14th February 2011

silverderm and internet
Hi Guys, Have enjoyed reading your blog. Shame about the dodgy bike! Jill, if your cuts and scrapes are still looking poor and feeling the same, go and pick up some 'Silverderm' cream from a pharmacist. Although its an antibacterial cream for burns, it works a treat on any kind of wound. Best thing I ever came across in a Thai pharmacy. I just have one question that I am desperate for an answer to, and as you have recently been in Koh Phangan and blogging, can you please tell me if the internet there is reliable and fast? Thanks heaps. Happy travels!
14th February 2011

hello
Hi there. Th internet was fine. I used wifi in the room and it was slow but reliable. The internet room downstairs was fast enough for Skype so i guess thats answered your question my friend! :P Enjoy.

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