Everyone needs some gong in their life- Ko Phangan

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Day 13

After one of the worst nights of sleep yet to experience, we quickly pull our things together to get the hell out of there. One big obstacle though, it was monsoon'ing. Was it the sanctuary telling us not to leave. Was it one of the many goddesses giving us a sign? Well we weren't falling for it. We knew that these city girls couldn't handle another night of "wanna be" hippie life. We wanna be the type of gypsy's that wander in style and we had to listen to the inner Linz and Kemp. So we grabbed our oversized backpack and headed to the "lobby" without help from a friendly bellhop.

We approached the front desk and told one of the Thai hippies that checked us in the day prior that we needed to check out. Oh the look on his face said we practically killed his first born. He pleaded with us, "is something wrong? What happened? You don't like?" We simply said, "everything was great, we just are touring. Time for the next place." Well that did not register. Who would ever want to leave The Sanctuary? The disapproval was clear, but we couldn't let it sway us. So we settled our bill... Cash only and on the honor system, of course. We headed over to the only way off the island... The taxi boat guys.

These guys were feeling the chill as well. They spend their days fishing, laying in hammocks, and waiting for the unlucky soul who wants to leave this bit of "paradise." They know full well that they are the only way off "the island." We put this in quotes for one reason. If you have ever seen the movie, "the island" with Leonardo DiCaprio, this is where we were. Nobody dares try and leave the island. But we were. These pirates of the taxi boat industry knew they had us. They could see the desperation to leave all over our faces. And thus the bidding war began.

We told them where we were going, Santhiya our 5 star resort, and they started at 2000 baht. Lindsay rebuttled with 1000. Here entered the head boat driver who came in at a whopping 3000 baht. Our faces dropped and we said, "come on too much." Kemper was attempting her international sign language which got us nowhere. And she looked at Lindsay and went in for 2000. We wanted off and were willing to pay. Up walks the other guy who checked us in the day prior and he asked us where we were going. When we said "Santhiya," he about curled over. We had officially offended everyone working at The Sanctuary. No help to him and with shame in our hearts, we landed at 2500 baht. Yes it was more than where we started, but we had to get out of there while the rain had let up.

At our ocean entry onto the boat, Lindsay belly flopped into the boat and Kemper barely made it in with all her bags. We were finally off! 75 US dollars later and totally worth it. Kemper, Lindsay, and a boat full of dead fish were on their way to the beautiful Santhiya Resort. We had arrived once again. They met us at the boat, carried our bags, and hit a gong once we arrived at the actual lobby (yes they had a real lobby). A watermelon smoothie and cold scented hand towels later, we were checked in. The room was not 100% ready, so we treated ourselves to a champagne lunch. Yes it was only 11am but we deserved this. We had a rough night being hunted by a mutant spider.

The lovely staff escorted us to our room after lunch. Let the pictures speak for themselves. In the words of our dear friend Karen, this place was fab. They provided sandals, hand bags for the beach, plenty of mosquito repelling candles, a living room area, a deck over looking the ocean and a posh outdoor shower. We were in heaven once again.

We spent the day pool side with fresh coconut juice (in the actual coconut), the warm sun on our faces, and a staff ready to please. We were back on vacation. As dinner time rolled around, we decided to leave our fab resort and find something in town. Lindsay left it up to Kemper to choose the place, so Kemper went with her gut instinct and landed on "the jip shop." And what a find! We started off with 2 margaritas. Let me tell you...we have tried a margarita everywhere we have been, but this underaged bartender served up something special. Best yet! We were feeling it and knew we were in a good place when they brought over the Jenga tower. The owner, Jip, herself took us under her wing and made sure it was a dinner and night to remember. This family run restaurant adopted us (invited us to stay in their personal home if we returned) and we felt like every decision we were making was right. Back on track.

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