Stoopid Girl in Haad Rinn

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The word on the street is that Koh Phangan is the type of Island you need to walk away from with an injury to have truly experienced it.


After taking our overpriced cab (we would later learn that ALL rides cost 100 baht regardless of how far you are going or how many people are crammed in the back) we were over joyed to see our accommodations.

Air conditioning, a TV, flushing toilet and the most joyous of all HOT WATER.

The only down fall to this room was the fact that the bed Sandra and I shared was nothing more than glorified wood. But as it turns out when in Koh Phangan sleeping is not an activity you engage in frequently so the status of your bed is actually quite irrelevant.

As I mentioned before, time and day are also irrelevant factors. This point was just highlighted as I saw that I had written the date in my diary this particular day as Jan 2. Upon inspection that could not be further from the date as New Years is the next day and the 2nd is actually in the future.

So the morning of the “2nd” we headed down to Haad Rinn. This is the beach where the Full Moon parties take place and where everybody under the age of 40 who is in Thailand goes for New Years Eve.

During the day it is a gorgeous white sand beach with beautiful rocky hills and restaurants lining it. At one of those restaurants we met up with the Canadian honeymooners and organized to meet at the same location the next night for the party.

Afterwards we headed up to Mushroom mountain. Enough said about that place but rest assured dad it was just a mountain for me

It was not just a mountain for one of my friends and we ended up having to drop her home and then Jenn and I headed to the Masons Arms to meet our English friends.

The Masons Arms is this beautiful English pub in the middle of a Thai island. My first thought upon entering was “why did I come across the world to sit in a place that looks just like a pub from home?” after having a think on it I realized that for those people who are travelling for extended periods of time a place like this would be much needed because whether we like to admit it or not at certain times we all want to feel at home.

Here we met up with Will and Mark who we met in Fiji and who stayed with us in Australia. 2 English, 2 Canadians, Three countries.

At the end of the night we ended up back in Haad Rinn.

At night the beach is transformed into a rave. Liquor lines the make shift booths, men twirl fire, and everyone dances. Needless to say I was the dancing queen.

Now the next portion of this blog I have struggled with whether to write about it or not but as this portion turned out to be a huge life lesson and I have never been good at keeping things to myself here we go....dad prepare to gasp in horror.

At the end of the night I met up with the English boys we had started the trip off with. This is where I would make my second stoopid decision in Thailand.

I got on the back of a scooter with a guy I barely knew.

And we crashed.

The crash itself was not bad. I had a cut elbow and road rash on my leg but it was nothing major nor threatening. What was major was standing in the middle of a Thailand road at night with no phone (stolen), no shoes (also stolen) and two strangers.

That moment of standing shaking and bleeding on the side of the road is one of the worst moments of my life as I realized how stoopid and irresponsible I had been. As the daughter of a father who is a mechanic, race car driver and motorcycle rider I am more than well aware of the dangers of vehicles.

We go to Thailand and think that the rules do not apply and we are untouchable. As many of us learned on this Island we are not.

Luckily I made it home safely and lived to tell the tale and learn my lesson...and believe me I did.
By no means was I the only one injured during that week and by no means were my injuries even remotely as bad as others but regardless of the severity I have learned the lesson that I am in fact human and that I must at all times see the value of my life.

Of course this situation has now become the punch line of many jokes for my friends and as always I am able to laugh at myself. But don’t let my ability to rebound fool you, I will not end up putting myself into another situation that could land me on the 6’oclock news.

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