The final Chapter - Full Moon, Koh Tao, Bangkok

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So this has been a long time in coming. Strange how I managed to go through my whole trip regularly writing blogs and it that last couple of weeks I floundered and found other things to occupy my time, rendering me unable to blog. I did try to write it once, but the net failed and wiped away my attempt. Oh well, I'm sure you're all excited to see that I'm back up and running and here is my final installment of my 6ish month trip away.

Kev and I met up for our bus journy from Chiang Mai to Bangkok. This went horribly wrong as the woman had booked us onto separate buses with different companies. Despite knowing we were travelling together. Fool. So I missed out on DVD action, but they did show 'Old School' on my bus, so fun times. We arranged to meet at 'The Temple'. Others were bemused as to how we were gonna figure out which temple out of the many in Bangkok, but luckily Kev and I understood and did meet at 6am at the temple near Khao San road. We then decided that sticking around in BKK for the night wasn't really an attractive option so booked straight onto the overnight trip to Koh Pha Ngan. We ended up travelling for about 3 days which was pretty tiring, but it meant we had one extra day to prepare ourselves for the Full moon period.
The day we arrived on Koh Pha Ngan, we headed straight to our hostel. IT was one of the least nice hostels i've ever stayed in, and we were in a 16 bed dorm. Craziness, but luckily there was excellent air conditioning. The hostel was run by a ex-pat (of course) and was sort of a bar (but not a particularly brilliant one) and had odd characteristics like no lighting in one of the bathrooms and missing taps and things like that. But the guy who ran it was pretty jokes, and the best part was it was about 2 seconds walk from Haadrin beach, the main party beach. I guess this was good AND bad. sleeping really wasn't an option, but it did mean we could get to where the action was reeally easy. Would I stay there again....perhaps, i did really enjoy my time there! What was really nice is that there was kev and I, some of my kiwiexperience crew(+1) and we made friends with another group of 6, and so it was really cool hanging out with them for a few days.

So we spent the days jsut wondering around the haadrin area. I had had enough of rushing about so was pleased to just chill out and enjoy then sunshine (when it came out anyways!) and prepare for the evenings events. IT was great to see the kiwi crew again and here tales of their exploits such as getting drunk and walking into the sea with camera and ipod. whooops!

The first night out was the pre-full mooon party and basically involved our group drinking buckets and checking out some of the bars alongthe beach. There was one bar which played some pretty good trance, and of course the other bars which had fire spinners and firey skipping ropes and things like that. All good fun. I managed to hold on to all my belongings (Whoop!) so defintely a good evening.

Full Moon night was slightly disappointing. For me anyways. I managed to miss out on most of the evening because I had a massive stomach cramp. Sooo annyoing. I was really angry about it and this anger kept me awake all night. People came to visit me every so often tho, so i still felt part of the action. And went out for sunrise at 6am (well it was behind a cloud...so less than impressive!).

The next evening was post full moon. Many of the crew had massive hangovers, but I was fine! In fact, feeling a lot better I went out to party, it was significantly less crowded out there as I'm sure lots of the people on the island had had enough the previous evening. I had fun though, and raved enough to make up for missing the main event!

The following morning we had to leave bright and early to get our ferry to Koh Tao. Well we had to get up for 7.30, but we didnt actually catch a ferry till 11 because of all the other people trying to leave the island. Soooo annoying missing out on sleep! Also sad to leave the Kiwi crew as it I now won't get to see them till I'm back in the UK! Unless they come visit me in Oz (please!). We'd booked with the same dive company as 5 of the other people in our dorm, so were able to continue hanging out with them for the duration of our stay. I got pretty attached to these guys in the time we spent together, I am definitely planning on partying it up with them in Manchester when I get back home...eventually! So yes, I spent a couple of days doing more lazing around with the guys who weren't diving, whilst Kev and some of the crew started their diving courses. We hired moto's and i failed miserably at driving (no accidents tho, just terrible balance problems!) and so was given a backy by Harry. We wore helmets and everything. The first night we went to an Irish bar and all had tasty tasty western food. And my first Pint of good cider in about 3 months! yeeeah. Oh and some pimms :-)
I also did some diving, which was good, I don't reckon the diving was anywhere near as good as the Great Barrier Reef. It jsut wasn't as full of life. but it was still pretty fun. It felt really weird to be doing all the budy checks and things without the people i learnt to dive with...and stange to be back in the water and having to remember everything important! It took my first couple of dives for me to feel properly confortable in the water again, but I had got it sorted in time for our night dive, which was awesome. We saw luminescence which was ace, although some guy kept shining his torch, ruining the effect. muppet. And some of the guys on our dive were not spatially aware....kept landing on me and nudging my mask...and as mentioned previously i always have issues with masks fittting my child sized head, so the enraged me somewhat!

We had a couple of nights out, one unplanned game of ring of fire, due to some guys in the bar asking us to join in the fun and one very much planned night out at a newly opened nightclub, which was thoroughly enjoyable. We also met a guy who owned a bar who couldn't have been much more dull if he tried, and kev being the nice lad that he is kept inviting conversation. Unfortunately it always ended up involving a long drawn out story about why the electricity generators in the island don't work despite being new. See, you're bored already and this guy spent at least 30 mins on several occasions telling us about it.

Anyway, we had fun on the island. A relaxed, but really fun time. And then i had to leave to go and collect my new passport from the British Embassy in Bangkok. I was sad as this meant heading off on my own whilst the others continued having fun. But i guess this is the price you pay for being a dufus and not keeping your passport secure.
So I went, and i collected and I got my haircut. Fun times.
Then everyone came up to Bangkok for one last night out together. It was awesome having spent the day all by my lonesome to suddenly have everyone with me again. But sad as this was the last couple of days I would be spending with Kev after 2 months travelling together. Anyways, we went out had fun. And thats about it.
The following day Kev and I went back to Alex's (he's the one who is teaching in Bangkok now) and went for another night out at his local bar. Good times.
We also saw a crazy crazy sunset which i tried to capture, but i'm not sure it really does it justice!
Then my trip was over. I had a manic day on my last day in Bangkok trying to sort out my visa for Oz, which i had been told to transfer to my new passport, so i spent immense amounts of time, money and sanity trying to sort it all out only to be told I just needed to go and check in at the airport and it would automatically sort itself out. ANGRY!

Whoops, what a way to finish a blog. Hows about this.

The last 6 months has been immense. I've met some amazing people who I will hopefully be keeping in contact with. I've seen some beautiful places.Had amazing adventures and done crazy things I never thought I would be able to.
It really has been fantastic. I urge other people to give travelling a try if you're hesitant about making that leap in to the unknown. It will do you the world of good.
If you've been reading this the whole time. I hope you think it has been worth it and enjoyable!

I guess my final question is. Should I carry on? As you are aware, I'm going to be in Aus for at least a year. If you still wanna hear what i'm up to over here, do let me know, and i'll try and continue to write.
If you think that my 'travels' are over now and i should give it up. Also let me know!

Cheers

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Comments

[D]

More blogs please
Great sunset pics, must have been awesome. More blogs please to brighten up our winter x

[anonymous]

Amazing sunset!