Ko Pha Ngan and Koh Samui

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Hi All,

The flight over was relatively painless (for me anyway, poor Lesley was very sick). On arrival to the airport at 10pm we discovered that they had just opened the new Bangkok airport and this was approx. 1 hour from the old international airport. Unfortunately we had booked a room near the old airport as we had a 6am flight the next morning. We decided that we would try and find a room closer to the new airport so walked past our transfer lady and went to information to try and determine where the closest hotel was to the new airport. There is only one hotel in the airport vicinity at the moment (the Novotel) so we jumped on the transfer bus and made our way there. After waiting in a never moving line for 20 minutes we determined that the hotel was completely booked so had to make our way back to the airport to try and get a transfer to our originally booked hotel. Needless to say, we were both tired and grumpy by this stage. Amazingly our transfer for the original booking was still waiting for us (1.5 hours after we arrived) so we made our way to the hotel and got ourselves a couple of hours sleep before having to get up and make our way back to the airport for our early morning flight to Koh Samui.

The Koh Samui airport is the weirdest airport I have ever seen (given that it is an international airport). It was basically a Asian style pergola (I have attached a picture).

After arriving at Koh Samui we jumped on a bus and then a boat and made our way across to Koh Pha Ngan. Initial impressions of the island was that it was very beautiful (although Palau Perinthian is much better) and it was just tuk tuk after tuk tuk full of backpackers making there way to the beach to look for accommodation. We had pre booked our accommodation at Coral Bungalows (thankfully as the island only has accommodation for 5000 people and they get between 7000 and 30000 people at the full moon parties each month). The accommodation was perfect. It was close enough that you could walk everywhere but far enough away to be quiet, it was clean and all the people staying there were also just looking for a bit of fun and relaxation. We basically just hung around for the two days prior to the full moon party.

The full moon party was unbelievable. There were literally thousands of people on the beach. I really wish I had taken my camera to get some pictures. There was a sleeping area (no word of lie - at any one stage there would be 10 - 15 people having a nap), fireworks, fire twirlers, music pumping, dancing and loads of drinking. The drink of choice is a bucket (yes a bucket) filled with 375ml vodka, a red bull and a soft drink of your choice. I took a real liking to these buckets (seemed like a good idea at the time) and managed to have a few over the course of the night. Lesley still wasn’t 100% so she ended up leaving at around 4am however I managed to stay for sunset and stumbled in at around 8.30am. You will be “shocked” to note that the night (actually morning) wasn’t without a fall and stacker managed to take some skin off of my face, legs, arms and hands. My hands were the worse hit so I have been bathing them in dettol and keeping them wrapped up to keep them clean every since. They are slowly coming good. All in all the night was fantastic. The rest of the time at Koh Pha Ngan was spent relaxing.

The boat ride back from Koh Pha Ngan to Koh Samui was absolute madness, every boating regulation would have been broken if we were in Australia. At least 1000 people and their luggage crammed on to a boat that probably should have only had 200- 300 people tops. Getting the luggage on was also interesting for Lesley and I as I had hurt my hand so was having difficulty carrying everything. We did it though (after running up and down the ramp, which was a piece of wood).

We also spent one night on Koh Samui. I didn’t really rate this place (very commercial) but it was nice to stay in a nice hotel for the night.

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Photos

Coral Bungalows
The view from the restaurant

Boat trip from Koh Phan Ngan to Koh Samui
This trip was madness, at least 1000 people crammed on this boat

Chewang Beach
Koh Samui

Comments

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buckets
hey trewhella, sounds like youre having a good time. how about hangovers though? these buckets need to be introduced over here somehwere. glad to hear your stack didnt involve hospitalisation, ambulances and shur downs of public transport. good work!!