Today (11/12) is another day of travelling, this time by taxi, boat, coach, plane, bus and sky train back to Bangkok. Since my last post we have been relaxing on the beaches on Ko Samui and Ko Phangan.
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06/12
After a flight to from Chiang Mai to Bangkok and then from Bangkok to Ko Samui, we arrived in the evening to cloudy but very humid conditions. We had heard that the weather down in the south had been quite changeable recently and a quick check of the weather forecast showed there was a chance of rain over the next couple of days.
We headed to our hostel for the next couple of nights, The Lounge in Bangrak. This is in a fairly quiet area of Samui on the north coast but is quite close to the airport and the ferry piers. We were in a shared dorm for the first time during the holiday. We were in a 5 bed room, but when we arrived there was no one else around. We went out to find some food and came across a nice restaurant, Ocean 11, on the sea front where I had amazing Scallops. After dinner we wandered along the beach until we came across a busy beach bar. We had a few drinks while listening to the live singer before going back to the hostel.
In the hostel lounge we got chatting to an English guy from York. He had moved out to Thailand 10 years ago to set up a diving school and travel agency on Ko Phangan and was on Samui to do business with the hostel's owner. It turned out he was now involved with the British embassy and was the British Honorary Consular Agent for Ko Phangan, providing assistance to Brits who get in trouble while on the island. He told us losts of stories about people he had helped and all the scams that go on. However, after telling us all the negative things he did balance it out by giving us a few tips on where to go and what to do near to where we were staying.
07/12
The next day turned out to be hot and sunny so we decided to have a day relaxing on the beach. The beach was only a very narrow strip but it was quite empty and was nice and sandy meaning it was the perfect spot to relax and go for refreshing swims in the water.
We broke the day up by visiting the Big Buddha, which was at the end of our stretch of beach. This is a 12m high golden Buddha in a temple overlooking the bay and is a big tourist attraction on Samui. It's on its own little island with lots of little stalls surrounding the temple. At the base of the Buddha there were some great views of the coastline that had just walked along. Before going back to relax on the beach again we got an ice cream from an ice cream parlour that claimed to sell 'probably the best ice cream on Samui', and to be fair it was very good so it probably is the best!
In the evening we got a taxi across to Chewang beach on the east coast of the island. This seemed to be the busiest part of the island and had a long strip of bars, restaurants and little stores. After getting some food we had a beer at a few of the bars (avoiding any that were empty apart from a group of Lady boys trying to encourage people to go in!) then went along to Ark bar, where several people had recommend we go to. This is a large bar/ club on the beach with fire shows every night. It was a very surreal place. We sat at the busy beach having a drink with the music pumping out loudly watching people juggle with fire and skip with burning ropes, small children trying to sell glow sticks amongst the crowds and locals carying lizards and monkeys around attempting to sell photos.
08/12
The day began hot and sunny again and it didn't look like the storm that had been forecast was going to materialise. Not only did this mean we were able to spend the morning relaxing on the beach, but also that the risk of me being sea sick on the ferry over to Ko Phangan was greatly reduced.
The ferry took about 50 mins to get from Ko Samui to Ko Phangan and was fairly small, holding about 200 passengers (and 2 chickens!), so even relatively small waves could be felt. Luckily the sea was calm enough that I didn't empty my lunch over the side of the boat.
When we arrived on Ko Phangan we got a minibus across to Ban Tai, halfway across the south coast. We were staying at The Hard Road Cafe hostel which advertises itself as 'No. 1 on TripAdvisor', so we were expecting good things. Once again we were in a dorm room, this time a 6 bed. The outside and communal area did look very good and the dorm room looked fine. The only problem was that there was only one working plug socket in the room! With six smart phones going to be needing power over the next few days, we were going to have to keep our eyes open for any possible charging points.
It was only mid afternoon when we arrived so we had more time to relax on the beach at our new location. This was also quite a narrow beach that didn't seem to be too busy and it even had a scattering of hammocks to lie in. I never knew hammocks were so comfy! I'm even tempted to try and get one set up in my bedroom at home they are that good. The beach we were on is known as 'sunset beach' and we were able to sit in the hostel's beach bar watching the sun set while drinking a welcome drink cocktail. The moment was enhanced further by the chillout music playing in the background. After the sun has set we went back to the hostel for food and drinks. While in the bar we watched a British band called Disney Rascal playing. They had quite a strange but entertaining set- a mashup of reggae and Disney songs!
09/12
For our first day on Ko Phangan we went for a walk along the beach towards Thong Sala in search of some water sports. After a lot of hunting around we eventually found a resort that hired out kayaks for the cheap price of £2 an hour. This was the first time both me and Jack had done sea kayaking, previously only doing it on lakes and rivers, so I wasn't sure how successful we were going to be. Turns out it's not much different when the sea is calm so we were able to easily paddle out to a small island about 15 minutes out to sea. After a short stop on its beach, we paddled around it exploring what it had to offer. We even did a bit of unintentional fishing! Several times during our trip we saw large shoals of small fish diving in and out of the water and one time one the fish dived straight into our kayak! We quickly put it back in the water to be with its friends.
Once we had walked back along the beach to the hostel it was early evening and time to get ready for The Half Moon Party. Every half moon there is a big party on Ko Phangan held deep in the jungle. It's not as big as the Full Moon parties, but as we weren't in Thailand for full moon we had timed our trip to Ko Phangan to coincide with half moon. Our hostel had organised a pre party which included an all you can eat Thai style bbq, UV body paint and a taxi to the party. This was quite good as we were able to meet people from the hostel to party with later on in the evening.
Around 11pm once we had had a few drinks and been UV painted up, we headed off to the Half Moon party. For about £12 you got entry, a drink and a cd. It was quite a surreal experience partying in the jungle under UV lights to house, trance and electro music. It sort of felt like being in a club, but with no roof... It's quite hard to explain! It was just the right busyness and was an amazing night. Not sure exactly what time we headed back to the hostel, but it must have been close to the closing time of 6am. It was clear the next day was going to be a late start!
10/12
As expected we didn't get up until late morning. We had brunch and headed straight to the beach were we spent the rest of the day.
In the evening we got a taxi down to Had Rin. After we'd had dinner we went for a walk along one of the beaches which holds the Full Moon parties. It seems all the bucket sellers are there every night, whatever day it is shouting at the few people there to buy the 'vodka', sprite & red bull concoction. Not sure they get much custom outside full moon! Before heading back to the hostel we got one last Thai pancake from a street seller. I went for Nutella and condensed milk one. So good yet so unhealthy.
Back at the hostel we had to pack our bags ready to travel back to Bangkok in the morning.
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