I know I have been slow at updating the blog but life on Thailands gulf islands has been slow, that's why people flock here:)
However, I have very strong evidence that there is another reason why people, particularily between the ages of 18 and 22 but many of all ages would come to Koh Phangan. The full moon party!
We enjoyed Koh Samui but knew in spite of the bad weather we were having we wanted to try another island in the Siam Gulf chain and we had been hearing about the approaching full moon party. It is what every backpacker to Thailand talks about as being the most amazing party they have ever been to and i have been hearing about it for a decade!
Alas, it was a considerably overrated unless you are between the ages of 18 and 22 I suppose.
If you enjoy cheap booze and watching people urinate, throw rubbish and occasionally vomit on the beach you may find it a good time but it was nothing more than 5000 people, most under 25 destroying themselves (and the beach)on homemade whiskey. Many were almost passed out( and many get robbed this way) and many roaming around alone having lost their friends and a fair number of people just were just too drunk to enjoy the music and didn't look like they were having fun.(booths all over the beach sell plastic buckets with 6 shots of cheap whiskey, red bull and coke for 7 dollars so you can see how young people lose their heads, an example being a group of young men who doused a skipping rope in gasoline and and lit it on fire encouraging people to partake!)
However all that being said, if you go with the right people and completely realistic expectations, that its just some DJ's on the beach you can still have a good time! And we did! We were hanging out with another couple whom we had met earlier on that day from Colorado and had quite a blast dancing, visiting and watching the spectacle. We even did manage to ditch the moonshine and found some real bacardi buckets! However,note to travelers who may be reading,if you are going to Koh phangan during the full moon party week all hotels require you to books minimum of 4 nights and the standard of accommodation is lower and the price higher than Koh Samui. We had just as much fun partying on Samui and I find the beaches nicer on Samui as a whole.
Rewinding a bit, before the full moon party we had a couple days to explore the island and with a serious torrential downpour beaches weren't an option so we did what we do best and rented a motorbike to boot around our little island!
So for two days we motored around in a storm but we ended up quite enjoying ourselves albeit returning to our hotel pretty soaked!
Our first day we headed up island to get away from the party tourism and found a Chinese Buddhist Temple we had read about that was built by women recently who had a vision to build it. It was interesting to compare a Thai and Chinese Buddhist Temple. Quite similar though the Chinese temple seemed to have more animal representation particularly the dragon. It's location in the lush mountain jungle with the sea in the distance really gave it a mystic feel.
We then stumbled upon a quirky animal park that seemed to be run by a family. It was quite small but offered a good time with an exciting array of insects, reptiles and of course elephants:)
We ended up wrapping a python around our necks, coming within inches of crocodiles and having a great time feeding bananas to the elephants.
We had the whole park to ourselves and for next to nothing they let us walk around what I'm pretty sure was their backyard and just hang out with the animals. It was a really relaxing and enjoyable time! We couldn't give an educated answer to the elephant training techniques but we figured feeding them rather than riding them was probably the best thing we could do. It was a nice activity even though I was a little concerned with the make shift nature of the cages particularly of the crocodiles and Cobra!! Good time though!!
We then headed further north til we hit the north shore and a fishing town named Chaloklum. It was eerily quiet but had a French bakery that won our hearts with our first step in, the smell of freshly baked bread!! We hadn't tasted that for so long so we plunked our rain soaked selves down and munched on oven warm baguette's with butter and cheese!! So simple but something so hard to find sometimes. We encountered a litter of orphaned puppies on the beach near the bakery that literally broke our heart, particularly as one followed us down the beach. It was heart wrenching:(
We then made our way back to our hotel and stopped by a waterfall on the way which was pretty cool. By this point were soaked so we booted home to change clothes and dry off before spending the evening at a cafe starting our planning for Bali:)
The next day headed out to find a zip line park, again in the torrential rain. This was (and still is!) getting tiresome but we had no interest in sitting around our hotel all day(which was a thumbs down hotel) and watching 20 year olds drink all day.
The rain was even worse than the previous day but we soldiered along to find our park and even amidst the rain the drive was amazing! We wound our way up a mountain and the jungle vistas were magic to the eyes. We found ourselves maneuvering down some pretty dodgy dirt roads and I was worried at times about losing a tire but we did make it to our zip line paradise where the owner informed us they were closed due to safety concerns with the rain! I was more than happy they put safety first! We chatted with him for a while and he let us walk around his park and just check out the jungle scene.
We then decided we needed some dry time so we set off to find a cafe Niki had found that had real coffee(most coffee in Thailand,like India,is Nescafé)
We found it and ended up meeting Scot and Katy, our full moon accomplices for the night! (We made it til about 5 am which is a valiant effort!)
Was Koh Phangan the golden child of tropical island experiences? For us no, but had the rain not been such a persistent bugger we may have been able to enjoy its tropical gems more.
And we did have a great time exploring the island regardless of the rain and the islands unusually hardcore focus on partying( did I mention they have quarter moon, half moon and black moon parties as well! Basically there is a party every night!)
We headed back to Koh Samui(which we were told gets the least rain)for the last couple nights of our Thailand leg before we fly to Bali!
We are busy with Bali preparations which I am off to continue right now!
Peace:)
 |
| View from our hotel café:) |
However, I have very strong evidence that there is another reason why people, particularily between the ages of 18 and 22 but many of all ages would come to Koh Phangan. The full moon party!
We enjoyed Koh Samui but knew in spite of the bad weather we were having we wanted to try another island in the Siam Gulf chain and we had been hearing about the approaching full moon party. It is what every backpacker to Thailand talks about as being the most amazing party they have ever been to and i have been hearing about it for a decade!
Alas, it was a considerably overrated unless you are between the ages of 18 and 22 I suppose.
If you enjoy cheap booze and watching people urinate, throw rubbish and occasionally vomit on the beach you may find it a good time but it was nothing more than 5000 people, most under 25 destroying themselves (and the beach)on homemade whiskey. Many were almost passed out( and many get robbed this way) and many roaming around alone having lost their friends and a fair number of people just were just too drunk to enjoy the music and didn't look like they were having fun.(booths all over the beach sell plastic buckets with 6 shots of cheap whiskey, red bull and coke for 7 dollars so you can see how young people lose their heads, an example being a group of young men who doused a skipping rope in gasoline and and lit it on fire encouraging people to partake!)
However all that being said, if you go with the right people and completely realistic expectations, that its just some DJ's on the beach you can still have a good time! And we did! We were hanging out with another couple whom we had met earlier on that day from Colorado and had quite a blast dancing, visiting and watching the spectacle. We even did manage to ditch the moonshine and found some real bacardi buckets! However,note to travelers who may be reading,if you are going to Koh phangan during the full moon party week all hotels require you to books minimum of 4 nights and the standard of accommodation is lower and the price higher than Koh Samui. We had just as much fun partying on Samui and I find the beaches nicer on Samui as a whole.
Rewinding a bit, before the full moon party we had a couple days to explore the island and with a serious torrential downpour beaches weren't an option so we did what we do best and rented a motorbike to boot around our little island!
So for two days we motored around in a storm but we ended up quite enjoying ourselves albeit returning to our hotel pretty soaked!
Our first day we headed up island to get away from the party tourism and found a Chinese Buddhist Temple we had read about that was built by women recently who had a vision to build it. It was interesting to compare a Thai and Chinese Buddhist Temple. Quite similar though the Chinese temple seemed to have more animal representation particularly the dragon. It's location in the lush mountain jungle with the sea in the distance really gave it a mystic feel.
We then stumbled upon a quirky animal park that seemed to be run by a family. It was quite small but offered a good time with an exciting array of insects, reptiles and of course elephants:)
We ended up wrapping a python around our necks, coming within inches of crocodiles and having a great time feeding bananas to the elephants.
We had the whole park to ourselves and for next to nothing they let us walk around what I'm pretty sure was their backyard and just hang out with the animals. It was a really relaxing and enjoyable time! We couldn't give an educated answer to the elephant training techniques but we figured feeding them rather than riding them was probably the best thing we could do. It was a nice activity even though I was a little concerned with the make shift nature of the cages particularly of the crocodiles and Cobra!! Good time though!!
We then headed further north til we hit the north shore and a fishing town named Chaloklum. It was eerily quiet but had a French bakery that won our hearts with our first step in, the smell of freshly baked bread!! We hadn't tasted that for so long so we plunked our rain soaked selves down and munched on oven warm baguette's with butter and cheese!! So simple but something so hard to find sometimes. We encountered a litter of orphaned puppies on the beach near the bakery that literally broke our heart, particularly as one followed us down the beach. It was heart wrenching:(
 |
| Orphaned puppies, this one followed us for a while, it was heartbreaking:( |
The next day headed out to find a zip line park, again in the torrential rain. This was (and still is!) getting tiresome but we had no interest in sitting around our hotel all day(which was a thumbs down hotel) and watching 20 year olds drink all day.
The rain was even worse than the previous day but we soldiered along to find our park and even amidst the rain the drive was amazing! We wound our way up a mountain and the jungle vistas were magic to the eyes. We found ourselves maneuvering down some pretty dodgy dirt roads and I was worried at times about losing a tire but we did make it to our zip line paradise where the owner informed us they were closed due to safety concerns with the rain! I was more than happy they put safety first! We chatted with him for a while and he let us walk around his park and just check out the jungle scene.
We then decided we needed some dry time so we set off to find a cafe Niki had found that had real coffee(most coffee in Thailand,like India,is Nescafé)
We found it and ended up meeting Scot and Katy, our full moon accomplices for the night! (We made it til about 5 am which is a valiant effort!)
Was Koh Phangan the golden child of tropical island experiences? For us no, but had the rain not been such a persistent bugger we may have been able to enjoy its tropical gems more.
And we did have a great time exploring the island regardless of the rain and the islands unusually hardcore focus on partying( did I mention they have quarter moon, half moon and black moon parties as well! Basically there is a party every night!)
We headed back to Koh Samui(which we were told gets the least rain)for the last couple nights of our Thailand leg before we fly to Bali!
We are busy with Bali preparations which I am off to continue right now!
Peace:)
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