31st May – 4th June 2012
Finally leaving the touristy island of Phuket, I headed up on a local bus to Khao Lak (2hrs) to meet 2 of the girls I would be travelling and staying with in Ko Pha Ngan. Then we caught another local bus direct to Surat Thani.
I swore I would never come back to Surat Thani as I absolutely hate the sleaziness and vile vibes that I gain from the place. Luckily, we managed to grab a bus straight afterwards to Don Sak, the pier gateway to the islands of Ko Samui, Ko Pha Ngan and Ko Tao.
Landing on the ferry, we watched the sunset and arrived in Ko Samui for the night at Ibed Hostel, a really plush one that is. See below.
The next day, after catching up with another girl, we headed off to the pier on the lesser known vessel transport t take us from Ko Samui to Ko Pha Ngan. The Haadrin Queen. As we were staying in Haadrin, the beach where the Full Moon Party is, we decided to take a vessel to take us directly there rather than the official Thong Sala Pier, on the other end of the island. The ramshackle vessel was actually good fun to spend on for 40 mins and check out who our other island habitants would be. They all looked decidedly young. I realised it’s the end of exams for both sixth form and university so of course I was going to see many young people on my travels especially in the next 3 months as summer holidays would start. We felt old.
Arriving at our accommodation called ‘Moon Paradise Bungalows‘ we were pleased to discover that it wasn’t the ramshackle wooden huts that we led ourselves to believe but rather quite sturdy bricked chalets with own flushing toilets woop woop! Now what to do on Ko Pha Ngan?
There were a lot of activities to do during the day but they were so expensive and rather catered for the crowds who would have come here for a holiday rather than the backpacker experience. So generally, the next few days during the day, I could be found chilling out at the pool, reading my book at the cafes, or lazying about on the beach. it was all dependent on the weather as the wet season was slowly encroaching on this side of Thailand and quite often we would get caught in the rain even when you are in the pool!
It didn’t mean you couldn’t drink during the day as there were plenty on offer.
But as soon day turned into night, well there’s a party going on every night! The first night was the beach party!
The second night was the Pool Party! Now, I think this party was the best yet. It got very crazy and if you can remember the music video to Katy Perry’s last Friday Night, then that’s the vibe I was getting. I wish I took more photos though but water and cameras don’t mix. The photos below show the party just getting started, soon, everyone was throwing everybody in so of ou had something electronic on you…you were doomed. I ended up not wearing any of my hearing aids at all for the whole night!
The third night was the Boxing Night when we went to see some Muay Thai Boxing. It was pretty brutal and it seemed there are no rules! Check out the video.
The fourth night, I managed to meet up with one of my travel mates from Chiang Mai, Sabrina, and we went to the Waterfall Party. There was no waterfall due to the dry season (even though it had been raining a lot?) and the music was pants so we called it a night in preparation for the full moon party the next night…
Full Moon Party, here I come!
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