December 2005 – Koh Phangan
So after spending 2 weeks on Koh Samui we headed off to Koh Phangan. For $6, a 1.5 hour ferry ride gets you there. We headed to The High Life, not sure what we would be getting. When we arrived we were pleasantly surprised to see a bungalow overlooking Haad Yao beach only steps away from the water. The bungalow had only a fan, which was fine because there was an incredible breeze off the ocean and only cold water, which was also ok since it was always warm weather. And for $9/night, who’s complaining???!! The bed was clean, the floors and walls were great and the bathroom was all tile. It was awesome. We also had our own hammock on the deck over looking the coral and the beach. We could definitely see ourselves staying here for a long time……and 2 weeks later we left. Of course not before renting a bike and going to Haad Rin, the Full Moon Party central. The roads were 20% incline and this 115cc bike we had rented did not have enough umph to get us up these grades. In first gear, the thing stalled and I had to jump off the back of the bike – this happened twice. Now stuck between one mountain and another, I felt as though I was being tortured too much to be having any fun. Andre would have to take the bike to the bottom and get a run on to get up…..This was hell! And I wanted no more of it until Andre covinced me we only had a short way left. The beach turned out not to be as nice as we thought, but b/c of the high winds, a lot of garbage had come onto shore. When we eventually got back, we dropped the bike off – I wanted no more of that thing!
Since a lot of time has gone by, I think I’ll just summarize most of what’s happened along our travels. We spent a lot of time reading in the hammock…..I have completed my 4th book….Sarah would be proud. Andre has eaten a ton of seafood, his favorite being the barracuda. I got a pedicure and a Thai massage on the beach totalling 300 baht = $9 and it entertained me for 2 hours! We went to The Apple Bar with a Brent-look-a-like from Serbia and went to The Lizard Lounge to see a live band that turned out to be one guy playing a guitar and singing really badly – but it was fun……My birthday was spent having a great pasta and wine meal, Andre singing me happy birthday in front of everyone in the entire restaurant and my cake was a famous Thailand pancake with Nutella and a candle of course! My gift was a beautiful Shiva eye necklace to add to my collection of tricates from around the world I already have…..we also partied a little too hard that night with some Germans and cannot remember how we got home and scaled down the steepest stairs from the rooftop bar we were at…although we both woke us with bruises – Andre’s on his bicep and mine on my butt! We got some really funny laughs the next morning and were called the crazy Canadians…..we left in 2 days, so I guess it really didn’t matter what it was we did! We went tothe Full Moon Party even tough it had been cancelled, supposedly b/c of the weather, but when we got there we found out that it had been cancelled because 2 Swiss girls had drowned in the undertow. There were still a lot of people looking for a place to party and although there weren’t any of the famous DJ partied happening the beach was crowded with people looking to have a fun time. We caught a taxi back at 5am and slept until noon. Two days later we flew back to Bangkok on an airline called One-Two-Fly – I think it would be nice for the airline to at least have counted to 3 before the flying part, but we got here safely, avoided staying at the brothel district where we had made a reservation without knowing about it, completed our wedding certificate translations, , got our Cambodia and Laos visas, each only taking a half day – in fact the Laos one was complete in 30 minutes. We took a government bus to Trat one day ago and from there refused to take a dangerously overloaded boat to Ko Chang. Instead, Andre humped his butt to find a much larger and safer, equipped with life jackets, vehicle ferry. We are now enjoying the sun and are having fun with Andre’s aunt and uncle- Heinz and Virginia…..I guess we should go and join them on the beach!
Tags: Travel
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Hey Patricia & Andre,
Looks as if those beaches in Thailand have got hold of you!! Dan & I are in Siem Reap, Cambodia and I wanted to see whether you were anywhere near. I talked to Larry at work and he mentioned that you were heading here next. We’ve only been here 5 days (in the country) but it’s feeling FAR removed from Vancouver!! Tomorrow we’ll start checking out the big temples, amidst the crowd of tourists. So far we’ve spent time on our own and take every opportunity to meet local people – they are so friendly and interesting.
Hope you are enjoying married life so far! Isn’t the Internet great – love all the photos.
Take care, Mary (and Dan)