Koh Phangan

Party party party!!!  It's a glorious world of buckets, neon paint and lots of debauchery.  Every night you have a plethora Of parties to choose from. Whether its the pool party down the street, a party on the beach or a chill out time at the Mello Mountian Mushroom Bar. From the minute we got there, music was pouring from the beach and lots of people on the street convincing you to go to their bar over their competitors. It was awesome!

Our accomedations were actually on the other side of Haad Rin, where Sunset Beach is. It's close enough to the party to walk to but far enough away that you could pass out in a hammock without hearing a peep. It was bliss! And walking down the streets, you are not let down by the amount of shops selling anything from clothes, floppy flops, jewelry, to buckets of booze. In a single block you could change your outfit into neon clothes, get decorated in neon paint and pre drink with even wincing. We did this and soon after hit up the parties.

I can't really give a vivid description, only because they felt like they all melted into one big night. I know the pool party had a lot people and they sold laughing gas on the side. Everyone was dancing in the pool, splashing and having a good time, however you needed to have your head on a swivel in there. I remember (slightly) that people would have chicken fights on each other shoulders, and usually they would fall on you if you didnt get out of the way. The beach was a mass of people with a bucket in the hand dancing up a storm along the sandy front. Everyone would be in such good spirits regardless of where you were, so making random friends along the way was inevitable. I even had my friend from Gold's gym, who had been working in Vietnam for the past few months, come down and party with me NYE. Jared and company took a boat from Koh Samui to ring in the new year and it was great to see him. I forgot how drunk we get when we see each other and this was no exception starting at 5pm. And it looked like dinner was a liquid diet of redbull and whiskey, which leads to inevitable black out. Luckily I did not black out much and had Garrett the to feed me food at some point in the night. It it was also a bad way to find out that the red bull contained speed and aphederine, and put your stomach in knots if you drank too much of it. Guilty. Regardless everyone made it through the party binge week safely and we had a mutual rest day on the 1st.

Bucket?

Sunrise Beach

Or until we got a call from our tour booking company to let us know that our travel plans needed to change for the 2nd because there was a slight flooding issue. Our original plan was to take a ferry back to Surant Thani (the main port and transportation hub) and then take a bus to the Malaysian border to make our way to Medan, Indonesia. With the flooding, the bus couldn't make it to the border and now we were stuck. Our visas expired on the 2nd with the Thai government, and if we stayed its a 500baht penalty per day so we needed to get out somewhere. Our options were to fly out, stay there, or make a visa run. Since the flights were sold our for at least 5 more days, and weighing in the options, we decided to make a visa run to Burma, as it was the closest place to us and apparently quicker. So we were now scheduled to leave Koh Phangan at 7 am for our ferry, catch a bus to Ranong (closest city to the border in Thailand), take a taxi to the immigration office and take a boat to the Burma border. This was supposedly do able in one day however, because of the flooding we were delayed more. The bus was originally suppose to take ony 4 hours but since the flood also affected our road from Surant Thani to Ranong, we took a 6 hour detour back up north and then south again. By the time we got into Ranong, it was midnight and the immigration office closed at 6pm and so did a lot of reception desks for accomedations. We ended up meeting 3 other people that were in the same situation and so we all stuck together and found a room that fit all of us. In the morning, the people at the reception organized our transportation for the border run for a set fee and so here we go again. The immigration office made us pay our penalty for our one day overstay, even though we technically got a 1 day leanancy, and then we were on a long boat to the border.

Koh Phi Phi was beautiful! The breathing taking white sandy beaches and the crystal clear blue waters was a sight for sore eyes. As amazing as it was, Phi Phi was an unexpected surprise and we didn't plan or research what there was to do other than be a beach bum. But after that week, it took little convincing that was just what we needed. Yes we eventually booked a couple tours but nothing crazy. We ventured out on a diving excursion one day seeing black tipped reef sharks (they don't bite, they are more scared of us then we are of them), turtles, lots of clown fish and trigger fish. Tried to restart the party by going on a booze cruise that didn't turn out so boozy, however Garrett ran into a guy named Stu that he met in South America last year. It was funny because Garrett literally was talking to another couple from Rio, and as he is explaining the story that involved a crazy soccer match and Stu, Stu turned around and recognized Garrett. Small world!!

Our last day in Phi Phi ended with a sunset boat tour of all the other islands including the famous Maya Beach where the film "The Beach" was filmed. Yes it is as nice as the movie depicted it, except for when you put your head under water and see all the dead and destroyed coral that was once there. I am sure the tsunami had a hand in the destruction but I'm also certain that the extra attention the beach got after the movie was made was also a huge contributer. Don't get me wrong, there is still a great amount of marine life still there, it's just sad when you know the potential that it once had. This is where we saw a lionfish, turtles, loads of sea urchins and clown fish. So on the lighter side of the tour, we did a lot of snorkeling and kayaking which was really nice! And to end of our tour, we watched the sunset slowly melt into the horizon with the sea breeze in the air. It was a really enjoyable farewell from an island that I hope to come back to someday.

The Gang