island hoping in the rain

Since I left Bangkok I have been Island hoping around Thailand. I was slightly anxious to leave Heidi since we had been together for 6 weeks or so, and was a little nervous to be on my own again, but at the same time excited to see who I would meet and where I would go.

My first stop was Koh Tao. An overnight bus from Bangkok dropped everyone off at a town called Champon at about 5am. The ferry to the island didn’t leave until 7am. So after an 8 hour bus ride, 2 hours at the ferry pier, 2 and ½ hours on the boat I arrived on Koh Tao. It is a little island on the east coast of Thailand. It is known primarily as a diving island. There are dive schools all over, and many places will not accommodate you unless you are taking a dive course. Luckily I found a bungalow at a place called SeaShell and although it was expensive, it was only about 100 meters to the beach. I knew that there were two Danish girls on Koh Tao who I had met in Vietnam a few times, and again a couple times in Laos. We (luckily) ran into each other on the street and to make a long story short have been traveling together since (except one night on Koh Phangan).

Koh Tao was super chill and relaxing, and a beautiful island; incredible sunsets and lot of great restaurants, bars, and cafe’s. I left after two nights to hit up Koh Phangan. This island is primarily known to the backpacker crowd as the “full moon party island”. To non-backpackers it is known for its beauty on the northern side. I met 3 Canadians on the boat in the morning, and ended up just following them to where they were staying. The guy, Jevin, stayed here before, so I thought, “sweet he knows it to be a good place”… This was by far and away the most dirty, disgusting, horrible place I have ever stayed. There were holes in the walls, ceiling, and door. Bugs everywhere, spiders in my bed, cobwebs like crazy, the fan had no metal screen around it just the fins that spun, it was bad. I stayed there one night and shared the room with one of the 3 Canadians. In the morning I moved out as quickly as possible, which wasn’t all that quick because of the major rain storm.

It rained the entire time I was on Koh Phangan. The Danish girls, Camilla, and Maria, met up with me after one night there, and although we were staying at a MUCH nicer place directly on the beach with a pool, we couldn’t enjoy it because of the rain. Also, because of the rain it meant I couldn’t get to the other parts of the island because taxi’s could not get there. So I ended up staying in Hat Rin home of the full moon party. I was not there for one of these famous parties, however I was there for a half moon party. In the jungle of the island, thousands of people gathered, with glow sticks, trance and techno music, fire shows, dancing, drinking, neon paint, etc. It was a lot of fun, I can’t imagine how crazy the full moon party must get on the beach.
The theme of Koh Phangan was buckets (beach buckets filled with a mixed drink), fire shows, and lots and lots of rain.

We left Koh Phangan with the hope of finding sun on the west coast of Thailand. After another crazy long journey from Koh Phangan to Koh Phi Phi consisting on 2 boats, and 4 buses/minivans, we got to Koh Phi Phi. We were warned about the cost of how expensive this island has become but I was still shocked to find out that accommodation with only a fan in a dingy place would be $1200 baht for the 3 of us. We stayed in the dingy room one night and searched for a new place for the rest of the stay. Luckily we found a room with aircon and a TV for $1200 as well. Koh Phi Phi is HOT and rainy. Really rainy. The first day at the beach you could not even lay on the beach it was so hot. We ended up just sitting in the water the whole time. Kho Phi Phi’s beach is nice with rock cliffs jutting up from the sides, and really blue water. Gorgeous. One scene from the movie “The Beach” was filmed at the smaller of the two Phi Phi Islands, (phi phi lay) and we decided to take a half day sunset snorkel trip around the two islands. Clearly we didn’t check the weather forcast because it rained the ENTIRE time. Sunny when we left the pier, and about 15 mins into it a storm rolled on through. The snorkeling was pretty bad, (we also did a snorkel trip on Koh Tao that was good), the weather was shit. and Maya Bay where “the beach” was filmed was cold. However, the beach was still beautiful. If it had been sunny out it would have been post card perfect.

Today we went to the beach about 150 yards from our guesthouse to get as much sun as we could before the afternoon thunder storm that seems to come every day. The beach was hot as always, but great. We also went to the Tsunami Memorial site where they have a carving of all the names of those who died on Phi Phi during the Tsunami. One of the girls I have met here, Michelle from Holland, had a friend die here during the tsunami, so we found her stone, and layed down flowers. It was quite sad, but I am glad I saw it.

Oh yeah, as a side note, I got a tattoo on Koh Phi Phi last night. The tattoo is on my foot, and I am sad to say I am not 100% satisfied with it. I guess that teaches me to get a tattoo in Thailand. But I am confident I can get it to my liking once I get back home, or to a reliable artist in Australia to do a little touching up of it! (at least I really hope so! Eeek)

Tomorrow I head off to Phuket for one night before heading to Singapore, Bali, and beyond.