Getting Around

One problem with Koh Phangan is that it's a relatively large island with things to see all over it. What's the solution? Rent a motorbike!! Seriously, it cost $5/day (plus gas). At first I wasn't sure that renting one was a great idea, but it turns out that if you have EVER ridden a bicycle, these things are just as easy to ride. Since it was an automatic, the necessary knowledge was that the right handle is the gas, and that one needs to hold the brake when pushing the ignition button. Also, Thailand drives on the left side of the road, a concept that is easy to forget when there are no other cars around.

Flash

Andrew on his bike

I had rented my bike (whom I called Flash) the second night we were there. Along with Brent (a Kiwi staying at the same resort) we made the trek from the resort on the west side of the island all the way to the southeast point along one very long, twisty road. The beach is where the infamous Full Moon Party is held each month, and the even bigger New Year's Eve Party. Since it was just December 29, it was one (of many) warm up days for the big bash. We were greeted by hundreds of booths selling alcohol and a few hundred participants.... relatively calm. We found a table and rented a sheesha (or hukkah), which is a large vessel used for smoking a smooth, flavoured tobacco. We, of course made several friends, and enjoyed a rather wonderful time. Having driven, I abstained from the drinking for the night, and since I was still kind of new at the whole motorbike thing (they do make you a little nervous, especially on the large hills), Andrew took one of the transport vehicles while I drove home.

New friends made at Haad Rin Beach

The next day was once again sunny and 30+ degrees. I obtained a map of the island and Andrew and I decided to go tour the island. We first stopped at the Phaeng Noy Waterfall, Phaeng Waterfall and Dome Sila, which provides a great view out over the island.


From there, we moved on north to a Chinese temple, which was nice, but somewhat oddly out-of-place in this part of the world.

Chinngis Khaan? What is he doing in a Chinese temple that is found in the center of an island in Southern Thailand? Is he stalking me?

We continued north to the L'oasi Phangan Safari where we met a couple of elephants (although I think claiming them as "wild" might be a stretch).

Even elephants accept tips (only the babies though)

Right next to the safari was one of our intended destinations, Paradise Waterfall.



After we saw what we had wanted to see (and a couple of others), we decided to let loose and drive the long way home, consisting of many twisting, turning roads, but not so much that you couldn't drive at a rather comfortable speed (the bikes could actually reach speeds of 100 km/h - but mom, I promise I never went above 70, and tended to stay around 40-50).


After dinner, a rather international collection of us drove up into the mountains to the Amsterdam bar, where we enjoyed a beer while having a spectacular view over the edge of the island and out over the open Pacific Ocean.

From left to right: Jack (England), Arno (Netherlands), Andrew (Canada), Me (Canada), Brent (New Zealand), Luke (England). Typically, the Canadians are the ones with beer in hand.

Koh Phangan

After one more day in Koh Tao, which we pretty much spent reading by the beach, we paid up and continued on to Koh Phangan. The boat left at about 8:30 am (Dec. 28 if you're keeping track), and took about an hour or so to get to our new destination. When we arrived, it quickly became decision time.

Decisions to make:

1) What beach do we head for?

2) How close do we want to be to the beach?

3) Are there any bungalows with 2 beds?

4) How far away from the party do we want to be? (more expanation on that later)

5) Do we want tv, a/c and/or hot water?

We collected or bags from the dock, and walked out toward the parking lot to decide upon a resort. We were approached by someone immediately suggesting the Chokana Beach Resort. They did have a room with 2 beds for 1100 Baht per night, or we could each get our own bungalow for 400 Baht per night. After having had to share a bed with Andrew for the past 4 nights, I made the quick decision that I wanted my own place. I'm convinced that this was the right decision. We looked at the bungalows and decided to take them. The only decision left to make was who gets which one. One was along the beach, while the other was a little bit back from it, but the one that was further back was much larger. We obviously both wanted the ocean view, and did a rock/paper/scissors for it. Andrew won. I'm kinda glad he did, because I was very happy about how spacious my little home was. We checked out the area, and had some delicious food at the resort. We stayed in the first night, having a few drinks and meeting some of the people we would be around for the next few days.

My bungalow.

My view. Andrew's bungalow is the one in the middle.

The inside.

Sunset at our beach.

Underwater Adventures

The day was upon us. We walked the massive 4 min. walk to another resort to meet up with our guide. We were ordered chicken fried rice (lunch is included), collected our gear, and made our way to the beach. There were only about 12 of us (compared to the 30+ we saw on other boats), which made for much more personal space. We all loaded into a longboat - which is more or less shaped like a really long banana (you can see one in the blog title) and were taken to the tour boat. This, however, was no ordinary tour boat - it was a snorkeling boat!!!

We began our trip around the island to our various diving sites. I don't remember the names of any of them, but I do recall that Shark Island does NOT have any sharks, or so Phil says (our tour guide/snorkeling coach/aquatic life expert extraordinaire). At this point I will apologize for some of the terrible pictures, but I was using an underwater disposable camera.

Koh Tao - from our boat

I decided to jump in at the first site, snorkel, flippers and mask. It took a total of about 14 seconds to realize that I'm so thin that I don't even float in SALT water, so I went right back to the boat and grabbed a life jacket. What a great decision. While wearing the life jacket it becomes very difficult to move in a way that causes water to enter your snorkel. Also, you can easily have a nice, leisurely kick around the ocean, observing the beautiful and colourful coral, fish, anemones, sea cucumbers etc. (even though they look kind of grey in the pictures) I even got to see a couple of Black Tipped Reef Shark swim under me (only the babies though).

There IS a shark in this picture. I swear.

Anemone

A bigger anemone

The final dive site was at the island resort of Koh Nangyuan. It is actually 3 small islands, but because of the ocean currents they are connected by long, coral beaches. The largest island has and tremendous lookout point, and between the two smaller islands there is a Japanese garden, filled with coral, brightly coloured anemones, giant clams, and even Spiny Black Sea Urchins.

The beaches of Koh Nangyuan. The nearer one is actually underwater, as it was high tide, but that only brings the water up to mid-calf level.

Very Nirvana-esque

Not as much.

Merry Christmas and Welcome to Koh Tao

We arrived in Koh Samui on Christmas Eve with the intention of avoiding doing any kind of travelling on Christmas day. It didn't quite work out that way, but there was definitely a minimum of transportation to be done on Christmas Day.

We woke up to a beautiful morning, with my first real tropical beach sighting. (see prev. post for pics) As seemed to be a bit of a tradition, I awoke at about 6 am, and went for a stroll along the beach. Andrew got up around an hour later. We purchased our tickets for the ferry - which is really a high speed catamaran - and the van whisked us off to the gathering area at the dock. The ferry was a nice, smooth ride, first stopping at Koh Phangan - we'll return there in a few days - and then on to Koh Tao. The whole ride took about an hour and a half, and cast a whopping 200 Baht ($8).

Koh Tao is just a small island, which you can circumnavigate on foot in a single day. It was absolutely gorgeous. The entire permanent population of the island is about 8000, and there were at least 15 000 tourists. We got into the back of a pickup truck with benches - the only thing that resembles a cab - and for 50 Baht each were taken to the Sai Ri beach on the Western side of the island. Of course, we opted out of making reservations before our trip, so we found a bungalow for 400 Baht/night ($12) at the In Touch resort, which only had only real drawback - only one bed.... again. Unfortunately, this was the 3rd time this happened to us, and this time it was going to be for 3 nights. "What was the biggest upside?" you might ask.... besides the 13 second walk to the beachside restaurant, the spectacularly fine, white sand beaches and the amazing tropical atmosphere surrounding us, it would decidedly have to be the giant tree growing through our bathroom. Yep. not growing out of the floor, but the bathroom was actually built around the tree. Also, no roof in the bathroom. This was spectacular for showering in the rain. You might notice the bucket next to the toilet. This is because many toilets in Thailand are not what you might call "flush" toilets. Rather, you need to take a couple of scoops of water from the bucket and pour it in to flush everything through.

After we settled in and relaxed at the restaurant over the most amazing pad thai I have ever tasted, we explored the length of the beach (during high tide, so there the ocean actually touched the restaurants in places). Andrew attempted a phone call home, but with such little success that I didn't see it as a wise use of $10. All-in-all, we seemed to have found our tropical paradise.

At about 10 pm, Andrew and I realized that we hadn't eaten yet, and were in desperate need of a Christmas feast. I went for the traditional Christmas dinner of barbecued tuna. Andrew tried to make it an early night, since we had big plans for the next day, but I went for a walk along the now enormous beach, since the tide went back out, and the ocean is incredibly shallow, and to check out the nightlife of the beach. I thought I would try sleeping in the hammock on the porch... bad idea. The mosquitoes arrived and found every gap in the bug spray I had applied, and the hammock was not set up in a way that lent itself to getting sleep, but rather to be sitting virtually upright. After about 2 hours of this, I finally gave up, and went back inside to share the bed with Andrew.

A note about the restaurant: This became a great place to sit, while looking out over the beach and ocean, and get some reading done while sipping the constant supply of Chang Beer, an occasional Pina Colada (how can you not have one or two) or the spectacular shakes. The food, while we ate at a few other places, was so good, it was hard to go elsewhere. The banana fritters (while technically a dessert) made for a great breakfast. The fruit was as fresh as I have ever tasted, and almost every meal was seafood, since I could be reasonably certain that it was magnificently fresh.

Christmas Eve

Not the most exciting of days, but an interesting one nonetheless. We had no plans for the day until we headed to the airport, so we went into town and decided on enjoying a nice Khmer massage. This essentially means that I had a girl of about 15 pound the snot out of me for an hour. The worst part was that I asked for the "light" massage. After what felt like an eternity of being physically assaulted, we walked around some more, bought a few of the items we had seen and desperately wanted (although I wish I had bought a new pair of shoes), and it all cost so little.

We made our way out to the airport a little after noon, for our late afternoon flight. Little did we know the the airport actually closes from 9 am until 2 pm. Scratch that... the airport LOCKS from 9-2. thankfully the restaurants are on the outside of the restaurant, so Andrew and I enjoyed a nice meal at Dairy Queen. The sight of which could mean only one thing... first hot dog in months. Sadly, the hot dog was not quite as I expected, and was quite a let-down. The DQ was good for one thing though... getting in a quick nap, something that would become a little bit of a habit of the next week or so.

We got through the awfully small, but still very nice airport at Siem Reap, and boarded the BangkokAir flight (yes, our 4th airline in 4 flights) for Bangkok. We had a 3 hr wait for our next flight to Koh Samui. Thankfully, BangkokAir gave us access to one of their lounges for free internet and snacks.

We arrived in Koh Samui at just after 9 and got a room in a motel. It wasn't anything special, and unfortunately had just one bed. The bathroom was about 3 feet wide, and about 30 feet long. At least it was near the beach... the first of our trip. Andrew went to bed early, while I walked next door to a beachfront bar and started chatting with a couple of guys from Newcastle. I haven't a clue what either of them said. There were some people lighting these paper lanterns which would float away into the night and simply disappear. After a couple of beers, I also decided to crash, having to catch a ferry at 8 am the next day.