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The first week of February in Kasetsart University is called Kaset Fair, which is basically a week-long festival all around campus. The whole university campus is decorated, the students have prepared different kind of shows, there are visitors from other universities and they sell all sorts of things during Kaset Fair. This also meant no classes for us during the whole week - too bad! So we decided to head to Koh Phangan and Koh Tao for the week! I would recommend buying the joint bus-ferry ticket from a travel agency on Khao San called Lomprayah. It's not actually on Khao San, it's located on the parallel street. You just go there, check in and wait for the bus to leave! The bus ride is quite long: we left at nine in the evening and after the bus and ferry rides, you're finally at Koh Phangan at about nine in the morning. So it's a long ride, but it's worth it when you get there! The ticket was around 900 bht.
We decided to try out the Full Moon Party, because it was the Full Moon Weekend. So if you're heading to the Full Moon Party, you should stay on one of the Haad Rin beaches, as taxis are ridiculously expensive at night going to other beaches on the island. What can I say? Full Moon - not really my thing! I understand that some might like it, but for me it was just too many drunken tourists dancing around with colorful paintings on their sun burnt skin! Also, the room rates are twice as expensive and they are very booked during Full Moon. So, we decided to go to a more excluded beach on the other side of the island called Tong Pai Nan.
Tong Pai Nan is a small, beautiful beach at the end of a really rough road from Haad Rin. It took us nearly an hour with a taxi (which was super expensive), as the road is in really bad condition. But it was so worth it! The beach has only around ten or fifteen resorts and a few restaurants. There were literally no people on the beach! The water is clear and the sand is white! It's a bit more expensive, especially after Full Moon, we paid around 800 bht per night in a really nice apartment. If you go to Tong Pai Nan, you should definitely check out a resort called Dolphin. It's a beautiful bungalow village with a nice restaurant. In my experience, Tong Pai Nan was the best thing that Koh Phangan could offer!
After Koh Phangan, we headed to Koh Tao.The Turtle Island might just be my favorite island in Thailand! For the first time in Thailand, I actually found the perfect beach with turquoise water. When we were at Koh Tao, we ended up staying at a place called Mr.J's. Mr. J is apparently some kind of a legend at Koh Tao! He was a sweet man, who offered us a great deal for staying at his place for almost a week. The rooms are not really that nice, but as on Koh Phangan, the rooms were very full also on Koh Tao. And we didn't really spend time at the apartment, so it was fine! I would definitely recommend hiring a scooter on Koh Tao, because the main beach Sairee is not the best that the island can offer. We found lots of beautiful beaches, which were nearly empty, as everyone is under water taking a diving course. If you're Finnish and want to a course held by Finnish insturctors, there is a Finnish diving company called Koh Tao Divers on Sairee beach, which has quite a good reputation. They are also very flexible with the schedules; at least in my friend's case they fitted the course in to our travel plans. We also took a snorkeling trip around the island. If you've snorkeled around the world and expect to see some bright corals, you might be disappointed on the trip. But the snorkeling trip takes you to the Twin Islands near Koh Tao, where you can hike up (just about 20 min) to a viewpoint, which is breath taking.
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