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Aloha! Apologies for delays in getting the next blog installment to you - the blame falls in equal parts to my laziness and the general crappiness of Thai internet. Anyway, back to Ko Phangan - get comfortable, this is a long one...
To best describe our time on this island, I would use two words: Emerald Moon. This may not initially make sense to you, but don't worry all will become clear as you read on...Upon arrival into dusty port town Thong Sala, we grabbed a taxi to the villages of Ban Thai and Ban Khai on the island's Southern coast (having decided beforehand that we didn't want to stay in Majorca-like Hat Rin, home to the infamous Full Moon parties). We were duly dropped on the Ban Thai-Khai beachfront and after nearly an hour of traipsing around deserted operations that more resembled the sets of horror movies than holiday accommodation, we found two women sunbathing (one blond and Northern English, the other middle aged, topless and indiscriminately European) at the front of a small collection of colourful huts. We would soon come to know them as Heather and Marilyn. Heather recommended the place, so we pitched up, and started making ourselves at home at Emerald Ocean resort.
I will now give you a brief rundown of Emerald, partly because I think it will make you laugh, and partly because it was the many quirks of this little place that helped make our time on Phangan so enjoyable. The huts were set back from the beach in two inward facing lines, capped on one end by a small bamboo beachbar and the other by a restaurant, deck area, leanding the whole place a communal vibe. It was joint owned by two English men Andy (mostly drunk, permanently confused, had a penchant for absent mindedly stroking his swollen belly) and John (a warm and sincere grandfatherly figure, with a mischievous glint in his eye). Andy & John were ably assisted by a veritable hareem of Thai women - we only figured who was married to/dating who a few days before we left! The team was rounded out by Dan, their laconic English barman whose laziness reached epic proportions by the end of our tenancy. Service was often painfully slow. Ordering a simple meal and water (or god forbid, Sprite) combo from Andy often inspired a look more appropriate for having told him you'd just massacred his favourite pet with a rifle; a mix of outright confusion, mild horror and simmering anger. It should have been a disaster, yet somehow it worked - the huts were kooky and clean (though Heather did find a snake in her wall) and the staff coasted by on character and the guests' good will. It was Fawlty Towers on a Thailand beach without a doubt, but the place had a chaotic charm that was entirely its own.
Even so, Emerald Ocean might still have disappointed were it not for the people that we met staying there - by far the best group we have encountered so far. Where to begin? It has to be Marilyn - an amazing Bali based (French born) eccentric, whose casual nudity, permanent intoxication and lovely, lilting laugh had the camp in fits. Then there was Heather, a mile-a-minute Northern girl who had a great story for every occasion, and within minutes of us meeting her, had managed to teach me to juggle with three balls! The day after us, a stream of other newbies arrived. Lee and Kate, two friends from Brighton, Wayne and Michelle, a lovely English/Dutch couple who had been travelling Central America and India for the past 9 months. Finally, there was John a forty plus (or as he'd have it - 39 plus 3) English man - the dad of the group. He embraced the travelling ethos more fully than anyone we've met so far, and took pride in effortlessly partying us youngsters under the table. We also befriended a crowd from the nearby Morning Star resort - Carly & Craig, Declan and Anna. Just being able to get up in the morning and call across to an opposite bungalow for a recap of the previous night's drunken fun, or stroll around the resort being able to comfortably say hi to every person, made a real difference. I guess the people really do make the place, and it took less than a week for us to become a rag-tag travelling family of Emerald Mooners
On top of Emerald and its varied crowd, there was the island itself. I came to Ko Phangan with several preconceptions - party central, tourist haven - and was delighted to find that, though those elements were indeed present and correct, a quick exploration of the island revealed a whole lot more. On our second day, me and Sarah hired some hogs (Emma braved a quad bike, known from hereonin as The Moose) and rode up to the Northern coast of the island to the unspoilt fishing village of Chaloklum. The West coast of the island threw up similar gems, and stopoffs at Hat Yao and Mae Hat beaches were well worth it. The following day - on John's recommendation - I hogged it up to the twin bays of Ao Thong Nai Pan on the island's North Easterly tip. He warned me about the difficulty of the ride, and he wasn't wrong - the steep road plunged skyward into the mountainous heart of Phangan soon downgrading from concrete to gravel track, only changing back on the sheer descent to the beaches. Whether through the blissful ignorance of a novice or sheer beginners luck, I arrived intact and was immediately glad I had - both bays were sheltered, picturesque delights and had water actually deep enough to swim in, a rarity on Phangan. My final mini adventure - this time on the recommendation of John and Wayne - was to climb the island's highest peak, Khao Raa which stood at 627m. Armed with water, suncream and camera I hogged to the foot of the mountain and started to climb. I don't know what I had been expecting but within a few minutes walk I was in dense jungle, and going nowhere but up. I only encountered one other couple (and a dog) on the climb. In classic slapstick fashion, I was about half way up - resting and looking back the way I had came, imagining myself as a character in Lost - when, turning to begin climbing again, I came nose to nose with the dog and couple, promptly jumping out of my skin. They laughed, I laughed (may have looked like I was crying as by this point I was literally streaming sweat) and then I carried on to the peak, being rewarded with fantastic views of the Northern coast and a real sense of achievement/dehydration.
Our daytime jaunts were complemented (sometimes compromised) by our night time fun! A typical night on Phangan began around the Emerald beach bar, swapping stories and ipods and pestering Dan for whatever type of Beer happened to be in stock that evening. Several nights ended the same way, with people gravitating down to the beach and the cosy campfire that was set up (and maintained) by Wayne, Michelle and John. Two nights get a special mention. One is obviously Full Moon itself - see below. The other was the night before, owner-John's birthday. The Emerald staff (mostly the Thai harem; Andy was drunk and John was holding court) put on a very generous free BBQ and plied us with kebabs and toxic buckets of alcohol. We even ended up heading to Hat Rin afterwards to check out the scene of the following evening's lunar rave. Hat Rin was fun - at least until Sarah's wallet got stealthily swiped - but possibly even more entertaining was the taxi ride in. Nineteen of us piled into the back of a taxi-van - Marilyn having to be dragged on after trying to attempt the journey on her scooter before wisely thinking better of it - and braved the rollercoaster hills to Hat Rin, all the while being pursued by one of the Emerald Thai harem (apparently the one responsible for taxis?), furious at having lost such an epic amount of custom. As became our routine, the following day was spent dissecting the previous night's events in Morning Star viciously chlorinated pool. Everyone had a great night, none more so than the birthday boy himself who told us at breakfast, 'what a fantastic night, really fantastic...and it ended well too'. Make of that what you will.
Now, for those of you still with me... the Full Moon Party itself! This paragraph is more of a stream of consiousness than an actual recount of events, not because I was particularly badgered, but rather that the night itself was such a surreal cocktail of Euro-trance ravings, chance meetings with Emerald Ocean Mooners and other travelling acquaintances, and blurry beach panaromas, that a narrative description probably wouldn't do it justice anyway. So, in no particular order I remember...buying a lethally cheap 100 baht bucket with Kate and John from a stand emblazoned with 'we love f*** p**** ...bumping into both Lize and then Kani & Mark from Ko Phi Phi (cue much hugging/screaming/dancing)...gawping, jaw on the floor at the Thai ladyboys as they commandeered the dance podiums wearing wholly indecent shorts more akin to belts...Heather spending most of the night valiantly searching for a guy whose wallet she had found in a bin (in a nice twist, he turned up at Emerald a few days later and gratefully claimed it back)...and best of all, chilling on the beach and getting a real second wind whilst watching the sunrise over the ocean horizon. Bliss. The party ended in similarly strange fashion; catching a taxi back to Emerald, the hardy survivors (Me, Emma, Sarah, John, Andy-Michelle & Wayne) were joined by a sobbing Danish girl who had lost her passport. John assumed father mode pronto and (successfully, I think) comforted with what would become something of a running joke to us Emeral Mooners: 'don't worry, just think...you've got two hands and two legs...things could be much worse'. True, I suppose.
A week in and we were making communal trips for dinner in the evening and even to a local sauna/massage parlour where we giggled as the (freakishly strong) masseuses contorted us into all manner of strange shapes. Finally however, our time on Ko Phangan was up and we had to say our goodbyes. John, Wayne & Michelle, Kate & Lee all departed the day before us, with the promise of a reunion on home soil ringing in our ears. The next day it was our turn, and for the first time since travelling we were genuinely sad to leave a place behind. All checked out, we boarded our taxi (Emerald harem endorsed this time) and sped off to Hat Rin to catch a ferry to Ko Samui. Glancing back as we left, I noticed that John's amendment to the Emerald Ocean sign (an A4 piece of paper with 'Fawlty Towers' luridly scrawled across it in highlighter) was still there. I'm sure it will be for some time...
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