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The 4th of April was full moon party so on Saturday we headed off to the party island of Ko Phangan to join the 10,000 other travellers, holiday makers and down right ravers on the sandy strip of bars and clubs.
We left Phukett after our hearty roast dinner and hopped on a ricketty old bus at around 2pm. The lady at the ticket stand told us that the bus would get us to the ferry port in 2 hours so we were happily settled in for a quick journey and placed ourselves in the middle of the bus... as far away from the wheels as possible?? Alas no... this bus actually had an extra set of wheels in the middle so yet again the journey was as bumpy as the others. 4pm came and went and after much confusion we arrived at Surat Thani (we changed this name to Surat Fanny though, thought it had a bit more of a ring to it)... at 8pm a whole 6 hours later! These people just cannot be trusted! We looked around the shabby area and saw one boat at the port with Ko Phangan written on the side so approched the lady at the desk. Low and behold there was yet another 6 hour journey ahead of us which wasnt to begin till 11pm. Tired and hot we set off down the road with our rucksacks slung over our sholders in search of food, internet or even a bed for the night. The area was rough and a little creepy but we found a small little place which provided us with all we needed until our 11 oclock departure.
On the boat we were extremely happy to see beds laid out on the top bunk for us to sleep in and they even had provided pilliows (we were incredibly grateful for even though they were rather like a load of rocks thrown into an old pillowcase). We got there quite early and there were plenty of places available so we plonked ourselves down, shattered and ready for sleep. A few beds down were rather dashing young men with equally as dashing young girls playing the guitar and drinking beer and we felt intimidated by the 'cooler kids' from word go. About 10 minutes later just as we were pretty much settled a group of 4 girls came up to us and said "Uhh your in our seats!!" We were stupid enough not to even look at our tickets and find seat numbers and they made us get up and we sulked away. On further inspection of our tickets we realise our seat numbers are in fact none other than where the 'cooler kids' were sitting. Ahh crap! After much deliberation Laura approached them and said politely "sorry guys those are our seats" to which they replied sarcastically "sorry guys they're actually ours" and laughed at us... a lot! Turns out they were double booked by the stupid boat people and cuz we have absolutly no courage at all we stumbled to the only free spaces left at the back of the boat feeling utterly defeated! Our new beds were were just lovely... positioned on a steep slant, and above what only can be descibed as a cavern of rotting fish, how pleasant!
After a suprisingly solid sleep not at all hindered by the treturous conditions, the hoards of young travellers piled off the boat in search for accomodation as close as possible to Hat Rin: the official party beach. We had been told by everyone that finding accomodation on the actual beach would be absolutly impossible and accomodation around the rest of the island was limited so we were suprised to find a man offering us a hut for just 200 Baht a night between us... thats less than a pound each! Laura was adamant that it was a hoax.. some sort of scam, but was proved totally wrong when they arrived at the resort and we went straight back to sleep on the shared double bed.
We woke up a few hours later and becuase Hat Rin was about half an hour away we planned on going there and staying till the early hours of the morning after partying the night away. We got to the beach and were surrounded with hundreds of full blown westerners... such a pretty sight for our deprived eyes. Everyone seemed to have the perfect beach bodies with dark, golden skin so even Nyima who has developed quite a glow over the last few weeks automatically joined Laura and Martha in Pastyville. After lunch and a spot of seaside shopping, we stumbled across a tourist information centre, and thought what the hell lets embarras ourselves and ask if there are rooms available in Hat Rin... Shock of all shocks there was one a minute down the road and we merrily skipped off in search of it. They showed us their vacant room and we were so excited that we took it without really taking in the horrors of our surroundings and what we would be stuck in for the next few days! We headed straight back to our silly old hut about a million miles away from the main strip to collect our luggage and packed in a mere 5 minutes due to pure excitement (and that we'd only been there for a couple of hours but hey who's counting). When we were settled into our new home we began to discover the bad side of our room... the bathroom, or what really was a just a dodgy toilet and a bucket. No sink, a shower that didnt work and the toilet had no bloody flush!! How the hell we managed to cope i just dont know! The room only had one small fan and the toilet felt none of that cool air so what was already a smelly little box turned into a boiling hot sand pit. That night we found a fantastic restaurant which played Friends at a high volume and on big screans. Although the food was soo slow, always came out wrong and, well pretty much sucked, we seemed to end up there every night to enjoy several episodes of it to remind us of home and laugh our heads off.
That night we planned on having a big one and purchased an infamous Hat Rin bucket of alcohol each from one of the little stalls on the street. They contain a quarter bottle of spirit and two mixers and they are absolutly everywhere you look... Little did Martha know they mixed it there and then for you and her bucket concoction became a delicious mix of vodka, pineaple and coke! By the time we got back to our room all of her ice had melted and it became a warm mixture she said was reminicant of Diahreah so luckily for her she failed to drink hers. Needless to say after a couple of these alcohol infused buckets a rather insane night was to follow with many crazy anticts indeed!!! (probably best for all not to tell the stories!)
The following day we awoke just a little worse for wear! Martha was fresh faced and fully awake so she proceeded to aid Laura and Nyima in the activities of the day. These activities included getting dressed, getting breakfast and going straight back to bed! How rivetting!
That night the infamous full moon party began and we could see (from our resort's balcony which overlooked the main strip) the absolute insanity of the event unfolding before our eyes. Everywhere you looked were western ravers in beachware with their bare bodies fully covered with florescent body paint, glow sticks around their arms, necks and ankles and buckets overflowing with the strong alcohol in their hands. Martha was full of anticipation but was followed reluctantly by the still worse for wear, positively wasted Nyima and Laura. They drank a very small amount but still managed to perk up and enjoy the nights events. It began with a lounge on the beach, watching the amazing fire throwing and eating. There was one guy in particular who was just fantastic... probably helped by his fit body and just as fit face... Phwar!! We were approached by many a group of guys, but unfortunatly they all turned out to be swedish and our conversations became very limited as, well we dont speak swedish! One group in particular was everso humerous though and they taught us some very useful swedish phrases which since we have used many a time! They also helped control a slight ruccus of our's which happened through no fault of our own of corse... just a VERY drunk girl mouthing off...luckily no one was injured (too badly!)
We carried on down the beach strip where incredibly loud raving music was blaring out of giant speakers. The DJ seemed to be residing in a tree hut inbetween a few palm trees and as it was all lit up with fairy lights it looked pretty impressive. We stood on a rickety old beach table and danced for a while, before diving off just in time as it collapsed several seconds after...that could have been embarrasing!!! We continued dancing the night away but the huge amounts of people meant that where we were was incredibly hot and sweaty, the bar man even gave us tissue to mop our brow when we ordered drinks! We got to bed at about 5...not too impressive seeing as the party usually finishes at around 11 but hey ho it was a cracking night anyway!
The next day we decided to try and top up our tans a bit, so we braved facing the beach where hundreds of bronzed bodies usually reside. Luckily for us though it seemed that either they had all gone home or were just still in bed recovering from the night before. We lathered ourselves in suncream planning to lie for a while but after only 30 seconds Martha and Laura's need for cold water overwhelmed them! Apparently April is one of the most unbearable months in Thailand due to immense heat and no rain and we are failing to cope well! Their quick splash in the water actually turned into a 5 hour bathe and when they finally emerged not just their fingers but arms, legs faces and tummies resembled prune flesh!
That night after our daily ritual of terrible food, even worse service, but excellent entertainment of Friends on the big screans we decided we would visit tourist information to decide where to go next. This was prompted by a serious decrease in western tourists around us and the urge to know where they were going next. We decided on Ko Tao an idyllic island, perfect for snorkelling a mere one and a half boat journey away. Sounded perfect so we went to bed and prepared to tidy the pit of our room in the morning, removing the unbelievable amount of sand in and around our rucksacks.
Will let you know all about the treacherous boat journey and the wonderfulness of Ko Tao shortly. Love ya x x x
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