So I'm here to write some belated prose regarding our "vacation" week on the island paradise that is Ko Pha-Ngan, off the southeastern coast of Thailand (oh how we mis you, Thailand!). We had a hell of a week on the little limestone mount of Ko Pha-Ngan, which is primarily known for the wacked-out Full Moon Parties (and Half Moon parties, and Black Moon, and Shiva Moon, and...), drugs, hippies, and a general party atmosphere. Oh yeah, and excellent beaches. Just a note: most of the phtos here are stolen from teh internet. I don't have access to our flash drive at the moment, so I'll do my best.
Our journey to the Ko began on a lovely bus from Bangkok. Small aside...we decided so late in the game that we wanted to go to Ko Phangan that all the trains AND buses were sold out the day we tried to make reservations. So we spent an extra day in Bangkok, and visited the Chatuchak market, also known as JJ Market.
Holy. Shit. Guys, if you think Angkor Wat blew my brain out, well, JJ blew my brain out TWICE. Talk about some serious onion-ing. That place is a nutfarm of shopping. It is a shopping mecca about the size of 257 football fields, where you can buy anything from preserved rat feet to ice cream on buns to old sneakers to baby squirrels. It's a miracle we made it out alive. We had an amazing afternoon, where even Arli got into the shopping spirit and blew several hundred baht on some wicked cool shared clothing.
The coolest photo I could find of Chatuchak- and quite appropriate, I believe. Side note- we went back again the next weekend...
Anyway, with our loads considerably heavier, it was on to the bus station to get to the Ko. It was an overnight bus, one of those posh double-decker, airbrushed affairs with blue LED undercarriage lighting. Upon arrival at the dock aproximately 11 hours later, a nice young man approached us and sold us on a night at his bungalows at Ao Srithanu (Ao means "bay". I think.) on the Ko. Since we didn't really know where we wanted to stay (just that we DIDN'T want to stay in Haad Rin, the center of all the partying), it was fine with us to make the commitment.
The place was called Laem Son (known to us as Lame Son the rest of the week), and we arrived there later on that morning after an exquisitely boring ferry ride. Well, well. To put it bluntly, folks, this place is the balls. A beautiful, quiet stretch of white sand and clear blue water to call our own. Yow. They showed us to our little bungalow, we said hi to the ants, and hopped into our swimmies and ran out the door to the beach. Ah yes. We had all sorts of grand plans for the week, but the sight of this slice of the heaven pie made us abandon most of them.
I nabbed this from some other blog, hence the sunset as opposed to daytime view. Nabbers can't be choosers.
The first day we just lazed around, swimming and sunning and eating panang curry. Later that night, we discovered that the beach is also perfect for heart-melting sunsets (see above). Sigh. We watched the sun disappear over a coldish beer at the Three Monkeys Bar at the end of the beach, the local hippie hangout. We watched several sunsets from there, and made lots of weird and wonderful friends.
The next day, as usual, was full of plans to do something or other, but we ended up hanging out with Tip the tattooer and his sweet Brit girlfriend at Bamboo Tattoo, and getting our first tattoos, traditional Thai bamboo style. They hurt a little, but the great thing about bamboo is that it doesn't bleed at all- no scab, so we could go swimming the next day. Nice! Here is a cheesy picture of mine that I sent to Mum n Dad, you'll have to wait for a picture of Arli's until we unpack the flash drive someday.
Welcome to the densely populated world of the tattooed! It's a racing pig. Dad-o made me a keychain just like it when I was a wee one, so it's special to me. Oh the tattoo with a secial meaning....Tip wanted to make it all tribal-y looking, but I was like, nope just that please.
So anyhow- the next few days were full of same-same swimming and lazing about. We did some sub-par snorkeling at the northern tip of the island, rented a motorbike and got lost several times, ate some mexican food, drank lots of beer with our new pals (howdy Eddie!), played with puppies, fought gigantic bugs, and generally chilled out. One night (the night of Half-Moon party, incidentally) we spent down in Haad-Rin, expanding our minds and observing the generally crazy and delightfully colorful atmosphere. One thing we refrained from that night was the consumption of one of these:
Ah, the bucket. A can of Coke, bottle of vodka, and bottle of M-150 (aka, Redbull). And some ice. They were selling these everywhere, with creative names such as "F**king Cheap Bucket" and "F**king Good Bucket". I'll stick to my shakes, thank you very much. We shared a truck back to the bungalow with some Half Moon partiers who looked like they'd had quite enough partying already, thank you very much, at the relatively early hour of 10PM. Shared our stories with Eddy over a beer, and got on to bed.
Our last full day on the island was spent on a boat tour of Ang Thong Marine National Park. We actually did some worthwhile snorkeling (who knew how much cooler LIVE coral was than DEAD coral!!), swam on a few lightly populated beaches, and got scared off a hiking trail by a band of maurading, rabid monkeys. I hate monkeys.
Not much else to report on our vacation week- it was the perfect break from our trip- just what we needed before we decended on India, which has been "incredible" (as the advertisements boast), but far from vacation-like, however. Ko Phanagan gets our vote for "Place Most Likely To Host a Sarah and Arli Mid-Life Crisis Bar Ownership On a Beach". As long as there are laws to be broken, and amputated limbs to be mended, we could very well end up there some day....
Anywho- back to the paneer. Ms. Arli will be updating you shortly on what we've been getting up to in Darjeeling and Varanasi. Namaste!
What I want to know is, is Dad wishing he had made you some other type of keychain now that it's permanently on you? A lovely fish, perhaps, or a bunny?
ReplyDeleteI love that the marine park was named after two of our favorite Cambodians. Nay, dare I say, our two MOST favorite Cambodians.