I decided to head up to Thialand to meet Dave at Ko Pha-Ngan (pronounced: ko pan yang) and to check out things up there. The lonely planet guidebook describes it as 'a nice island with great vegitation and nice beaches and plenty of places to stay. No where in this book does it mention that its one massive party beach which is known for having some of the largest parties in all of South East Asia. I guess it didnt have to, from talking with people I've met, it seems everyone did know that before coming. The place is a bit legendary among the European backpacker crowd. In any event, I made my way up north over the Malay/Thai border where the bus driver told me to go in to an office to get some forms when we were about 1 hour from the border. As I'm in there, I see the bus pulling away, presumably to a better spot. No, he's actually driving off. I run outside in a panic chasing and yelling after the bus to the huge amusement of everyone around. They tell me to calm down and that the bus is just going to the next town over and will be back in 20 minutes. Great, could someone have told me that before they drove off.
A temple at one of the stops along the way.
Anyway, after a 24 hour journey of busses, boats and taxis, I arrived in Ko Pha-Ngan to find Dave right at the hotel he said he was staying at. Its so nice to arrive at a place and see the face of a freind as soon as you walk up. In addition, you dont have to go through the process of figuring everything out and trying to meet new people, which after 24 hours of traveling, just isnt what I wanted to do.
I remarked to Dave that the place looked pretty dead, and he told me to wait until midnight and see what I thought. Sure enough, midnight rolled around and the place got in to full swing. Fire-spinners on ever part of the beach, one in front of each of the 5 main bars. Little tables scattered all along the beach on mats for people to sit on and chill, relax, talk, and drink. And drink. Yes, Ko Pha-Ngan is a bit of a drinking place. Drinks are served in buckets. Not glasses, but buckets. Well, they are served in glasses if you request them that way, and everyone starts out that way, but at some point in the night, the switch to buckets somehow happens without your knowledge and you wake up with a hangover. People look at you in your sorry state and just say 'Buckets, eh?', and all you can say is 'Yes, buckets.'
Everyone takes their shoes off when they go in to bars, resturants, or even sitting on the mats on the beach at night. Then, after a fair bit of drinking, people tend to forget where they left them. By the end of the night, you always have a beach full of people wandering around asking 'Has anyone seen my shoes?'. It was only a matter of time before someone put it on a T-Shirt. Too classic.
But it is a really beautiful place with an amazing beach with people scattered about it all day long sunning themsevles and playing frisbee. This is actually VERY difficult for Dave and I to get used to. For so long, we had been the ONLY tourists in most of the places we went to, and now here we are in a place that has ONLY tourist and no locals. For the first couple days there, we had a real hard time adjusting to this. But we've still been enjoying it immensely.
Dave has found a real nice bunch of friends from Israel and I have found a cool group from England so we've sort of been doing our own thing and seeing each other in passing and at meal times.
I know this is a lot less action packed of a report than you're used to, but I'm really enjoying this vacation-from-a-vacation of sorts. My days are being spent on a hammock in front of my bungalow, or swimming, or reading, or....well, drinking. Its been wonderful and relaxing.