Koh Phangan (29.12.21 - 09.01.22)
Wednesday 29th December 2021
I finally gave in and bought a sim card – free Wi-Fi is costing a lot in terms of coffee and beer – this way I have constant internet which will be mega useful next time I get lost – lol – and it was only 300 baht for the month and 200 top up each month – awesome compared to EE and their £5 (200 baht) a day charge for roaming.
Today I went for breakfast on my own, packed up my stuff and was just heading to check out when it poured down with rain, luckily I managed to get to the reception fairly dry and they lent me an umbrella so I could get to the coffee shop for breakfast and stay dry at the same time. I am so glad I gave myself 3 hours to get to the pier and the boat – it was only a 15-minute walk but I had to dodge the rain clouds with a fair few coffee breaks and also pick up my skirt from the dive shop – I had left it on the boat – I had also left my top but that was not rescued, 3 weeks in and one garment down. Once I got to the pier, I dumped my rucksack and went for a walk and it poured down again, luckily I found a closed shop front to shelter in and got a really nice photo of a very ugly street.
I thought we were getting a catamaran to Koh Phangan, it even pulled up at the dock gate, but when it was our turn to board, they put us onto this little speed boat thing and gave out little black bags for everyone to be sick in! Fuck me I hate roller coast rides, especially when every seat has a life jacket and you are in the middle of the bloody sea, in fact I don’t like any form of fairground ride except the teacups. I swear blind the boat left the water at times and it was really disturbing to see the waves alternate from the window on the left to the window on the right. I’m sure it was Celine who told me the bast place to sit on any boat is low down and in the middle, I didn’t have a choice of levels but I did sit slap bang in the middle and kept looking forward, except once when I looked backwards to take some photos – lesson learnt as I suddenly felt sick – luckily I wasn’t – but 3 people in front of me had to use their little black bags, not sure of the situation behind and had no desire to check it out.
I got a moped taxi to Echo beach and was so happy to arrive until I met the owner – a big English (I think) guy, heavy rock type in looks – and so unfriendly. And I have been given the worse room in the hostel, the one widow looks out onto the bar, the pool table is in touching distance, and loud music is played from 9:30 am – 11 pm, the speaker may as well be in my room 
Thank god I have ear plugs with me. I also asked for an extra-large bed and I have 2 singles. The beach isn’t very nice either – lots of debris, especially bits of plastic and bottle caps, and I spilt my first beer all over the sand, which put a smile on the owner’s face. The only consolation is that the barman, Mark, other guests seem extremely friendly.
For the 3rd night in a row I am tucked up in my room feeling quite miserable. I seem to be having good days but rather depressing evenings – lots of tears – not sure I am cut out for this travelling lark. There’s a big difference between being lonely in your own home and being lonely in a hostel and in a foreign country – not sure why I thought it would be similar – transferable loneliness? I’m so grateful that Bela is in Sri Lanka, a good friend to console me in real time (she is only 1.5 hours behind) so I’ve just taken her advice, dried my tears and am now sitting in the place outside my window, drinking a beer at the bar – I also wanted a fag – did I mention that I’ve taken up smoking again since my vape broke – giving up didn’t last long and cigarettes are only £1.88 a pack! The girl in front of me has just been bought a blue cocktail drink – looks bloody awesome – perhaps I should have a cocktail after this beer.
Thursday 30th December 2021
What a fabulous day – but my body, yet again is killing me.
Still half asleep, drinking my coffee when this guy, Yonah, starts chatting to me, says he wants to visit a waterfall and asks if I have a moped. Lol – no I don’t, so I had a shower and off to a moped shop we went, what a disaster, I almost crashed the bloody thing and I hadn’t even got on it. Both the lady owner and I decided that me having a moped was not a good idea, but she lent me a helmet and off we went to Than Sadet Waterfall – wow beautiful and we got more than we bargained for. Not only did we have a dip in one of the many pools, we also followed a nature trail up some huge boulders and into the forest. The trail was supposed to go to the very top and then take us back down the other side, but once we were at the top, in the middle of the jungle – lol – the path and signposts disappeared and we found ourselves feeling very lost. Yonah wanted to continue but my gut feeling was to turn back, so we did. On the way down we passed 2 different couples on the same mission as us, we told them our experience, but both thought they could do it. Lol – It wasn’t long before I stopped feeling guilty about making Yonah turn back. We were resting and enjoying the awesome views from on top of some boulders, when, guess who turned up – both couples! Neither could get through the forest and had very similar experiences as us, got a little concerned and turned back. However, we all congratulated ourselves for climbing to the top as that was quite an achievement in itself.
It’s a shame as Yonah has now moved on to Haad Rin and isn’t sure about attending the ‘full moon’ new year party tomorrow – but we exchanged numbers and he left saying he would think about it and let me know tomorrow. Talking of tomorrow I must find the visa office, as it stands, I have to leave Thailand on the 5th and that’s really not part of the plan, I want to go back to Bangkok for a couple of nights and then head up north, maybe even do a bit of WOOFING.
In regards to this hostel, I’m actually liking it a lot more than I originally did, the music was on so low this morning it didn’t wake me and the other guests couldn’t be more friendly – still not keen on the owner he looked straight through me earlier – beginning to wonder if he’s a racist as he appears to be friendly to everyone else.
This evening I played bingo ……
Saturday 1st January 2022
Happy new year and what a blinder!
Sitting at the beach and a German guy, Jurle, comes over and says hello and we get chatting, then his friends turn up, Mario, Lisa and her boyfriend Dominic, and they end up inviting me to join them for the evening. They weren’t really interested in going to Haad Rin and spoke about this place called Eden Gardens. So I checked it out on the internet and it sounded awesome:
‘This is it. You have stumbled onto one of the greatest secrets of the Thai islands, the Eden Garden Party in Koh Phangan. The party is held every Saturday and is a psychedelic-themed event. Eden Bar is a great place to chill out with a cheeky smoke and watch the sea below or dance the night away. The entire atmosphere is geared towards people wanting to have an incredible time.’ https://fullmoonasia.com/thailand/eden-garden-koh-phangan/
So off we went. We had to go to Haad Rin beach first, and pay 200 baht to get in. The atmosphere was buzzing, as you would expect, but also as you would expect, everyone was getting obscenely pissed and the music at the bars we went to was very pop orientated. I’m glad we weren’t staying we were only there to get the boat taxi round the island to Eden Gardens. You can go by road but it’s a 40-minute journey and a mud track most of the way, compared to 10 minutes by boat. It was on the boat that I realised I didn’t have enough money with me – how embarrassing. They wanted 500 baht per person, I had only taken out 800! Thinking the boat was 500 baht for 5 people I tried to give the woman 100, upon realising my error I said I would have to get off and she just walked away and left me sitting there, money still in hand 😊
Another boat journey from hell and in the dark. This one wasn’t as bouncy but, by god, it was even more hair raising and when we got off we were fully drenched from being splashed by the waves as they swelled higher than the boat sides – we may as well as swam. We disembarked on a dark beach and so began the journey along it and up and over the side of the hill, most of the journey had steps cut into the stone so it wasn’t too bad but boy my body was complaining by the time we reached end. Wow, the bar was like a huge tree house built over the rocks on wooden pillars and part of protruding over the sea. The clientele were all hippy / alternative traveller types, and the type of techno that I really like was blaring out of the speakers – the vibe was so friendly. As the Germans wanted food, we went for a walk to find a cafe, the whole area is made from humongous boulders over which rickety wooden bridges had been built and at one point we had to traverse across some of the bounders, with the fall ending up in the sea below which was crashing violently into the boulders, such an amazing sight but also a quite scary.
I think this was the best new year I’ve ever had, well at least can ever remember spent with the most friendliest people I have yet met this trip. Unfortunately, Haad Rin shut down at 1pm and slowly boat loads of drunken revellers started to arrive and the whole vibe changed and became a hard techno version of Defected, full of Germans, Dutch and a rather large macho, shirts off, rippling muscles gay group. At one point the atmosphere felt quite aggressive (too much testosterone in the place) and it had become far too crowded, dangerously so, and the wooden platform was bouncing away with the stomp of everyone dancing to the same beat. It must have been about 4am when the police came and shut everything down, we hung around for ages as it seemed pointless joining the throngs trying to get a boat back. At one point we decided to head back to the cafe area and was disgusted at the horrendous damage that had been done to the walkway, making them really dangerous to use. Planks had not only been broken but some also ripped out leaving huge gaps to navigate over, at one point we had to balance our way along a supporting beam and at the end there was so much blood – I wonder what happened?
After chilling at the top of one of the boulders for a while Dominic said he had a friend who had a cabin the other side of the beach on which we landed, so off we trundled only to find they had set up a sound system at one of the beach bars we passed. Just as we settled found some chairs and settled down the police turned up and shut it down – so onward we trundled. I really can’t remember the names of Dominic’s friends, but they were such lovely, warm and welcoming people and we had a chilled morning drinking beer and putting the world to right. Pleased to say by the time we left all the revellers had gone so we had no problem getting a boat taxi and this time we stayed dry. Thank you to the Germans for picking me up and taking me under their wing – I had the best new year ever thanks to them and such an unforgettable awesome experience.
Monday 3rd January 2022
I’ve got a stinking hangover, spent 500 baht that I cannot account for (may have been short changed somewhere along the line), lost a sarong but gained a book and pair of sunglasses! No more long island ice teas and beers for me – going to have a few sober and very cheap days to make up for the lost money.
Spent the whole of yesterday with the German crew and some English guy called Rob also joined us. He’s totally deaf in his left ear and his hearing aid is broken so he spent most of the day shouting at us. All we did was lounge by the beach and drink cocktails, I bought a round as a thank you for NY, dreading the bill. We went for a fantastic meal, not sure where though, and I don’t have any photos – can’t even remember what we ate, but I know it was good. One thing I do remember though is that as I went into the restaurant toilet a rat run out! For some reason, probably because it happened, I think I may have paid 600 baht for the taxi back, which would account for the missing money. After the meal I thought we were all going back to the hostel but we ended up outside some night club (Lisa and Dominic had gone back to their hostel) so I left the 3 guys there and walked the 1 kilo meter back to the hostel, they didn’t need an oldie hanging around cramping their style and all I could see were teeny boppers going into the club.
This afternoon, the Thai barman made me feel really bad. I asked the manager when he last had a day off, he said 5 months ago, I said that he must love his job and he and the Thai guy said it was all about the money, then the Thai guy said he cannot afford a holiday, that he is not rich like us and that it’s all about the money. A bit of a slap around the face and a rude awakening – I mustn’t forget how privileged I am to be able to do this travelling lark and that the Thais, and so many others, have had no income over the last couple of years due to covid, and even when they do they still cannot afford to get on an airplane to the UK.
I wanted to do something constructive today but didn’t have the energy for it so spent it on the beach in a hammock. One thing though, I am really looking forward to getting out of this hostel tomorrow.
Thursday 6th January 2022
What an exhausting couple of days. I woke Tuesday to find nearly all the staff at echo beach wearing face masks, turns out that a couple of girls and one of the Germans have covid, so glad to have checked out of there for all the reasons you can imagine. I have kept my mask on, religiously, since leaving just in case, but have felt fine so not worried and my temp check has been normal (can do it in the 7 eleven stores) – I’ll do a test later today just to double check.
Anyway, on the 4th, as check in at Cosy Bungalows was not until 2 pm, I left my packed stuff at Echo Beach and got a taxi to the immigration office, I filled in all the forms (4 of them) and queued for an hour in the sweltering sun (thank god for my sunhat) only to be told I needed something called a TM 30, which the owner of my resort needed to complete. I got another taxi and collected my stuff from Echo Beach and headed, in yet another taxi, to Cosy Bungalows. The owner, who unlike the last, is warm and friendly, knew all about the TM 30 but said the computers were down and we had to wait. After waiting a few hours I persuaded him to fill in the paper version for me and headed back to the office. This time I walked as it was only 25 minutes away, only to be told that I needed his ID and property registration documents. So, I walked back to Cosy and on the way picked up some fried chicken from this lovely little old man. The Cosy owner refused to provide me ID etc claiming it was not needed and said to wait until tonight and that he was sure the computers would be back up. Can you imagine my stress what with my visa running out the next day, but the owner was right and in the morning he handed me evidence of the TM 30, so off to the office I went for the 3rd time. I queued again for over an hour, had all my papers checked, they were fine, but I was told to come back at 1pm, it was only 10am, so back to Cosy I went for a couple of hours before returning for the 4th time to office. I had to queue in the 1pm queue, then queue to get my passport checked then queue again to get into the actual visa office, which was upstairs. I got talking to a German guy and Welsh woman and we joked about the stairs being the ‘stairway to heaven’. Can you believe it I even had to queue in the actual visa office and then after a 10-minute wait got my passport back, and although I had applied for 60 days they only gave me 30 ☹ I was disappointed at the time but on reflection it’s all I need as I should go and explore some other countries. On my final, and triumphant walk back to Cosy I got some more chicken from the same little old man, and he gave a free portion of deep-fried bananas, which is the first thing I’ve eaten here which I’ve not liked.
After the stress of the last 2 days, today I have literally done nothing but finish my Jo Nesbo book, Headhunters, which I started yesterday and went for a little stroll along the beach. I’ve extended my stay at Cosy for another 3 nights as it is so peaceful here – absolute bliss compared to Echo beach, the only noise disturbance coming from the birds – music to the ears and my window overlooks my balcony which has a hammock where I have spent the last couple of evenings and plan to spend every evening until I leave on Sunday for Bangkok – only going to stay there for a couple of days as I want to head up north, will think about the finer details of that tomorrow.
The island in the distance in the fouth from last picture is Koh Samui.
Sunday 9th January 2022
10.50 – I am sitting on a slow boat to Surat Thani waiting for it to leave dock. The hostel guy charged me an outrageous price for the ticket – online it was 380, including the bus transfer to the train station, he charged me 500 ☹ at the time I had no complaints as everywhere I looked online all the boats for today were sold out and I would have had to wait until tomorrow and really didn’t fancy another night here as I’ve already been on Koh Phangan for 11 days and it was only meant to be 7. Lounging between my balcony hammock and the bar floor cushions, reading my book, gazing out to sea, basically doing as little as possible, has fully recharged my batteries and I’m ready for a bit of rock and roll in Bangkok. I am even thinking of contacting One, see if he fancies meeting for a drink, but then on the other hand ……
When I got to the pier this morning, I noticed several stalls were selling tickets for today and for the online price. Sometimes I wish I wasn’t so lazy, if I had walked down here yesterday I could have saved myself a whopping £1.80 – lol. Still, I don’t mind the guy making a little bit of profit out of me, I hardly spent anything at his hostel until the last 2 days when I just couldn’t be bothered to go and find street food, or even walk to the 7 Eleven for a cheap beer.
And off we go, 3 hours and not a seasick pill in me 😐, but it is a lovely day (at last, it’s been raining on and off for 3 days) so the crossing should be smooth.