Koh Phangan and Phuket
This time a less hectic arrival at the ferry gate, maybe symbolising the atmosphere on the island, at least we hoped. First we had to go through some tough negotiations with a songthaew driver to get to Haad Salad on the North West coast of the island. They double or triple the price of their trips just because you’re a tourist. If we would just be there for 2 weeks of holiday, we would care less. Worst case we’d have to pay 750 Baht (15 euros). But the longer we travel, the more it becomes a matter of principles to not pay more than the usual price for transport, also because we’re on a budget. In the end, the guy took us there for 400 Baht. A Dutch woman who lived in Singapore for years travelled with us in the songtaew and she still couldn’t get used to the hassling as soon as she crossed the boarder.
Koh Phangan is world-famous for its monthly full moon party. It started innocently in 1987 with some beers, music and a couple of people who had come to a goodbye party to one of the guests of Paradise Bungalows on a full moon night. Nowadays it’s a dance event where monthly about 10000 people from all over the world gather to party. To take it to a higher level all sorts of drugs, mainly amphetamines, are abundantly but illegally available. Haad Rin, at the most Southern point of the island, is an absolute paradise for party people. Haad Salad, our beach, was on the other side of the island, in a small bay with clear blue waters, surrounded by hills covered with palm trees. The few resorts there were fully booked and too expensive. We ended up at Asia Bungalows, a spacious clean bungalow, just a few footsteps from the beach. The owner of the place lived there herself as well and was busy all day maintaining her beautiful tropical garden. We felt at home straight away. Sara went crazy over the beach and sea and took off immediately. This time of year, the tides are dramatic, so at low tide the water would completely withdraw behind a small reef. This meant that the water never got above knee level, ideal for Sara. After her afternoon sleep we walked into Vanessa on the beach, one of the two English girls we met back in Krabi. She was staying with Sarah in a yoga resort in the same bay as us. They both were in pain from all the exercises they’d been doing and the only movement that didn’t hurt them was lifting a glass. So we got some ice cold beers and sat in front of our bungalow watching the sun go down. Absolutely fantastic. Sarah and Vanessa were already convinced back in Krabi that they would meet us again. They said that if there’s a click with certain people, one way or the other, you’ll end up meeting them again somewhere on your journey. Our Sara loved to see them again, since both of them were crazy about her and played with her all the time. The beers kicked in pretty well, since after a quick curry we all went to bed early.
Next day it was even more bizarre when we met Sandra from Zurich who on her turn happened to know our friends back in Switzerland. It’s a small world after all! She was travelling with her husband and 2 kids of 6 and 10. They were at the end of their world trip which lasted a year altogether. She gave us some tips on Bali and Western Australia and we told her to say hi to our friends in Flims, whom she was going to meet the week after. They will not believe we met. We spent the rest of the day swimming, sleeping and eating. Sara bought a new bikini, which she picked herself, since her swimming diaper became too small for her. Very proud of her new beach outfit she ran up and down the beach, having to stop every now and than posing for Japanese or Chinese tourists. There have been more pictures taken from her than we took ourselves during the trip. In general we have no problems with it. We just have 2 rules: Sara must be ok with it and people have to ask for permission before making any pictures of her. We regretted not going to Koh Phangan earlier. The island had enough places to discover and visit, but we had no time to do so. After 2 nights it was time for us to leave again. Our boat back to Koh Samui didn’t leave until later in the afternoon so we spent some time with Vanessa and Sarah and had some goodbye drinks. Vanessa’s next stop would be Fiji. She was going to look for a job and a muscled rugby player over there (she was absolutely crazy about rugby). Sarah would meet her Finnish boyfriend in Malaysia and would travel via Bali and Australia to Argentina. We exchanged email addresses and agreed to try to meet each other either in Bali or Argentina. We would have loved to stay at least a week longer on Koh Phangan but adjusting the flights would be too costly and without much enthousiasm we took the boat back to Koh Samui.
After spending one more night in Choen Mon Beach we took an early flight with Bangkok Airways to Phuket on the West coast. This was the first flight ever in my life where everybody remained seated after the plane landed, even when the doors opened. Practically all passengers boarded the plane straight from the Full Moon party without having slept and they where having huge hangovers from booze and drugs. In Phuket it was pooring with rain, symbolising our slightly sad feelings. We passed all illegal taxis and took our first metered taxi, which would cost almost half the price of the others for the same ride. But even these taxis didn’t come without surprises. When we paid, the driver added another 100 Baht to the bill for being a “licensed airport driver”. With the look of triumph on his face, he pointed out the small letters at the back of the bill. I think we’ve had all possible bullshit stories for now ranging from the high gasoline prices, heavy luggage, pushchair, family, going out of town center, after 0600 pm, before 0800 am to extra diplomas and licenses. We are curious to know what else is waiting for us. Maybe worth to write a travelbook about, “the world of do’s and don’ts with taxis”.
Since we would only spend 2 days in Phuket we booked a nice resort through internet at Kamala Bay. The damage of the tsunami was still visible here and we were told that for various reasons the village of Kamala was behind with renovation works in comparison to the rest of West coast. We found signs with “tsunami evacuation route” everywhere and funny enough the route for locals and tourists differed. As far as I know, panic doesn’t differ. Through the “tsunami 100 years-park” the locals tried create a memorial, never forgetting this traumatic experience. It’s hard to imagine that every single person in the village lost at least one family member because of the tsunami.
Meanwhile Sara has mastered the “wai”, the Thai way of greeting or saying thank you. Just one meter tall, she got out of the taxi, walked to the staff of the resort and greeted each one of them with the wai. The resort had a big pool and a kids club, although this last mentioned was closed because of a seminar. The pool fortunately was open and attracted all visitors, mainly families with children. Families from Egypt, Canada, New Zealand and Argentina guaranteed enough fun and material to talk about. The resort offered a free shuttle service to Pattong Beach, but after Koh Samui we had enough of all the loud mass tourism. Kamala Bay itself was quite dead, peak season was December/January here, pretty refreshing for us though. This did mean that lots of restaurants were closed. The swimming pool at the resort had its own swim-up bar, ran by Jake. Jake used to be a monk back in Chang Mai for 7 years and was now working for his money in Phuket. According to Jake the real Thailand wasn’t anything like Phuket, for that we’d have to go up north. Apart from his chauvinism, we figured he was probably right, especially when it comes to places like Koh Samui and Phuket. Jake worked 6 days a week, 12 hours per day and didn’t have any holidays or days off this year, because there was a lack of staff in the resort. Even though his job one of the better ones you could have, we were shocked to find out that his monthly salary was less than our daily salary at our previous employer. While having a beer at the bar we met Travis, a nurse/surfing addict from Adelaide who was staying at the resort out of pure love for his girlfriend. The waves back home were at its best at this time of year and you could see the guy suffering without his board and shore. His girlfriend just came back from Europe where she spend 6 months studying. They decided to see each other in Thailand after so long, before he’s have to go back to work and she’d have to start studying again. To us it seemed that the flame on her side was gone, but he compensated for that lack on his side. A very nice guy who you’d think would work for the local tourism office, listening to the way he promoted his city, Adelaide. If we ever get to Adelaide, we’ll visit him for sure. While Sara was swimming and playing with the other kids in the water, it turned out to be a very nice happy hour after all. Enriched by a few new stories and a huge tip to Jake poorer, we were happy to catch our next flight the day after. With Air Asia to Singapore, where at the end of the afternoon our round-the-world ticket would take us to Bali. Our last stop in Azie before going down under.
Lees meer uit de kategorie Thailand.
If you would like to leave a comment, please use the below form.
dutch version