island one: koh phangan

After sweating our butts off in the city for a few days, we were ready for some ocean. The overnight bus, which we thought would be so convenient, ended up taking over 18 hours to get us to our island resort, but once we got there, it was all worth it.

The view was breath taking, the water pristine, and our bamboo bungalow a quick 2 minute walk to the ocean, 1 minute to the pool. We spent most of our time on this island relaxing and soaking up the sun. Our afternoons were spent in and out of the ocean, building a sand turtle named clive (which our swedish friends later watched get peed on by a pack of dogs, sad day!), jumping into the pool and making friends. The town was not far down the road so we ventured there for the occansional meal, and once in a successful quest for a frisbee, but mostly stayed near the resort during the day.

A couple of our evenings were spent on a beach called Haad Rin, the most touristy part of the island, about a 20 minute taxi ride over death defying hills (with signs saying dangerous terrain, experienced drivers only) from our resort. Through all of our travels when we mentioned that we were going to Thailand we were asked if we were heading to the Full Moon Party on Koh Phangon which lead us to this island in the first place. On the 30th of March we headed to Haad Rin for the biggest beach party you can imagine. We went with a group of Swedes (Helen, Felicia and Matias) that we had met at the resort and had an amazing time! Over 8,000 people drinking out of buckets with neon paint on their bodies danced the night away. There was fire limbo, which KT and Matias mastered, and a million things to see and do.

We also spent our last night on the island with Helen, Felicia and Matias on Haad Rin, smoking a hookah and enjoying the beach. The weather, while still hot, was much more enjoyable as we could jump into the pool or run into the ocean any time it got to be too much. The beautiful view and great new friends made Koh Phangon a great success, I would highly recommend a trip there, especially for the Full Moon party ;-)

-Kate