I have finally made it to paradise. After a long train ride and 3 hour ferry ride, I arrived onto Ko Phangan. I met a boy form France named Thomas and he is hitchhiking around the world. He has already been to 12 different countries and 4 continenents. We shared a bungalow at my favorite place Haad Yao Bungalows and we have settled in quite nicely into the lazy routine of the islands. Sandy and Lyle found an inexpensive resort with pool just down the beach and they love what Ko Phangan has to offer. I wish that I could tell you about an amazing assortment of adventures so far, but honestly my days have consisted of sleeping, swimming, eating and repeat. The thing I like about this particular beach is that not only is it one of the nicest beaches on this island, but it’s family orientated and people tend to stay here a while. At my bungalows, I see the same families who stay quite a while here again and it’s nice to see them again. I am hanging out right now with a couple from Spain who are here for 2 months and a guy from Surrey who is planning on staying here for a while as well. Once you get down this way, it’s easy to just end up chilling for weeks on end. This beach does have it all though, great snorkeling, a variety of restaurants and there are a handful of pubs and bars that have “parties” on any given night of the week. There is no reason to leave here. It’s going to awfully hard to pry me away from my hammock in a couple of weeks when I have to head to New Zealand.
Lyle, Sandy and I heard about this food festival they were having in the main town of the island called Thong Sala. It’s a 4-day Buddhist holiday so we went to check it out. I have to say that I was very surprised at what we saw. There was a stage set up with live Thai entertainment and all around it was vendor after vendor of Thai food I have never seen before. And the seafood was amazing! We just picked up plates of steamed prawns for $1.50 . It just didn’t seem to end. It really was an excellent way of once again sampling the variety of food Thailand has to offer. I need to mark it down on a calendar for next year!
Anyone who has been to Ko Phangan is aware that other than the taxis (which really is a big open van) the preferred method of transportation by the locals and tourists are the motorbikes that you can rent for $6 a day. And if you have ever been here, you also know that the island has steep hills over most of KPG and that it is dangerous for people who aren’t familiar with the roads or rising a bike. There is something called the Ko Phangan tattoo that you seen on a lot of people which is essentially road rash from a bike accident. I can say that it is more likely that you will see that on the beach than ugly Europeans bathing topless. It really is horrendous and Chris, the guy from Surrey, is lucky to be alive from such an accident. It can certainly put a damper on your holidays as you can’t swim for at least a week and it easily gets infected because of the humidity. On another note, what also surprised me were the ages of the kids riding motorbikes as well. They barely looked old enough to reach the pedals let alone drive their own bike.
Anyways, that’s all for now. It’s getting hot out and I need to get out and enjoy some of this lovely sunshine. Love the emails that I get from all of you. Kisses, Merie.
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