I took a long tail boat from Ton Sai back to Ao Nang, a pickup taxi to the bus station and a bus to the other side of Thailand, to Surat Thani, and arrived at a tour company office. It made me feel Vietnam-ish. I did start at a public bus station, but I guess it was run by a private company. At least I could book my train ticket to Bangkok from there at a decent price, since I have not done it in Bangkok. I tried to make the whole journey on my own again, so instead of buying a bus and ferry combination I just got the bus. The problem was that I did not really know which dock to go to and what is the ferry’s schedule. After sniffing around in Surat Thani I came back to same company and bought a ferry ticket from them. So this time I lost two hours and less then a buck. Not a big deal, right? It’s not that I will arrive to Phangan at 7pm, one day before a full moon party, with everyone else in Thailand, who probably booked a room. Piece of cake!
Once I arrived I had two options: Head to the South beaches, close to Rin beach, where the party is, or go the other way, to the North. I picked the second option, in some hope it will be easier to find rooms there. Phangan island is huge, making transportation (too) expensive. The party beach is located at the South East corner of it. Beaches reachable by transportation are located along the West coast and somewhat to the North. But from there, it’s only by boat. Since I did not want to be completely isolated I headed for Yao beach, which was recommended as one of the beautiful beaches, and is located at the North West of the Thailand, as far as possible from the party zone. Locating a place to stay was an annoying task since the road was quite elevated compared to the resorts, most places were full or had only expensive rooms available and it was around 9pm. Later on I found out that walking between them on the shore is shorter. Finally I found a nice spot and went to a (cold) shower and a sleep.
The islands on the gulf coast (Tao, Phangan, Samui) are much more affordable than their counterparts on the Andaman coast (Phi Phi, Phuket, Lanta and more). Nevertheless, being where I was, I was a captive by rather expensive restaurants. Transportation to the main island village, Thon Salat, was quite expensive. My resort’s restaurant was quite good, but not cheap, even the most expensive I've seen so far.
Yao beach was very nice. Not too crowded. It is full of restaurants along it, but they are not near the water and they are not a disturbance. Being the West coast of the island, we had the best show in town every sunset.
The next day I have decided to venture to the world’s famous party, the Koh Phangan full moon party. I went alone, so I did not expect much, just to see what the noise was about. I have discovered a nice “buffet” of musical genres, some a little too close to each other, making the sounds collide. There were a lot of fire shows along the beach and many viewers. Even so, I have been to bigger and better parties. Tel-Aviv university student’s day attracts more people than there were here, maybe because the tourism season is after its peak. I had some good cheap food, but I would not recommend going for a swim on this night. The price charged for the use of toilets is not cheap and a lot of men picked their alternative. A great surprise was bumping into Aviel, a guy I met in Laos, who I tend to meet unexpectedly.
That’s about it folks. The next day passed leisurely, reading and listening to music, “preparing” for my journey back to Bangkok and then to Australia.
See you in OZ! (Where I am right now, writing this, but that’s a whole different story)
No comments:
Post a Comment