12 Hours of Travel and Korean BBQ Buffet

Posted on September 16, 2011 by mamieggroll

By the time we left Koh Phangan and arrived at our hostel in Bangkok, 12 hrs has passed. We took a 1 hr ferry from Koh Phangan to Koh Samui then a ferry to Surat Thani (1.5 hrs(. We took a mini van transfer from the ferry to the airport (1 hr) then waited at the airport for many hours for our flight. If we took a later ferry, we would hav missed our flight.

The plane ride was 1 hr then another 1 hr to get from the aiport to Bangkok. It was a relief that we were checking into a really nice hostel. Think modern warehouse converted into housing.

We went to check out the Patong Street nightmarket then treated ourselves out to a nice Korean BBQ dinner Buffet. Only $ 30.00 total for the both of us with dessert and drinks!

Reading, Resting and Relaxing on the beach-Day 13th

Posted on September 15, 2011 by mamieggroll

Beach infront of our Bungalow

Hearty Breakfast

Reading my kindle

Restaurant at our place

Waiting for the sun to go down

“Coco Burger” best burger ever!

Closing up the bar again! shots of sambuca

I drink wine from the carafe

Not much to say about today, we were super lazy and were beach bums all day. We hung our at the beach in front of our room for 10 hours, practically all day. We had the waitress and bartender bring us drinks, breakfast, lunch AND dinner to us beachside. So we had three meals and lots of booze and didn’t even lift a finger. I am a bit reluctant to see our tab. Oh well, we’re on vacation! We only got up to get stuff from our room or use the bathroom. I started a new book by Kathy Griffin, she is super funny but the book reminded me of the book I just read by Tina Fey.

Soooo… not much to say but we slept, read, ate and got drunk…right on the beach. Great day for rest and relaxation. I felt like a princess.

Full Moon Party-Day 12

Posted on September 15, 2011 by mamieggroll

Of course we both woke up sore, again. This sore wasn’t from too much exercise (like climbing steep stairs), it was from the traumatic fall yesterday. We postponed our snorkeling tour and took the day off to relax.

We walked into town for breakfast and ate at the food stalls. The Mo got his usual crispy pork and I opted for a lighter option of steamed chicken with chicken flavored rice.

We stocked up on beers, water and snacks and laid out by the beach near our hotel for a few hours.

I definitely got some stares and the “double take” a few times in town, not because they thought I was hot, but because I had a huge noticeable gash on my face. I would just smile back. Some people even started conversation with me and offered sympathy, I accepted with politeness. Our travel agent freaked out when she saw me since I looked perfectly fine yesterday when we booked our tours and transfers with her. She reacted the way my own mom probably would have.

Bright neon clothing and accessories seems to be the proper attire for the full moon party and the Mo and I must have missed out on that memo. We went shopping at a few several places to find something bright and “glow in the dark” to wear. These places must make a killing because they charge about $9.00 for a cheap, flimsy tank and the shops were filled with Full Moon goers trying to find the perfect attire. $9.00 can buy a person at least six phad thai’s in Koh Phangan, and that’s going by tourist prices.

With some bargaining, we walked away with 2 tank tops and a headband. The tank top was long enough for me to wear as a dress.

We went to the Phantip Center Food Court for a late lunch/early dinner. This place offers free WIFI so it’s popular with both the locals and tourists. The Mo and I shared papaya salad, fried calamari, steamed fish with ginger and soy sauce and steamed mussels with lemongrass. (I know…we overordered).. We didn’t finish it all but I don’t feel too bad.. The total was less than $10.00.

We took a songathew back to our hotel. The Mo took a nap so he could be wide awake for tonight’s Fullmoon Party Festivities, I couldn’t nap. I laid out on our hammock on our deck and read. I finished reading Tina Fey’s Bossypants, which was a hilarious book. Sometimes, I would even laugh out loud and the Mo would look at me like I was a crazy person.

I headed to the bungalow’s bar to grab a coffee and people watch. The bar was full of backpackers pre gaming and painting each other with bright body paint. It was too early for me to get started. If you know me, I have a hard time pacing myself, it’s either “sober Kim” or “drunk Kim”, you rarely see an “in between Kim”,(I also have another rule of hiding food from people until they are drunk..but I’ll save that for another post)

I finally got the Mo to wake up and we joined the others and drank Singha and painted each other.

I don’t know where to begin with the Full Moon Party. It was an insane scene. There must have been at least 10,000 people there, and that’s the low season too. The party usually attracts 30,000 people in high season. In a way, it was a bit overwhelming. There was just so many party scenes on Haad Rin beach. Each beach bar blasted a different genre of music. We chose the one that played R&B and Pop, because you know how much I love dancing to “only girl in the world” by Rihanna and Katy Perry.

There was so much going on that you had to be intoxicated or on drugs to not notice. Guys were peeing in the ocean, people were puking or past out right on the beach, there were people in the medical clinics and there were those that were practically having sex with strangers. The beach was packed with all sorts of crazy people, that the girl with half her face bleeding seemed to go unnoticed. I was considered normal. It was just a mind blowing night.

Although we wanted to just get wasted and have a great time, we really needed to be responsible. I didn’t need anymore injuries or come home pregnant with an Irish man’s baby. Also, our bungalow was a good 20 minute ride back so we wouldn’t miss our shuttle or else we would be up the wazoo for a ride back.

We shared a songsam red bull coke bucket and had a good buzz going. We danced, people watched and had our first schnitzel. We were home by three and past out.

It was definitely an amazing and indescribable experience. I can’t put into words what I saw and how I felt. Next time, we’ll get a bungalow in Haad Rin and just get wasted, enjoy the party then stumble home. Hopefully our friends will join us next time!

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly- Koh Phangan-Day 11

Posted on September 12, 2011 by mamieggroll

We went to the same mom and pop’s shop to grab breakfast before our shuttle was scheduled to pick us up.

Clear Glass Noodle with Shrimp

Spicy Crispy Pork with rice

The Seatran teminal was really nice. There were employees there to help us with our bags and also inform us on the different islands and transfers. The terminal was really clean. I measure this by the cleanliness of their bathrooms. There was a huge amount of backpackers anxious and pumped to head over to Koh Phangan for the Full Moon Party.

After a short 45 minutes ride we to to Koh Phangan. We negotiated a good “songathew” rate to our lodging, Coco Garden Bungalows right on the beach. We had a smooth check in and a few minutes later we were unpacking our things in our room. Our bungalow was really cute. It had its own deck, cot, and most important, AC.

Beachside Bungalow

Since our hotel was a bit of a walk from the town, we decided to rent a motorbike. I was a bit weary since the woman wanted to keep my passport as collateral. She only gave us one helmet but I insisted on getting two helmets. She said I didn’t need one since I would be riding in that back. I was adament about the helmet. She finally found one for me, it wasn’t in the best shape, but it worked. The cost was pretty cheap, about $5.00 for 24 hours and about $1.33 for a liter of gas.

We took the bike into town and grabbed snacks from the many food stalls. All the snacks were tasty! We sampled fried chicken on sticks, spring rolls, steamed rolls, fried corn fritters and I got my fresh fruit shake to wash it all down!

We found a travel agent and booked our excursion to Ko Tao for tomorrow and our transfers back to the mainland for the day we leave Koh Phangan.

Since I was wearing a dress, getting on and off the bike was a bit tricky without pulling a “Lindsay Lohan” so we went back to our room and I changed into shorts.

We didn’t really have any plans so we decided to ride the bike to the other beach areas of Haad Rin. The ride was a nice breezy ride. We reached a really steep hill right before Haad Riin and our bike didn’t seem like it would make it. Well, it didn’t, it stalled on the steep hill. We flew into a concrete ditch.

It was really scary. A few tourists from Spain was right behind us and saw everything happen. They came to our rescue. The woman kept telling me I was bleeding all over the place and that I was missing teeth. I was so freaked out that I didnt have teeth. I checked, and all my teeth were still there. I think its because my face was bleeding around my mouth so she thought I was missing teeth. Although I was pretty banged up, I didn’t cry. That would have made things worse.

We didn’t make it to Haad Rin and we headed back to our hotel, all shaken up. To make matters worse, it started to pour and my wounds were stinging.

We got back to the hotel and the Mo returned the bike. Luckily for us, it was raining and dark out, so she didnt notice the damages on the bike and I got my passport back. (I didn’t go with the Mo to the bike place as she wouldn’t known that clearly we got into an accident)
I wanted to go to the hospital to make sure I was ok and to have my lesions cleaned properly. The hotel sent us their driver and we went to the local government hospital. It was definitely not up to western standards. The nurse cleaned me up and the trip costs less than $20.00 for an ER visit.

We went back to the hotel and decided to make the best of it. We went to the bar and had a few drinks to soothe the pain. We haven’t paid the bar tab yet, but I have a feeling its going to be a bit expensive considering I had two carafes of red wine and the Mo had four scotches on the rock. We met some really cool people and the owners were super nice. Kudos to Adrian and Lee for accommodating us.