November Full Moon.

(more pictures to follow - on the other camera card)



Sometimes you need to make a decision about what is more important - time or money. When it came to meeting up with the buds in Thailand (for my third time), I chose money. I got an affordable flight from Cebu to Manila, followed by a 6-hour layover in Manila before catching a flight to Bangkok. Then, I waited at the airport for another 7 hours (12am-7am) for my flight south to Suratthani. At least I finished two books with all those layovers! 

I shared a cab with 3 Irish girls to the ferry terminal in Suratthani, and we got a boat over to Koh Phangan. Upon arrival, I had four hours to kill at the hotel until the buds arrived - Chris, Lauren, Keeler, Caitlin and Alex. I hung out by the pool with five fun Californians from Santa Barbara while I waited. 


It was the night before the FMP (full moon party), so they all went to Haad Rin. We were staying in Baan Tai, which like I said from last FMP was about a 20-minute ride at 100 baht a head each way. I stayed in because I couldn't keep my eyes open anyway from my journey. The next day, we slept in and laid out at the pool and beach all day before making our way to the FMP in a van with the Californians. It was a fun ride! The van strategically dropped us off at some random part of Haad Rin that required a 100 baht fee. I knew this wasn't a necessary fee to pay, but no one else wanted to waste the time to figure out an entrance to avoid it. 


I love hanging out with the Korea crew, but I've also been traveling for a lot longer than they have and have a better idea of pricing and unnecessary costs that they accept that I am reluctant to pay. It's hard to be the only one trying to avoid paying extra money all the time because it can often come across as stingy or cheap. But it in reality, I am a backpacker, and I'm three months down and trying to make it last for another three. Last FMP, we got a fan bungalow on Haad Rin for 300 baht - $5 each between 2 people. Here, we were a 200 baht round-trip ride away and each paid $20 a night with a 4-night minimum for a fan-only room. It's things like that that get under my skin a little. I keep trying to just suck it up, accept it and move on, but it happens everyday where I have to make excuses for spending the extra dollars in stupid places. Hopefully, I'll figure out how to control the extra costs - quickly. But sidetrack aside...


We paid the entrance fee and got a souvenir bracelet with it and immediately bought paints and Mama's Schnitzel sandwiches. I pictured last month's party right away! We painted pictures and words on each other, got some buckets of vodka-redbull and headed to the beach. The three of us girls quickly split from the boys and danced the night away while meeting fun groups of people from all over the world. I also ran into Jacko, Sam and Simon who took the motorbikes with us in Vietnam - love those English guys! We all had a great time, and before we knew it, it was 6am and the sun was shining strong. By 8, we decided that we needed some falafel, hummus and cheese fries - breakfast of champions - before we'd be ready to make the trek back to Baan Tai. When we made it back to the hotel, the 3 of us ran straight into the pool. Everyone that we saw stumble home in the broad daylight was convinced to join us for a swim. We got out of the pool to catch our free breakfast before it ended at 11am. 


As expected, we spent most of the day sleeping and got an early dinner around 5pm, and we ate everything possible over a 3-hour span. We didn't last too long that evening either, and mostly made it to bed by 11pm. I can't sleep much and was up at 6:30am chatting home and uploading photos. By the time the friends got the day rolling, it was after 12pm. We finally rented 3 motorbikes and cruised around the island. We tried to get a taxi boat to Bottle Beach (which we heard so much about from our Korea friends), but apparently the waves were too high and the boats wouldn't go - bummer!


Instead we went to Haad Mae Hat and Ko Ma beaches and ate lunch and had some personal time for reading and writing as the sun set over out last night in Koh Phangan. Finally, we finished the night off at Amsterdam Bar atop a mountain overlooking the beach. It was a nice end to our time in Phangan.  

Koh Phangan and Koh Tao

Lena and I were convinced to stay in this area called Baan Tai upon arrival in Koh Phangan rather than the Full Moon Party beach, Haad Rin. We reluctantly paid for four nights and had to take 100 Baht rides to the town and back. Our door had a piece of wire as a doorknob, and a janky padlock went through a hole to keep it locked. After one night there, we knew that we'd have to find an alternative, even if we couldn't get any money back from the dreadful Great Bay Resort. We got a recommendation from a local expat who sent us to Suncliff Bungalows - it was perfect. We paid 300 Baht a night for a charming bungalow, fully equipped with the random millipede, frog in the bathroom and an upright fan and cold shower - it was all we needed. They had the upgrades for 1000 Baht a night, but with the money lost, the only thing in mind was "cheap!" Anyway, the pool there had a perfect view for sunset, and it was absolutely stunning. Finally, something worked out for us. We met up with the friends from Vietnam again - Ryan, Dillon and Craig - and the long-lost Siri! We also met a few more Brits that were a ton of fun to party with.

Suncliff Bungalows Pool at sunset. 

Our bungalow.

The island was swamped with Israelis, more than anywhere else; however, the island wasn't as full as I was expecting from the stories I had heard. Pre-FMP (full moon party), we all reconvened for a painting party at Siri's hostel - Same Same But Different Hostel. I had some creative works painted on me to include a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle and a Super Mario Bros. extra guy mushroom. We were all looking awesome and had a fun night. Different groups were split up and found again throughout the night. I lost one flip-flop after about 15 minutes, and I jump-roped with a fire jump-rope and went down a flaming waterslide - safely. It was not the horrible party that I thought it would be.

We spent a day at Haad Yao beach, which was so beautiful and relaxing, and I also found a delicious greek salad! Then everyone tried to sort out an exit route off the island. I ended up paying 400 Baht to get to Koh Tao for a PADI diving course - expensive considering I paid 550 to get from Bangkok to Koh Phangan. I had just enough time for an Open Water course before my Thai visa expired. I started watching videos as soon as I arrived at Asia Divers Resort, and the confined dives started in the morning.

I didn't have any problems until the filling of the mask with water. I have always had to hold my nose at any time while under water, and this didn't work well. After some struggling, I managed to do it successfully once or twice, but I wasn't feeling confident for the open water. Luckily, my three French instructors were fantastic.

After jumping in the water and deflating my BCD (buoyancy control device), slowly going down to the ocean floor, I got more comfortable. It was actually fun, with the exception of the mask tests. I still passed, and I had a great time diving. I can't wait to get my advanced certification and dive somewhere else.

From there, I got a ferry to Koh Samui and a flight to meet Joyce in Kuala Lumpur - reunited!