Ko Phangan - Shrooms, Moons and Motorbikes

Another train took us from Bangkok, south once more overnight to a wake-up call in Surat Thani, where we departed the train, panicked over where Cary had put the bus and boat tickets, before eventually finding them tucked in her bag and boarding the bus to the port of Don Sak on the eastern coast of Thailand, just as the sun was rising with a few hundred fellow travelers, who were also heading for the Full Moon Party.


The boat eventually left at 8am, and we grabbed a seat on the deck for the three hour voyage to the island. By the time we arrived I was well and truly sunburnt. A fabulous start. Waiting for us at Thong Sala, the port on Ko Phangan was Kara, who had already had a one nights stay on Ko Samui and hadn’t particularly enjoyed the experience, so she’d come straight to Phangan to meet with us. Cary had managed to book a couple of bungalows at a resort just over the hill from Hed Rin, where the Full Moon Party was due to take place on the 22nd, at Leela Bungalows. It was a grinding walk with our bags up and then down hill from the main town, but good to their word this time, they had kept us two bungalows.

It was finally time to relax and things began to come together. Troy and Alan turned up and had themselves a bungalow too. Darren arrived and was already staying at an apartment in Ban Khai, further up the coast, but moved to join us. The illnesses from us all seemed to be receeding, although in Bangkok Cary had been munched upon by an army of bed-bugs leaving nasty bite marks all over her legs and back. But above all else the sun was shining and good, relaxing times beckoned. Not that the previous five months had not been good, far far from it, it had been amazing, but like with Sihanoukville in Cambodia, sometimes it’s good to stay in one place for a decent amount of time to recuperate from all the traveling.

Our bungalows were at the top of yet another hill, and were as basic as they come, i.e. hole in the wall for a toilet, no electricity, covered in mosquitoes and big hairy spiders, but did what they said on the label. After all we weren’t going to be spending much time there. We spent most of the afternoon lying on the beach sunning ourselves, then that evening went to sample the delights of Hed Rin for the first time. It is a heaving, manic town, especially around the full moon because of the number of people it attracts here, containing shop after shop of Western eateries, internet cafes, tour companies and souvenir shops. The shops sit back from the highlight itself, Hat Rin Beach, that from end to end has either bars opening out on to it or hundreds of small stalls all competing with one another for you to buy their buckets of potent alcohol mixtures. We duly obliged.

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