09.12.2006 

On Monday 4th we went to Koh Phangan. The island is next to Koh Tao and just one hour by boat (200 Bath). I had already reserved a bungalow in advance as cheap rooms are booked out quite early in the Full Moon Party week.

We stayed at Stone Wall Bungalows which is on the hill at the Northern part of sunrise beach in Haad Rin (behind Seaview Haadrin Resort). It was a recommendation from a guy in StudiVZ and it was a good decision to go there. I can recommend it to anyone who wants to stay in Haad Rin, nomatter whether during Full Moon Party time or not. Stone Wall Bungalows is a simple nice and quiet place with great view on Haad Rin and just two minutes walk from the beach where the Full Moon Party is. The family is very friendly and tries to help wherever possible. The food is excellent and the bungalows are reasonably priced (200-500 Bath depending on how high the bungalow is on the hill). The hill is a little challenge so you don’t want to walk up and down too often during the day but it is no problem at all and those who want to have it more relaxed can use a kind of elevator which brings you slowly onto the hill.

Tuesday was a really nice and sunny day so during the day we were mainly lying on the beach. Normally on in the night before full moon there should be a good party as well but as the 5th was king’s birthday no alcohol was sold and the bars were not allowed to play music so there weren’t many people on the beach.

The 6th was the day of the Full Moon Party. Unfortunately, it was heavily raining the whole day and the news had announced that the typhoon which had caused a lot of damage and even killed several people on the Philippines and in Vietnam will move on to Thailand in the evening as a weakened tropical storm. So we weren’t even sure whether the party will take place, for example the ferries from Surat Thani were canceled for the day because of high waves. But around 9pm it suddently stoped raining so the ‘tropical storm’ at Koh Phangang finally was not more than a heavy rain and the party could take place as normal with the execption that nobody was allowed to go into the water. The party was really great. A lot of people and party until sunrise (or longer). The part of the beach where the Full Moon Party takes place is maybe 300-500m long, the bars along the beach play different kinds of music and the famous buckets are sold everywhere. Buckets contain Thai wisky, songsom or wodka mixed for example with coke, sprite or red bull and for sure are one of the reason why all people are in good mood.

The day after the party was a lazy day as probably for most people. Even the evening was very quiet - I would have expected something like a bigger afterparty but only a few people were sitting on the beach and watching fire shows.

For Friday we booked a boat trip to see something from the island but as we arrived at noon they said that the trip is canceled because of high waves. So we decided to rent a jeep and drive around during the afternoon. We went to Than Sadet Waterfalls (which is very small and more a river than a real waterfall) and to Thand Sadet beach, a good place to stay for people who prefer a quiet and relaxed holiday. We also tried a path a bit more in the South and wanted to return along the coast but the path along the coast turned out to be only a hiking trail so we had to go back the same way. The ‘roads’ on the East side of Koh Phangan are very bumpy and not paved, its more a path through the woods that during the rain also became very muddy. We used the 4 wheel drive nearly all the time. It was really fun driving but we were a bit afraid of the wheels because there were wholes everywhere and we were not looking forward to change wheels during our short tour.

On the last night I went to the beach again and the party was quite good, better than the day before. So probably people had recovered or new people had arrived. Today we took the boat to Surat Thani and right now I am sitting in the night train to Bangkok so I have time to write (1050 Bath for taxi, boat, bus and sleeping train). We will stay two nights in Bangkok before we continue our trip to Chiang Mai with the night train on the 12th. I have to leave Thailand on the 20th (Tourist-Visum is only 30 days) so I decided to stay longer in the North instead of spending two much time in Bangkok.

Categories: Getting around
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