Koh Phangan

One of my favourite things about travelling is never knowing where you might end up tomorrow. As such, I tend to shy away from booking things in advance. Unfortunately this was New Year peak season so prices were inflated and accommodation was scarce so I opted to book three nights on Koh Phangan before I arrived. My only option was to book a double room so I hoped to bump into someone on the ferry who would be up for sharing. As luck happens I sat next to two worse for wear girls on the ferry - one of whom was asleep underneath the chairs. 

A and H were from Bournemouth and had been at a part the night before. At the ferry port, we boycotted the touts for a while as the girls had a number to call when they arrived on Koh Pangan. Their number yielded no response so we all decided to share the room. A shouted "Taxi, taxi" in the middle of the idling group of touts and we were on our way to Ham Salad (aka Haad Salad).

It wasn't a problem convincing the frond desk that there were only two of us staying in the room and our other friend was just 'dropping off her bag'. We checked out the local reggae bar, took a swim and piled into the double bed for a nap.

J and A were already on Koh Phangan and informed me that the Black Moon Party (Experience After Party) was that night and the line-up was going to be good! All we needed now was transportation. Although it is commonplace to see three plus people on a moped in Asia, they wouldn't allow it in the rental shop. It was going to work out cheaper for us to rent a jeep between three for 24 hours than to get a taxi to the party and back so we bought some refreshments and clamboured in. I was more than happy to be the designated driver. A bottle of Samson, several toilet breaks and an hour later we were outside the party. The only thing left between us and dancing all night was how we were going to avoid paying the 500 baht entrance fee. We parked up and scouted around but breaking in wasn't looking likely. A few people were leaving the party so we took their wristbands for 200 baht and were in!

It turned out to be another amazing party. I bumped into some people I had met on Koh Tao and it was a perfect way to end my New Year on the islands before getting back to doing some proper travelling! After a safe journey back - including some of my legendary dodgey parking - we all settled into a deep sleep.

The next day I had arranged to meet K (a friend I had bumped into at both parties) in Haad Rin to book tickets to travel to Kuala Lumpur together as he was flying back to Slovenia and had a flight to the Philippines. It was raining on the island anyway, so no fun for touring the islands beaches as we had originally planned. The evening ran smoothly, no crashes, tickets booked, a few drinks and a movie in a bar. Although we did get majorly lost on the way back and ended up in the wrong part of the island but luckily our late arrival was overlooked. We are obviously better navigators after a night of partying.

The next morning at 5am I was travelling again! The journey from Koh Phangan to Kuala Lumpur was a killer 24 hour mission! The worst part of the journey was the minivan from Surathani to Penang. Cramped into the back it was too bumpy to read and there was no chance of sleeping. K gave me some Slovenian wordsearches to do and was very patient in responding to my questions of what every word meant in English while he battled on with his 'Very Taxing' sudoku.