After Bangkok, I went straight to Ko
Phangan to experience it's world famous full moon party. A party
that happens on full moons on the beach, and the one in January gets
an average of about 20,000 people attending. I got on a bus at 5pm
(didn't actually leave until 8pm...) and went overnight to Surat
Thani (ended up there at 5am). Then we took a bus for 25 minutes
(took the VIP room) to the pier. After another hour I got on a boat,
and at about 2pm the next day finally arrived at Kho Phangan! On the
bus ride I met some really cool people including a guy who went to
high school a twenty minute walk from where I grew up, and he
was traveling around Asia performing in circus shows.
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| Full moon partying fire jumping |
Walking to where I thought my Bungalow
was supposed to be along the beach, I ran into a french Canadian guy.
We ended up talking a while, he was renting a bungalow in the jungle
for a few months, and the rest of the year he worked as a butler in
different places around Canada. He ended up giving me a tour of part
of the island, and showed me everything I needed to know. He even
showed me his bungalow in the jungle which had a coconut farm on it
(a bunch of palm trees). He suggest that if I am staying in Thailand a
while to make a home base and rent out a house somewhere to do trips
from, that way I can meet more people and develop local friends to
learn more about Thailand, and also not get burnt out from being continuously on the move. Currently I want to be on the move and see a
lot, but will take his advice if I extend my travels.
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| Walking along the beach looking for my hotel |
I ended up staying at a guest house in
the main city in Koh Phangan, which had a tattoo shop downstairs, and
about 6 rooms, but there was usually only about one other guest
upstairs. I ended up hanging out with another Canadian from Montreal
for the whole week and had some awesome times together partying, going on adventures and exploring the island.
Things you can do on Koh Phan Ghan:
Meditate
Go Elephant trekking
Party twenty four seven
Take on the wipe out course
Go hiking
ride motor bikes
Learn to cook Thai food
Take Muai Thai training
Relax on a beach and do nothing
but relax
Go Jet Skiing, para sailing, wake
boarding, etc
Go to wisdom talks
Get a thai Massage and learn Thai
Massage
Become an expert pool player
Get tatoos
Learn Thai
Volunteer at the animal shelter
Many more things I have not
mentioned (Yoga, Scuba diving, etc)
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| A pet monkey at the restaurant we were eating at |
There was so much to do on this island,
I am not going to get into detail about what I did everyday, as by
the time you finish reading it you will call me an asshole and swear
to never again read my blog. Basically everyday I would go on an
adventure, whether with my rented scooter, for a wisdom talk, a hike
through the jungle or on the coast, a thai massage, or taking a
course or watching a live show. One of the coolest things I did was
taking a half day Thai cooking course. The instructor was a Thai
lady, and she brought me and four others to the local market, we
bought food, and then she taught me to make Spring rolls, Pad Thai,
and coconut soup, and of course after we got to eat! The food was so
good, and it felt really good to learn to cook new things, I would
highly recomend taking a cooking course if you love to cook back
home, in what ever foriegn country your in to expand your cooking
skills and your mind!
I posted some pictures with captions of
some of the stuff I got up to.
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| The beach at the resort I stayed at the second half of my stay ($15 a night) |
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| Are own private beach, didn't see anyone all day, there just was no sand |
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| Eating dinner after are epic hike |
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| 60 cents a chicken leg! |
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| Cooking school |
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| Made my own Spring Roll |
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| The lady opened the door beside this one and there was a king cobra standing up hissing, I told her to shut it! |
The Full Moon Party:
In 10 words: Nuts, awesome, inspiring,
happy, inclusive, huge, fun, exciting, energetic, crazy!!! Brief
overview: The full moon party is held on a beach about 600 meters
long. All the bars on the beach are open, and dance floors are also
set up on the beach. In Thailand the rules are very lax (that's an
understatement) and pretty much anything goes, which can create an
epic party! More than just a bunch of clubs and people getting drunk
and dancing, this party went much further. For starters you can get
your body painted anyway you want. There is tons of food for sale (I
like to eat). On the beach there are tons of dangerous activites
including fire skipping (a jump rope set on fire and you don't want
to get hit), jumping through rings of fire, fire limbo contests,
jungle gyms to swing on, a water slide where you have to climb up a
pirate rope ladder (as many as you want at a time), and you fall
about 1.5 meters above the ground onto a blow up cushion, and then
hopefully bounce from that onto the beach feet first (doesn't always
happen). There were also to many dance floors and stages to count.
Fortuntatley I survived the night with only a burn on the back of my
neck from the jump rope. A lot of people say this party is overblown
and over rated, I say come experience it. It only costs about $4 to
get in (clean up fee), and most of the activites are free, and drinks
are not over priced. The best part about the night is all the people
you will meet from all over the world, it is the biggest
international party I have ever experinced, and it was a great time!
Overall Ko Phan Ghan is an awesome
island where you can do anything from going treking and not seeing a
person all day, becoming a yoga teacher, or partying your face off!
This is a great place to come and live life and have a great time, if
you know of a better island please tell me, otherwise go experince it
for yourself! Oh yes and you can also shoot big guns here :)
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