Saturday, my last day in Bangkok was also the day of the famous "Chatuchak Weekend Market" A place with over 8 thousand vendors, and supposedly the ability to find anything and everything. I arrive at 9:30am, most stores didn't open until 10 but I wanted to establish a systematic route, starting at the top and working my way back and forth. Can't miss anything. Booths lined up side by side and row by row by tight ally ways. Some booths only a 8x8 box. I was excited... After a half hour and covering what I thought was a fair amount of ground, I was left unimpressed. "Where was all the good stuff?" I passed hundreds of women's clothing booths, uninteresting trinkets and a ton of jeans. I pressed on, deeper into the market, going off my strategic path and attempted to get lost in the chaos of retail to hopefully find something good. I ending up finding some pretty cool stuff, but didn't find many of the things I was hoping. I called it a day after lunch time and headed back to the hostel to pack up and check out for my night bus ride to get to Koh Phangan. I went to the local post office with my suits and souvenirs to send home only to find that it would take up to 2 months because of US customs issues. I could ship express (for $175) and it would get there in 3-4 days...pretty ridiculous so I said screw it. I'll backpack with all this crap. I wasn't going to pay half the price of the suits to ship them home.
Matt, buddy from SF, snuck a couple brews on the bus to Koh Phangan to hopefully sleep better on the 8 hour ride. Surprisingly the ride went pretty quick and I got a decent nights sleep thanks to my inflatable neck pillow. After a 2 hour wait at the dock, the high speed catamaran arrives, dropping off travelers and picking up the next load. They put our packs on the bow of the boat, a little nerve racking but we had to trust they knew what they were doing. First stop was Koh Samui, which was a lot bigger than I thought. 45 minutes later we landed on Koh Phangan. Taxi to our beach in the south east part of the island and checked into our hostel, The Dancing Elephant.
Koh Phangan has been an interesting experience. As we did more or less a lot of the same, I'm going to sumarize differnt aspects of life on this crazy island.
Koh Phangan is a small island in the gulf of Thailand and just north of Koh Samui. It is most famous for its legondary Full Moon Parties - Where once a month more than 8 thousand travelers, backpackers, and party goers load Haad Rin beach for a night of partying, debauchery, and endless dancing. The drink of choice is known as "The Bucket." A 5th of liquor, 12oz of soda, a bottle of red bull, poured over ice into a plastic pale you would most likely build a sand castle with. Great to share or just take to the face. Needless to say you dont need a lot. We all know its not a party unless there is fire, and Full Moon is no exception. From fire dancers, jugglers, to limbo and jump roping, the party stays hot and pretty dangerous as many dumb asses get burned. Regardless the music is awesome, the beach is beautiful, the atmosphere is energetic and exciting. Definitely worth the experience.
The Dancing Elephant Hostel, the top rated, and possibly one of the most expensive hostels in the area during the Full Moon Party. It sleeps 19 people... All in one room. There are literary a 10 person bunk bed with 5 mattresses side by side top and bottom. David, the owner sits everyone down and gives them "the talk" a 45 min Full Moon Party 101 crash course of what to do and what not to do, recommended places to go and house rules. Everyone gets the talk. Next to the dancing Elephant is a small open air restaurant named Maddy's, which quickly became the meeting point for all 19 of us. Of the 6 full days I spent on this island, I would say I only ate somewhere else 3 or 4 times. The food was great but took forever, most likely because there were 15-20 of us eating at once. The wait was never that bad, as we entertained our selves with good conversation and connect 4. The community that was established at Maddy's made sleeping next to 18 other people not a big deal. It was pretty cool. We could be anywhere in area, run into someone from the hostel and quickly get reconnected with the group. Going out was fun because we had such a large base we never got tired of a small group. Taking excursions were cheaper because we were able to negotiate a group discount.
"Same Same" is a term you hear almost hourly, usually comparing two products or options - Thais will say "same same" but its really "same same...but different" I have a shirt that says it.
Typical day. Slowly wake up, grab some much needed water and advil, Start to congregate at Maddys and grab a fruit shake and some eggs...Two hours later, after everyone has finally eaten we map out a plan for the day... Some beach...Somewhere. One day we took a truck load of people up to Ao Mae Haad, a beach on the north west corner of the island. Fitting 15 people in one small truck was an interesting challenge. One person had to hang off back by the tailgate. A bumpy but sencic 40 minute ride later we arrived to a remote beach getaway that obviously few people knew about. The beaches were clean and the water felt amazing. 300 yards off shore was a small island you could walk to as the tide went out. We were literally in paradise. We chilled on beach talking, joking and playing games in the sand. The sun was setting on the ride back and it was amazing to see a glimpse atop the steep ocean side mountainous roads then only to plumit back down to sea level. Another long chill dinner we walked down our street to watch a muay thai fight. The fighting was great. It started out with two younger kids about 20 years old but didnt look older than 14. The fighting is a really interesting art and dance as the relentlsly kick and punch the fool out of each other. We go out to the beach to have a good time and eventually call it a night...or morning...wake up and do it again - tough life.
Thats all for now. Again, I'ts been hard to write, even though I have all the time in the world right now, I'ts spent with the people from all over the world... I'll fill in more details later
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