Koh Pangan Moon Party Madness

Oh my is Koh Pangan absurd! So when we first arrived we stayed at a very small, quiet resort on Haad Son and relaxed for a few days. The beach was beautiful, although it rained off and on the entire week or so we were on Koh Pangan. For those of you who don't know, Koh Pangan is famous for its moon parties: full, half, black, shiva, etc. Generally, as most parties made for people on holiday, it consisted of a bunch of foreigners and some Thais getting blasted with buckets of alcohol, soda and red bull. There were fire dancers and glow-in-the-dark paint along with black lights and house music.

We paid 300 Baht for the Half and Black Moon Parties. The Christmas Party, however, was free. Usually the Full Moon Parties are on Haad Rin, one of the biggest cities on the island. Absolute chaos, to say the least.

At just a random night on Haad Rin, Thais were dancing with fire poi and staffs. We were talking to and dancing with these two Aussie girls on holiday when all of a sudden we feel the heat of a nearby fire on our backs. Two Thais were dousing a long rope in butane and setting it on fire. They through it across the crowd and the partiers scattered like cockroaches. We ran to one side and watched them swing the rope round and round. Three words: fire jump rope! I had to try it. It was a lot of fun, although I did get a small burn on my leg from the rope. I suppose that I've lost some weight since the skirt I was wearing that used to be tight was then starting to slip. So in attempt to keep it on, I got burnt - the lesser of two evils, in my opinion. Regardless, I got some great pictures out of the whole thing.

On the Christmas Party there was fire Limbo, which I didn't try. Anyway, many of the parties we went to we went with several people we had met at our bungalow in Baan Thai, just south of Thongsala. There was a Canadian from Toronto, two Chileans that live in Australia, two British boys (one who lives in Qatar) and a German.

We wanted to leave the island to go to Koh Tao the 26, but overslept and missed the ferry. Luckily, we hadn't bought tickets yet. So we spent our last night in Koh Pangan watching movies with our new friends. We must have watched at least four because we didn't get to bed until 2am.

Anyway, we are on Koh Tao right now and have been just been doing some relaxing and some partying as well. We met up with one of our friends, Brian, whom we met in Vang Vieng. He was the one that split his head open on the rocks and then got gauze stitched to his head so that he couldn't change it! We started calling him Bo Peep after awhile. We were on the same ferry and have been hanging out with him a lot, luckily he's healed so no more Bo Peep. We also met an Aussie in Bangkok on our way down and we've been spending time with him and his friend who lives on Koh Tao for the moment since he is an underwater wielder (one of the top five most dangerous jobs!). Well, that's all for now. We've booked PADI course at Baan for Jan 2 and will be officially diving certified.

Happy New Year everyone!

Chiang Mai and All That Jazz

Ok so we took the bus to Chiang Mai from Bangkok last Tuesday night. It wasn’t so bad actually. I was able to sleep and I met a really cool New Zealand girl who’d been traveling for ages. I may not ever see her again, which kinda sucks cuz she was really interesting, but such is the case with single-serving friends.

We arrived in Chiang Mai at 7 am and went to the Lanna Thai guesthouse. The room wasn’t ready yet so we ate breakfast, stored our backpacks and headed off to get bank accounts and Thai massages – definitely interesting. They massage everywhere and try to crack your back with their knees at the end. So we wobbled back to the guesthouse afterward, showered and passed out. Next we woke up, stumbled half asleep to the neighboring restaurant, Sweet Rain, ate lunch (it was nearly 5pm at this point) and wandered around the night market before heading back to the hotel for sleepy time.

The next day we walked around, got lost trying to find the center of the city. We took a cab to Chiang Mun Wat, which is the oldest wat in Chiang Mai. We ate lunch at Ray’s right next door. He’s a nutty Englishman who decided to pack up and move to Thailand 6 months ago after coming to the country every year for six years. Next stop was the Wat something or other and Wat Chedi Luang which is beautiful. (more pictures on facebook). Then we took a cab back to the hotel for some old fashioned relaxing and watching the degradation of the American economy on CNN World News.

Friday you go trekking!

Early Friday morning we started a trekking tour through the northern mountains of Chiang Mai in the Mae Tang area. It was incredible, to say the least. First we stopped at a butterfly and orchid farm, which was nice – just another random tourist attraction but interesting. Then we were off to trek. Lunch was fried rice with soy sauce aka the spiciest sauce I’ve ever had. So with mouths on fire and bellies full, we started our trek.

Although the trek was difficult and a fairly good length, the sights were beautiful and it was worth it. They told us it would be 3 hours and it definitely took us all day, maybe 4-5 hours or so. We stopped at a hilltribe, I think the Lisu, and had some tea-coffee. It was kinda like a mate. Then we continued until we reached camp at about five or six. We just chilled, while some of the guys played Thai football, which is like a cross between hacky sack and volleyball.

We ate dinner and spent half the night by the fire singing and drinking Chang beer. (yes there was a 7 11 even in the mountains! Of course it was a hut with a drawn-on sign, but still.) Here we played a thai drinking game and ended up with black grease from the bottom of the cooking pots and pans all over our faces! Afterward we made a beer tower of about 15/16 cans. It was 16 cans tall for about 3 seconds before finally falling over. One of the locals did it, praying or chanting as he placed each can on top (the tower was taller than he was!).

Saturday Adventure

We woke up early. A wheezing cat had slept next to me all night, cats just love me. No new mosquito bites, which was awesome. We trekked another hour or so to the elephant camp where we rode elephants through the river and jungle. Afterward we went to the Padong (Long Neck Karen) hilltribe, more like an exploitation of human suffering. Maybe they were real Padong, maybe not. Either way those rings are heavy. Supposedly the women wear them to prevent tiger bites from when they lived in Burma/Myanmar. Now it’s just tradition or a tourist attraction (meaning they do it so they can make a living off of tourists).

After lunch, there was an elephant show which I missed, but I’m pretty sure you can see the same at any zoo. Then we took a bamboo raft down the river. After we hiked to a waterfall and did some swimming or at least washed off some dust from our arms and legs. We thought our long day was done, but wait… there’s more. White water rafting. The drops were small, so no big deal. I did fall out of the raft though with another person. Pretty ridiculous, if you ask me. No harm done though. The Thai guys were quick to get me back up, despite my maniacal laughter. They kept telling us to pedal faster as we were approaching large rocks. Of course we listened, and every time smashed into the rock. It was like bumper cars, really. The rest of the way down consisted of water fights with the other raft and collecting our things to go back to Chiang Mai. Finally the day was done.

Aftermath

Alison and I got our stuff and switched guesthouses and were grateful for our well deserved showers. We then met up with some of the people from the trip at the Red Lion. Had some drinks and dinner and went to Bubble, a Thai discothèque. There we saw some strange things. Several guys and gals we doing some funky dancing and acted as if they were on drugs. It was very bizarre. And they were around 40 or 50 years old. Random swing flips and smashed bodies. All and all quite a show. After, the club started getting more and more crowded. Exhausted from our trip, we didn’t stay too long and went to bed fairly early.

Leaving Bangkok

So these last few days have actually been a rocky start. We've been stuck in touristville, jet lagged and confused. The princess (king's sister) had died of cancer several months ago and this weekend was her funeral. All of Bangkok tourist things were closed so we couldn't do any sightseeing. Every Thai person was dressed in black and swarmed the Grand Palace.

Sunday we just meandered around and didn't really do anything. Still tired and with everything closed, we were kind of stuck. One saving grace was our new friend Dave. Alison's friend John meet him a few years ago and so we linked up with him. He's been really awesome and helpful. Last night we went out and partied, partaking in the ever-so-indulgent buckets of booze. I'll post some pictures later here and on facebook. Yesterday we took a tuk tuk cab to a few random places and booked a bus ticket to Chiang Mai, which is in northern Thailand, for tonight. That's pretty much it for now.