Koh Phangan and Full Moon Party!

Yay! Mel and I were finally able to go down to the beaches! And it was all because of the Buddhist Lent that was beginning on Thursday, August 2.  Interesting fact:  The Buddhist holidays start and end depending on the phases of the moon. Since it was a full moon, it marked the beginning of lent and in three months another one will signal the end.  I think it's pretty cool.  There are full moon parties on the islands to celebrate this and of course they have become HUGE tourist attractions, Koh Phangan being the biggest.  For the past three months we have been meeting foreigners all over the North who were heading down for the big full moon party, I guess it is kind of a big deal.  Mel and I were mostly just excited to see some beaches and a lot of our friends from OEG, who were meeting up there.

It was going to be quite a journey there and back. We bought plane tickets from Bangkok to Surat thani (where our ferry would leave) about a month and a half earlier and our bus tickets to Bangkok 2 weeks earlier.  We were pretty prepared, but not super prepared for the length of the journey...
We left for the bust station at 7:30 pm on Wednesday night for our overnight bus, which turned out to be SUPER nice! The seats reclined all the way, we got neck pillows, some snacks, and I slept like a baby.  Thank goodness I can sleep anytime, anywhere.  I definitely appreciated that trait this trip.  We arrived at the bus station in Bangkok around 5 am and grabbed a taxi to the airport.  We told him our flight left at 7 and boy did he step on it for us! We made our flight and met some of our friends at the airport who were also on our flight! I slept on this flight also... Then we took a bus from the airport to the ferry station, and then got on the ferry to the island! We arrived at our bungalows around 2pm.

Total time traveled: 18 1/2 hours
Total modes of transportation: 7

Our bungalows were right on the ocean and since it was a full moon the tides were way out during the day and you could walk out to lagoons and it was just so beautiful! Everywhere you looked was a post card.  We met up with more friends and immediately put on our bathing suits on headed to the beach! The water was like bath water, not freezing like our California coasts! I went snorkeling one day and took my underwater camera, and the fish were SO beautiful! They were huge and tropical, it was great.  We mostly just hung out at the beaches during the day and hung out  all together at night.  It was really nice.  It was also super un-Thai.  If we ever tried to speak Thai they looked at us like we were cray cray! We had super good western food and the BEST mango shakes! A mango in a glass! MMMMMMM!

Saturday night was the big full moon party everyone was waiting for, we dressed in our neon and tie-dye and put on our body paint and headed to the Haad Rin, the beach it was held on. The night was full of dancing, buckets, and friends.  Four of us were able to stay up until the sunrise and it was worth it, so pretty! Of course the next day I was exhausted and slept on the beach the next day, but that was fun too!

 

We were super sad to come home, especially because the journey was going to be incredibly long.  We took the night ferry on Saturday night, where Mel and I felt like immigrants coming to America.  555 it was a thin mattress on the wood with a little pillow and we were all lined up like sausages.  It was pretty funny.  Then a van picked us up and took us to a bus station in like the middle of nowhere, an hour later another van picked us up and dropped us off in the city telling us the bus would be by soon to take us to the airport...We still needed to check in and our flight was leaving soon so Mel started freaking out a bit and we decided to take a taxi instead.  We made our flight in time and arrived in Bangkok around 10am.  Then we took the light rail and trains to the bus station to catch a bus at 1 back to Phrae.  We finally arrived back to Phrae around 11 pm...ugh longggg day!

Total time traveled: 26 hours

Total modes of transportation: 10

Whew! It was long but super worth it! I can't wait to go back and explore more beaches! 

Update on my computer: The logic board crashed? I don't know what that is or what it does really but it is gonna cost A LOT! I hope I can work something out with them soon cuz it sucks not having a computer here! Thanks to Mel for letting me use hers all the time...:-)