The Islands of Hedonism and a Lesson in Avoiding the British!

So I spent a very surreal Christmas in Koh Samui. In the absence of Christmas Eve in the 8 Bells with half of Dover, myself, Rachael and Hamish (both NZers) headed into Lamai town, where we sunk the typical island bucket of alcohol containing Red Bull, Coke and the Thai Whiskey Sangsom. We purchased ourselves a Christmas hat and absorbed the Thai Christmas atmosphere. Despite obviously not celebrating Christmas, it was clear to see that where there was money to be made the Thais got really into the spirit. Instead of the usual 'Hello my friend, where are you from?' from the suit men, we were instead greeted with 'Merry Christmas my friend, where are you from?' We headed back along the beach slightly worse for wear and watching all the people setting of Thai lanterns. Christmas Day was even stranger. Sporting my Christmas hat and a bikini, I spent the day getting over my hangover and sunbathing, pausing only to eat a burger and chips at lunchtime (I know I am pretty disgraced at myself), it didn't feel like Christmas at all. That evening a group of us headed to the local reggae bar where plenty more was drunk all round! It was hard to feel like I was missing out at all, because it just didn't seem like Christmas at all. Christmas dinner was available at a number of English pubs, at the rather costly 20 pounds, but I decided it would never be as good as Granny's so I was better off avoiding it all together :)

The following day, the resort emptied out as people headed onto Koh Phangan for New Year's. I discovered rather stupidly I had no accomodation booked for the night and had to pay a lot to stay on at my hotel another night! Unfortunately my bad luck didn't end there as I also found my bank card had been stopped and I was nearly out of cash. After ringing different numbers and wasting a lot of credit, I eventually managed to get my card unblocked. But as they say, bad things happen in threes and the next day I headed off to get the 5pm ferry with Alex, only to discover I had left my passport behind in the hotel safe! As it was the last ferry of the day and the round trip was over an hour back to the hotel, I had no choice but to leave it behind and collect it another time! Thankfully, luck was on my side and Alex had the number of a Danish couple that was coming to Ko Phangan the next day, and they were able to bring it with them!

My hotel (Smile Beach Resort) was quite out of the way of the mayhem of Haad Rin, where the Full Moon Party was taking place, but this turned out to be quite a blessing. The beach was really beautiful and my room was basic (cold showers again :( ), but better than others I've seen! Unfortunately on my first night I did encounter a rather large cockroach, who played dead with me repeatedly, before he eventually got flushed down the toilet! After spending my first evening with a group of extremely drunk Brits, I was taken under the wing once again by a couple living next door to me, Jenny and James (Canadian and Australian). I ventured into Haad Rin on two seperate evenings before the Full Moon Party and was quite overwhelmed by the amount of people and drunken debauchery! Literally everywhere you looked people were peeing in the sea, or people passed out and off their heads on drugs. It also has to be said that the vast majority of the idiots were British and I felt really quite ashamed of their behaviour! Constantly paranoid I would lose my friends I found it quite difficult to relax. The rave music wasn't really my scene either and I actually found it quite difficult to handle! However, NYE actually turned out to be a real laugh. Myself, Jenny, James and Kim teamed up with two really posh British guys and I managed to pass the night without anything bad happening at all. After breaking one of my flipflops (damn Indian shoes!), we decided to call it a night and headed back at around 5am. Of course it then appeared to be a great idea to go for a dip in the sea at 5.30am and it was bloody cold I can tell you!

I eventually ventured out of bed at 1pm on New Year's Day and spent the day watching bits of films in the resort's restaurant and eating to make myself feel better! My friends from Koh Samui were more hardcore than me and I later heard that they had stayed out until New Year's Eve afternoon! I suddenly realised that I needed to book my transfer back to Bangkok, only to discover that all the trains were already full, making my only option the bus! I was glad to be in the quietness of Haad Salad after the mayhem of Haad Rin. My last full day in Phangan, Glen (Canadian) came up to visit me and we went snorkeling.

Yesterday I began my 18 hour journey from Ko Phangan to Bangkok via Koh Samui, meeting random Australians who told me where to go on the East Coast and befriending an Irish girl sitting next to me on the bus. After an extremely uncomfortable journey in the bus, we arrived on Khao San Road at 4am. I stuck to the Irish girl and her friend as we attempted to find accomodation, only to discover everything was full! Our only choice was thus to wait in a coffee shop until 7am, when we hoped people would start to check out. Eventually we located a hostel and I napped for about an hour before venturing to the MBK department store to do some serious shopping! Unfortunately I was vastly disappointed at the range available, as so many things were out of my price range! After a brief panic about where my photos had disappeared to on my camera (for some reason they were hidden icons) and another panic about my flight (online booking read: contact travel agent your flight has changed), I hope that my bad luck is over!! I'm just pretty grateful that nothing major went wrong and am eagerly anticipating my next big adventure in Sydney :)

Happy New Year everyone,

xxxxxx