just another day in paradise

what a busy and adventuresome couple of days it has been here in koh phangan....this island is relatively small and still fairly undeveloped as far as tourism goes though they are catching on and the days of 100 baht cabins on the beach are long gone. there is no airport and only a few roads....but there are an overwhelming number of beaches on which to chillax. the locals around here zip around on little scooters....so on saturday we figured 'when in rome' and got hold of a little vespa ourselves...skitting around the island we went first to haad rin, the venue for the full moon party (FMP) tomorrow night. this is definitely the commercialised, touristy part of the island and the beach was already swarming, the music already pumping...all pre 12pm and with the party still days away - it's going to be mad!

after a swim and a drink and a fair amount of people watching we moved on through the main town of thong sala - a rather depressing port town - and stopped for lunch on haad yao...with its swanky resorts this seems to be the domain of the richer, older tourist - mainly germans it seemed to me...moving swiftly on we ended up in mae haad where, when the tide is low, you can walk across to the teeny tiny island of koh ma. word on the street was that the place to be at sunset is 'amsterdam bar'...high in the hills near haad plailaem....a stoner's paradise definitely but the view of the sunset was to die for....

zooming back to our hotel via a thai bbq for dinner (where you cook your own food on a stove on your table) we encountered 'Arm' a very enthusiastic staff member at our resort who had promised us the day before that he would 'make on the beach' meaning, we figured out eventually, that he wanted to set up a table on the beach for us. we had forgotten, but he had not, and we walked down to find a candlelit table complete with carpets, flowers and a sign that read 'just for you...' so sweet! the least we could do was have a couple of beers for his efforts so we sat there contentedly, at our table on the beach, listening to the waves...

Yesterday was another day of exploration...joining a tour group we were promised a day discovering the island...first stop was an elephant sanctuary where we cuddled dumbo and fed him bananas....next we climbed a mountain....ok probably more like a hill....but it almost killed me just the same....it was jungle, no track, just stumbling over tree roots and trying not to fall down waterfalls - you know how it is....but it was worth the trauma - the view from the top was breathtaking

we recovered over lunch before checking out a chinese temple complete with budda, and a thai temple also complete with budda, but apparently a different budda....yeah- i didn't quite get that....finally we all jumped into a long boat and motored around the island to do some snorkelling amongst the stunning coral and pretty little fishes of the tropical reef before heading to bottle beach for a beer and some downtime chatting to our new friends - german, swedish, aussie and canadian - all here, of course, for the FMP.

today is a little more chilled. but tonight marks the warm up to the party....we are meeting with our friend Em and her travel buddies for lunch to plan our attack on haad rin tomorrow before heading back to amsterdam for another beautiful sunset....

stay tuned. xxx