Playground Paradise

Fresh off the plane from Phuket, having enjoyed our in flight snack (with Bangkok airways it was actually more like a meal, for a one hour flight score!) we arrived in Koh Samui - the largest of three islands in the gulf of Thailand.

Coming straight from the hustle and bustle of Phuket, this was definitely what I'd been looking for. No way near as many people as Phuket, with nice white sandy beaches, a super cheap resort (thanks to the low season, best time to travel!) which even had a pool, you can imagine where we spent most of our time. Yep, for the next 2 days once again we were lying on the beach or relaxing by the pool, this is definitely the life!

No I didn't steal this from a magazine

Unfortunately we couldn't stay too long on Koh Samui as we needed to make it to Koh Phangan for the half moon party. So we caught a ferry over to the next island, landed in the small town of Hat Rin, were picked up by our accommodation and driven up a twisting, turning, bumpy dirt track for 10 minutes. My first thoughts were: "where has Jade booked us?!", but as we were led down a little track to our bungalow my thoughts became "wow". We were blown away. For 700baht (NZ$28) a night we had a little wooden bungalow right on the cliffs edge overlooking the sea, a hammock on our balcony and a million dollar view. There were also two wooden deck chairs on a little platform below us, next to that steps lead down the rocks to the water and there wasn't another person in sight. It was beautiful.

After some chilling on the hammock and a walk down to the rocks, I wanted to take some photos so I walked back up and around the front of the bungalow. It was a grassy area with some rocks and trees and before I know what's happened, I stepped on a snake! It was about a metre long, as thick as my little finger and luckily for me he was just as startled and scurried off. My first up close encounter with a snake and hopefully my last!

That evening we walked back down the dirt track into Hat Rin to go grab some dinner and after being asked half a dozen times if we wanted a tuk tuk to the half moon party, we began to think it was a bit strange. The half moon was tomorrow night, right? We grabbed some dinner and walked around the town to see what was there, still puzzled why they would be selling tuk tuks to a party that was tomorrow. After another couple of 'tuk tuk to half moon?' and a quick check on the calendar we suddenly realised we had our dates completely messed up. We were a day behind! A mad dash followed to get some fluro clothes (a must), down a bucket (same idea as Phi Phi) and get up to our bungalow so we could change and get back down in time to catch a tuk tuk. We made it though (just) and dressed in fluro, covered in body paint with a bucket (or two...) in us, we partied till the sun came up the next morning. So much fun!!

Fluro - check! Bucket - check!

All dressed up and ready to go

Unfortunately for me the next day just so happened to be Songkran, the Thai New Year. To celebrate the new year and bring good luck water is poured over Buddhist statues, but has turned into a giant water fight where everyone must get wet. In different areas of the country it is even celebrated for up to 3 or 5 days - that's one big water fight! On Koh Phangan it's just one day though and we had prepared and bought our water guns the day before. With me possibly feeling a little worse for wear after the party the night before, Jade set off into town his water gun pumped and ready. A couple of hours later he returned completely soaked and his water gun broken, I think that signals a good fight!

We soon realised that Koh Phangan is basically just a big playground for adults with party's galore - full moon, half moon, black moon, after parties, jungle parties and waterfall parties, just to name a few! Then along with diving & snorkeling there are more than enough boat trips to keep you occupied, kayaking, quad bike tracks, a shooting range, zip lines through the jungle and even a wipe out style obstacle course on water!

Obviously we couldn't try them all, but did mange to fit in an island tour, some snorkeling, a couple of waterfalls and of course the half moon party, which we really enjoyed (even if I did have quite a headache the next day). It's a very easy going place where anything goes really and there plenty of things to do. Definitely be back one day to have some more fun and of course there's still the full moon party to be ticked off the list!