Leela Beach Bungalows Ko Phangan

The last few days have been interesting to say the least. We checked out of our room in Samui on Friday morning and went to the pick up spot for our taxi to the pier. We were trying to book our flights from Bangkok to Hanoi for 21st January but our bus arrived fifteen minutes early. We insisted they let us finish what we were doing and let's just say we made no friends on the mini bus. We still made it to the pier in plenty of time and managed to get our flights too. Score! The boat filled up...

From Chiang Mai we caught a day train to Bangkok, where we spent the night, then a night train the following day down to Surathani. Here we went with one of the agencies who took us by bus to the pier, then onto Ko Phangan by a very crammed boat. The train journey's weren't great as we couldn't get the times we wanted, so our expected arrival in Surathani was 3am! However the train was delayed (as usual) so we arrived at 5am. This didn't mean we got anymore sleep as we had to stay awake so we...

I think by the time that we arrived in Ko Phangan - home of the notorious Full Moon Party that just happened to coincide with our visit - we knew what to expect. Our bus and boat combo from Bangkok was hardly the most relaxing experience. First, the 7 hour night bus was filled with shrieking, over-excited Brits with cringe-a-second comments and an ostensible love of Nelly (the rapper, not the elephant). Then the boat (or catamaran to be exact) was far from the smoothest of voyages. Alex 'Sea-...

Party Island - aptly named because that's all I did there. I met up with the Kiwis (Ange and Fleur) after having to practically swim to their resort and was adopted into the Phangan Beach Resort crew. I only spent time at my resort to sleep, which is a bit of a shame since I had such a glorious bungalow but alas, this is party island afterall! I was only there for two nights in the first night, I was dragged to a Muay Thai fight which I had yet to experience because someone from the PBR was f...

Koh Pha Ngan

Travel Tips: During Full Moon Week, you are better off staying in Leela Beach, if you could like to get some sleep at some point in the night. You can't hear any of the music coming from Haad Rin, where the party is located. Leela Beach is know as Haad Seekantang, or Haad Leela, it on the western side of the Haad Rin peninsula. The beaches are one of the best on the island, long white sandy beach. At some points, like in front of Leela Beach Bungalows, the beach is quite narrow and Light Hous...

From the journal: 4/22/08 Back in Thailand in the islands. Highlights here are some good tunes, the Backyard, and Lia. Tonight I decided I'd leave for a healing center north of here called the sanctuary. Considered going first to check it out so went to the pier. The long tail drivers sitting around a table, looking rather doe eyed and high said it was too rough to go out. They said it with such casual ease as if they were really saying, "this is our excuse to not work today and we like it." ...