Barmy Bangkok and The 3 Musketeers!!

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  Koh Phangan, Thailand
Friday, May 18, 2007

After nearly a year back in the Westernised world, I'm back.  Back to the fascinating old cultures, back to the foreign language (alright everyone speaks English, but I don't understand them when they choose not to), back to the unusual food sizzling away on every street corner, and back to the street hawkers shouting at you from the other side of the street, or thrusting some strange object into your hand thats supposed to represent everything your little holiday will ever mean to you when you're back home!

Blimey, that was a long sentence, I hope you all still have breath.

Bangkok is a crazy place.  Hustle and bustle everywhere, and yet at the same time people manage to look like they don't have a care in the world.  There's ornamentation everywhere, and they really go in for their gold

01 Tuk tuk riding on first day

.  The temples and palaces are extravagant and beautifully detailed.  There are tuk-tuks zipping everywhere, but they are great for a fun ride.  Just sit back and go with the flow.

The only disappointment I had with the place, is even though I was staying right next to the Khaosan Road (thats backpacker central for those who don't know), it feels like a place you really need to come to with a bunch of mates.  The whole time I have been travelling prior to this, I have been staying in hostels, where you get thrown in a room with a bunch of other like-minded (or not so) people.  And for better or worse, there is someone to straight away talk to, to go out for a beer with.  Here though, most places are more like hotels, where you get a room by yourself.  Of course the privacy is a nice change, but it makes it a lot harder to go out and meet people without making a big conscious effort.

Having said that, there are plenty of young Thai girls (you hope they're girls anyway), who seem very happy to make friends with you!  But then, I'm sorry, it just feels wrong.  Like a dirty middle-aged man...  OK, I think I've digressed a little.  Enough of all that.

So, with only a couple of weeks to play with, I decided to book all my accomodation and transport in advance

02 Bangkok from Golden Mount

.  We'll see whether or not that was a shrewd move later.  And so, within a couple of days of arriving I was off on an overnight bus to the island of Koh Phangan.  Now this is where things did prove to be working out well, because this ride saw the formation of the 3 Musketeers!  A powerful group, who would come together to power our various modes of transport all the way safely to their final destination, just through the power of the mind...

Hell, I'm reading what I've been writing here and it probably sounds like I've had a week fuelled purely by drugs!  Maybe its got a lot to do with me reading Hunter S. Thompson's autobiography at the moment.  Anyway, on with the show...

I had a great time on Koh Phangan.  Its a beautiful island, and it was made so much better by hanging out with the two girls I had made friends with on the bus.  Dutch Saskia, and Beth, from Hawaii.  What is also great is that its the low season.  There are (comparitively) very few tourists around.  The locals are so friendly here, and full of big smiles.  Even though they must see hundreds of us coming through, some of them still look genuinely as fascinated by us as we are by them.

On the first night there, we jumped in the back of a passing ute and were whisked to the beach of the famous Full Moon Party

03 Khaosan Road

.  Despite the fact that I'm here at the complete opposite end of the lunar calendar, the party was still great.  I'm sure its a crazy hedonistic fun-filled mess at the right time, but I was very happy dancing around on the beach with my new friends and a bucket of god-knows-what.

The lunar calendar proved to work out pretty well two days later though, when we were able to head on down to the Black Moon Party.  This is at a different beach, more of a resort actually, where they pull out the UV lights and build spiderweb like glowing contraptions everywhere.  Its a much smaller affair, but all the fellow dancers glowing around you, along with the floating candles in the sea, makes a pretty cool spectacle.  That is until the sun comes up, and you realise what a mess you look and you have a half asleep 2 hour walk ahead of you to get home!

I have a feeling this is turning into one of the longest blogs I have written.  I hope you all made it.  I'll finish now.  I'm off to the next island.  I hope it lives up to the standard set on this one.  Bye for now...

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

04 The Grand Palace	05 They certainly are good at ornamentation	06 Similar, yet there's something strange here...	07 Intriguing nights in Bangkok
08 On to the island, and it knows how to rain!!	09 Its not the Full Moon Party, but still its fun!	10 The Reggae Bar comes to life at night!	11 Saskia and Beth getting stuck into the buckets
12 My bungalow on Koh Phangan	13 The pool at Phrueska	14 The hair has grown enough, its time to modify..	15 A new look, for a new country :-)
16 A night at the Boxing...	17 Open air Thai Boxing	18 This guy's washing his chicken!!	19 The Black Moon Party
20 Spot Beth!!	21 Cool portrait #1	22 Cool portrait #2	23 Sunset on the beach
24 Wow. Ring side seat.	25 Its a tough place to be!	26 You couldn't get fresher, and its so cheap...	27 Curious
28 Thailand Lights

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