Thursday – We awoke to some unexpectedly good news. Campers Inn have a buyer for the RV all set
up and ready to go. And it looks like we
won’t be losing as much extra money as we’d feared due to Harvey being another
year older. But we’ve been in this
position before, so I’m not going to get too carried away or celebrate until
the sale is finalised and we’ve received the money. But when we’re looking to put roots down and
money is as tight as it now is, this was extremely welcome news!
Today there was a lot of hurrying along and waiting. We had to check out of our room at 1030am,
but we were in no rush to leave the Mountainside reef resort. Why would we be rushing to the hustle and
bustle of the port when we had this view:
 |
| We watched some daredevil kids jumping off the rocks |
So, we relaxed here with drinks until the 1pm taxi into
town. Then, we were booked on the 330pm
catamaran to Koh Phangan so had another couple of hours of card playing,
browsing around the local shops and relaxing.
 |
| How most people travel on the islands here, mopeds everywhere. |
Onto the catamaran and there was an announcement about
booking a taxi for Phangan for our arrival, so I went and sorted that out at a
cost of 220 THB each. We arrived on Phangan at 430pm and thanks to the helpful
stickers we had donned saying ‘Plam Beach’ (we’re staying at Palm Beach) we
were shown towards the taxi area. To my
dismay, our taxi-minibus filled up with other people who, by the sounds of it
were paying only 150 THB each! Why had I just bothered booking us a more
expensive shuttle bus in advance? Maybe
our resort was further away than the others? No. We were dropped off first. Still not sure why booking ahead on the boat
was a great idea! I think we were done
over on this occasion.
Our resort for the next two nights was a beach
bungalow. We threw our belongings in and
went to look at the beach. There wasn’t
much to see, and it was not looking enticing for a swim like on Koh Tao! But
we’re here because it is a prime location for the famous ‘Half-moon party’
tomorrow night, so it’s all about location rather than luxury this time.
When we went for a wander later that evening to find
something to eat we were disappointed at first with the sparse options on the
road. However, by luck, we ended up at
the sunset walk resort which turned out to be where we could buy tickets for
tomorrow night’s festivities AND they had a restaurant serving up some
different, non-Thai foods. After a
fortnight of Pad Thai and both of us suffering a little with sensitive
stomachs, we really fancied some more bland produce, so potatoes and pasta it
was!
We needed to try and stay up later than we have been on Thai
time so far, if we are going to make the most of our party opportunity tomorrow
night. Hence, I am writing this blog as
I struggle to keep my eyes open propped up in bed!
Friday – we’re a couple of sad cases at the moment. Simon was awake in the night because it looks
like his ear infection has returned and I woke early this morning with a poorly
stomach. It looks like I am not mended
yet. After a late breakfast we walked to
the nearest pharmacy to get Simon some drugs and spotted some illuminous half-moon
party get-up we could purchase for the evening’s festivities.
 |
| What IS THIS?! |
 |
| Answer - dried seaweed sheets, mmmm |
After that we retired to our room where I got busy with some
long New Zealand blog entries and we were treated to a couple of classic movies
– Saving Private Ryan and The Shawshank Redemption. You can’t beat that for a day’s relaxing whilst
trying to find the energy to party!
 |
| Our dinnertime view |
It was heading for 6pm and we still had to go and pick up a couple of tickets, purchase some fluorescent night attire and grab some food to line our stomachs with. We found that if we’d turned the other way out of our hotel last night we’d have found ourselves at a lovely little ocean front bar restaurant that did tapas and Mexican food. Plus, tonight we had made it for happy hour cocktails!
 |
| Mmmmmm, tapas and cocktails |
So, we ate our fill and headed back to our room to relax for
an hour before having a revitalising shower to pull ourselves together and get
ready for our big night out. We had
planned to get back to the sunset bar in time to catch the free taxis they were
laying on to the festival. But let’s
just say we got a little carried away and artistic with our body painting
efforts.
 |
| Ready to party.... |
We were more than happy with our work! By the time we headed out it was nearly 10pm. We still went to the sunset bar first because our 1300 Baht each ticket included one free drink there and then one free drink when we arrived at the party (plus a free lanyard. I LOVE a lanyard!). We were the only ones who appeared to have taken the fluorescent body painting quite so seriously! Those others are going to look stupid when they arrived at the party - looking boring compared to everybody else….!
Taxis are really easy to find here, they’re everywhere. Those open-backed truck-type taxis with
benches along each side. And it seems
that it costs 100 Baht (about £2.50) per person wherever you’re going on Koh
Phangan! So that’s what it cost us to get up to the Half Moon Party. There were stalls outside selling more glow
in the dark wares, so we used their black lights to check out our handy work. We were set. |
| Wiiilllllssooooooon! |
It was a bonus when we went in and discovered that we could
have vodka red bull as our second free drink of the night. That should pep us up a little. Then we were in. The set-up, stages and attractions really
reminded me of parts of Glastonbury.
They put a lot of effort into creating a party wonderland in the middle
of the jungle. There were three
stages of differing sizes but the music at each didn’t seem that varied to
us. You know what ravers we are and how
we love house music….. no? Doesn’t sound like us, does it?! But, when in Rome,
as they say….
The main stage was where the main action was, with a huge DJ
stand and fire dancers doing regular shows through the night (above). There was also a bar with lots of black
light, so we hung out there and enjoyed the compliments we got from fellow
revellers when they discovered that we’d done our body artwork ourselves,
rather than relying on the painters available at the festival. There seemed a good mix of ages and
nationalities. I was worried we would
feel old but that wasn’t the case at all. It seems everyone comes along to see
what it’s all about. We both tried to
get some drinks into us so that we could relax and get into the vibe, but my
stomach was still tender, so I didn’t manage quite as many beverages as Simon.
Everyone was in a good mood and the evening went quickly. The festival is an all-nighter. You can keep raving until the sun rises if
you so wish! We thought that we’d done
well staying until 2am, we’d had a great time so we thought we’d quit whilst we
were ahead, deciding that 4hrs of dance music was enough for one lifetime. I thought we’d be the only ones leaving so
early, but there were plenty of taxis loading up passengers to take them home
for 100 Baht a person. We got dropped off at Palm Beach, both had a quick
shower to rid ourselves of the body paint and collapsed...
No comments:
Post a Comment