Category: Thailand

Welcome, to Fantasy Island…

Well, after spending a few more days on the beach relaxing and reading (with one night of doof-doof and cheap beer) we caught our “speed” boat at the un-godly hour of 7.00AM to Koh Phangan, a slightly smaller island just north of Koh Samui.

After clamouring off the boat onto the pier (which was no easy feat as the tide was down, everyone else still on the boat got a good look at our bums), we were greeted by our pre-arranged “super cheap” taxi – turns out they were a whole 300 Baht more expensive with the average going rate being 100 Baht) which promptly took us to our hotel, the Phangan Cabana (at the Copa,… Copacabana).

Koh Phangan is fantastic! I recommend this place to just about everyone! The island itself is a lot less developed than Koh Samui and as such has everything that is nice (the beach, the food, the bikinis) without all the rubbish (the drunk Poms, the sex tourists, street pole-dancers, the crowd). Truly and amazing place!

The biggest disadvantage to a small island is the irregular power. Within our first few hours, there was a blackout! This wouldn’t usually be a problem – however, it occurred just after I had entered my PIN number into an ATM machine! Damnit – there’s a few hundred dollars lost! Luckily the security is a little looser – a bank clerk was able to crack open the ATM and retrieve my card!

The Phangan Cabana is a sweet little place, about 20 mins from the main city (the city being about the same size of say, Inverloch). The room is all pretty basic, not much bigger than the bed – we have aircon and they installed a CD player the day we arrived. We think that they are in cahoots with the guy next door who sells pirated CDs for 100baht, ($3.20) – we’ve already purchased two! I can’t believe however that they expect to run a respectable business without any television! Groan! We do have our own toilet and shower,… outside! One advantage of an outside shower is the wind on my bum when taking a shower in the heat of the day!

I’m getting pretty good at zipping through the streets on our rented scooter, a little 120cc Honda; it’s a shame nobody here knows any road rules! Philippa seems to trust me sitting on the back (silly, silly girl!). When we upload the photo’s, you will see how cool our helmets are (note: we are the *only* people on the entire island in jeans and wearing a helmet when on a bike).

It’s a little scary how much I miss all you buggers, keep up with the news from home and send off a prayer that we will get to Bangkok safely tomorrow (don’t want the boat to sink).

Matt made me drag out my bikini that he bought me for christmas. It is great after four years of marriage that he still wants to see me in a bikini! Out came the sunscreen and the spatula to apply it thickly over my poor white skin!

The beach was great fun, little fish darting everywhere, it was shallow for about 100m, which created a great playground for kids, even us big kids, and it was soooo warm (I smiled as I thought about running into the freezing water of Wilsons Prom in Spring)! Matt and I decided earlier that playing in swimming pools is just no fun unless you have a game to play or people their to entertain you – but playing down the beach was a entirely different experience! We jumped out of the ocean into the hotel pool and then back to the ocean!

That night I had the beer bottles wrapped in wet towels tending to my sunburn…the sunburn marks suggested that I had been burnt before we went swimming (as they followed my T-shirt line). I had been in the sun for about 10 minutes earlier that day getting lunch…there is not justice for the pale skinned!

I have finished my second book for the holiday – it is great having so much time! Today I spent 30 minutes eating a calipo (the Thai equivalent) – and was remembering as a kid how such basic things once entertained me for the same length of time. I think that Matt and I have entirely wound down and are enjoying the pace of life at the moment!

We hired a motor scooter (120cc) yeasterday, as we are sick of negotiating our fair home late at night which seems to attract about a 500% premium. The cost of the motor scooter was $8 for 24hours – the same fair we paid to a taxi driver three nights ago to get us home at 11:30pm! We filled the tank of our scooter for $1! Matt was a bit white after our first trip, first time that he has taken a passenger and apparently I wriggle around a bit. He is cruising along now though – I feel a bit dorky with my closed toe shoes, jean jacket and helmet compared to others that get around in shorts and thongs! But hey, I’ve got a little more travelling that I want to survive!

Matt and I are being a little bit more adventerous and are trying to eat more local food – the food here is very tastey! We have a few select street vendours that we feel have pretty good hygiene standards and we watch them prepare their food. Don’t think that there is any chance of us loosing weight in Thailand, we have fallen in love with Banana, Coconut and Choclate rotti! We watch as the chef calves up the fresh ingredients, grating the coconut for us to see. Fresh mango juice, pad thai and assorted stir fry curries are all prepared on the street for the customer to see. The fresh seafood in Koh Samui is a real treat, though we are treading carefully (not past the king prawns though).

Few more days here before we head off too Koh Panang on Friday. I have a few post cards to write – to those who haven’t received one yet I am working on it!

The beats of the street bars are floating in as I type this message in sync. We are currently in Liaim – one of the night life centres on Koh Samui. As I look out the window I see a number of open air bars with holiday makers (from families with young children, to middle aged men looking for partners) enjoying local beer and the cool of the evening.

Well Koh Samui is everything that you would hope a holiday resort would be plenty of blond haired, big breasted women with great tans accompanied by their six foot companions who get around in tank tops (if your lucky) and stubbies. Matt seems to have a finally tuned radar for the topless bathers (lucky for him) and his half blind wife has to wait until she trips over them to get a thrill. Unfortunately Matt and I haven’t gotten into the topless bathing scene because our fair skin seems to be repelled by the sun.

Not much to report really…it is exactly as the postcard depict it…coconut trees everywhere silhouetted against the sparkling blue ocean and white sand beaches. The rolling mountains in the center of the island are quite picturesque and the view of the surrounding eighty islands makes you realise why so many people come here for holidays. Prices are a little more expensive, but if you shop around you can still get “Thai prices”. Matt and I are relaxing and trying to recover from our spending spree in Chiang Mai – we loved the markets!

…gee life is tough…

I think that we will wonder out and get a cool beer and some corn off the barbie, followed by banana and chocolate rotti!

Wish you were here…really…but not spending too much energy worrying about it 😛

Don’t want to bore you with any more boring details of this place…until next time…