The resort I made reservations with on the mainland had a taxi pick me up at the port of Koh Phangan. The taxi was a pick up truck with a covered bed and bench seats on both sides. There were about five of us in the truck bed. The man sitting across from me introduced himself to me as Niels from Holland and we had a nice chat as the truck took us to a more sparsely populated side of the island. About 20 minutes into the trip, the other two or three people in the truck with us were dropped of at a resort. Niels and I were told to remain in the truck because our resort was further away. We eventually turned down a small driveway onto a hilly, unpaved dirt road that looked like it had been washed away during the last rain storm. After an extremely uneven, bumpy ride, we arrived at our resort and were surprised to find that it was completely vacant except for the two of us. Another surprise was that half of the resort was under construction. Apparently the owner of the resort was not renewing the lease for one half of the property, so he was moving the restaurant and a number of rooms to the side of the property he owned.
After arriving, we got settled into our rooms. I had opted for the cheapest kind of bungalow with no air conditioning. The bathroom had a thatched roof and stone walls. I could look over the walls of the bathroom into the surrounding jungle. Animals could easily enter and exit my bathroom and there were a number of spider webs along the ceiling which was only a few inches over my head. Niels, on the other hand, was in one of the nicest rooms at the resort. It was a proper room with walls and a proper shower. It was also situated in front of an in ground pool right along the beach. After we showered, we met for lunch at the restaurant of the resort. The burgers we ordered were not very good at all, but we both were happy to be on the island and relaxing. We made small talk about our backgrounds and got along very well. Niels had already been in Thailand for about two weeks. He had traveled through the Northern Thai cities before venturing to South to Koh Phangan. I found him to be quite interesting and a very nice guy. I knew that we were going to get along well.
After eating, we decided to explore the island a bit. It didn't take us long to realize that we had made a mistake choosing this resort. If there were other people there it would be quite a great place, but because it was the low season the whole place seemed deserted. We got a ride from one of the workers there and he dropped us off at a busier beach area along the Southern shore.
This is the view we had during lunch that first day.
I had originally chosen to come to Koh Phangan because a friend I knew in South Korea, named Sarah, was actually going to be on the island that week. She and I had become friends after having discussions about traveling to South East Asia on a Facebook group for the foreigners in our local city in South Korea. She had given me all sorts of good advice and we ended up meeting and hanging out a few times in February right before she left South Korea. She had already been in South East Asia for about two months by the time I arrived in Thailand and we had plans to meet up once I arrived. She told me that around the first week of May she would be in Koh Phangan, so I decided it was as good a place as any to start my trip. I didn't have any idea where on the island she was, so Niels and I just decided to wander around until she made contact with me.
We found that Koh Phangan was not nearly as busy as we thought it would be, but it was very beautiful. We walked down the beach and asked others where we should go. After getting a beer, we eventually made our way to a place that Niels had heard of on the South Eastern tip of the island called Coral Bungalows. It was a nice place with a pool on the beach and many people there. We decided that we would book rooms here for the following night. There was a huge monthly pool party happening at this resort later that night. Niels and I were not really in the mood for a crazy party because we were both extremely tired. Niels had just endured literally 24 hours of traveling including a 12 hour train from Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand to Bangkok and then an overnight bus ride to Southern Thailand. After we had dinner and drinks, we watched the sunset, and made our way on foot to see what else was on this side of the island. The island had a really relaxed and laid back feel to it and was mostly locals.
We walked around some roads, waiting to see a taxi to take us back to our resort. It was not easy to find one that was not already full of people. We eventually arrived at what appeared to be a small taxi hub and we sought out the first driver we saw and asked how much it would cost to get back to our resort. After a nearly two hour showdown of egos between Niels and a taxi driver, over the price of the taxi ride back to our resort, Niels finally gave in. Niels was pretty savvy about appropriate prices for transportation in Thailand and also pretty stubborn if he thought we were getting overpriced. Witnessing this scene was really funny to watch because both men were extremely stubborn and I didn't really mind waiting because it was only about 9 pm. Niels only gave in after I pointed out that they were arguing about a few dollars and that this amount of money was not much to us, but it meant a lot to him. Not to mention that he was working for someone else, so it wasn't like he was keeping all the money from our fare. Once we got into the taxi we thought our day was over, but to our surprise, the taxi driver appeared to make a detour and then picked up his wife and young son. Then he stopped for dinner, and also picked up a local father and son. I would learn that this was pretty normal in Thailand, but on that day it seemed rather strange. After almost 40 minutes in the bed of his pick up truck, we arrived back at our resort.
When we arrived, there were a few people at the bar of our resort, so I pulled up a chair and introduced myself. Niels went to sleep because he was far more tired than me from his long trip from Chiang Mai. The bartender was a British expat in his mid to late 40's. Sitting in front of him were a British woman of about 30 and a German man in his late 30's having beers. About 20 minutes after I arrived at the bar, an Irish man in his 50's wandered up from the beach and sat next to me. He was really drunk and the bartender knew him as somewhat of a regular. The conversation that ensued was one of the funniest I have ever heard. The Irish man insisted on talking about subjects that I wouldn't even think to say out loud, and the rest of us were tearing because we were laughing so hard. The conversation ranged from blatant racism against all Thai people, sexual fetishes of tall women, various situations when he was arrested, and his insisting that he wasn't a pervert while bringing up subjects that would point to the contrary. There was a point where he was actively insulting the British woman's uncle and she was laughing so hard she said that she would be angry later, but couldn't help hysterically laughing now.
Eventually I made my way back to my bungalow and had to deal with the mosquito net that was bunched up over my bed. I did my best to get the net around my bed, but it only left the very center of the bed untouched by the bottom of the net. Also, the bed had a backboard that made it impossible to get the net to fully enclose the bed. In fact, the one area of the bed that wasn't well covered by the net was right where my head was. Following about 5 minutes of fiddling with the net, I figured I had it the best I was going to get it and got in. Like out of a movie, the second I turned off the lights and got myself in the bed comfortably, I heard the fluttering of a huge bug underneath the bed. I immediately sprung up and out of the bed, turned the light on, and searched under the bed for the source of the sound. I couldn't locate the bug, but I knew that there had to be all sorts of critters in the room and I just had to deal with it. I decided to put my earphones on and listen to music to deafen myself to the sounds of all the creatures sharing the room with me. As long as I couldn't hear them I knew I would be able to relax and fall asleep. It worked well and I was asleep quickly.
The second day on Koh Phangan was a Half Moon Party, and a much more interesting day. Eventually I will get to blogging about it.
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