My weekend in Koh Pha Ngan was great. It was a time for me to relax with old friends, meet new ones, party like a werewolf and eat delicious food. I spent a lot of time and money traveling though, which makes me quite envious of my girl friends that are teaching on the southern peninsula. Take a look at my timeline to see how I spent my days.
Friday after school, Saleem and I headed to Bangkok via bus from Chonburi. Once we got into the city we got on the sky train which is basically like the El in Philly, but a hundred times nicer, cleaner, and more convenient. We had never taken the sky train before, but it was really easy to figure out where we had to go and what we had to do to get there. After a stint on the sky train we transferred to the underground subway, again with ease. After about forty minutes of traveling we ended up at the train station with just enough time to get dinner before boarding.
We were pretty excited to ride the train. I had never been on a train before so it was a whole new experience for me. The seats are set up so they’re facing one another so I switched with the lady across from me so she could sit across from her boyfriend and I could sit across from Saleem. As soon as we pulled away vendors carrying dinners, snacks and drinks kept passing by. I bought a Leo beer in celebration of my first train ride and another weekend adventure. After about an hour the train attendant started pulling down the bunks and setting up the beds. I paid a little extra to get a bottom bunk so I could look out the window. The top bunks pulled down from the ceiling so the bottom of the top bunk was like my roof and there was a curtain you could pull across the entire bed for privacy. I kind of felt like I was in a Harry Potter movie. I slept so well. The beds were comfortable and I had a ton of room. If I had to live on a train for a week or two I could totally do it. It was like my own little fort in there. I’m kind of bummed that I booked flights for Dave and I instead of train rides. The only part I was worried about was oversleeping my stop. At about 4 a.m. I heard an announcement saying something about Surat Thani and I called out Saleem’s name in panic asking if he thought this was our stop. He told me that they were probably just announcing at the station that our train was headed to Sarat Thani and to go back to sleep. I dozed off again and the next thing I knew I heard my name being called, “Schu, Schu, I think our stop is soon.” So I quickly got my things together walked towards to exit. A couple minutes later we were off the train and being ushered over to a bus to buy tickets. We got bus and speed boat tickets and then for the next six hours we waited around, boarded buses, got off buses and repeated that about three times until finally we made it to the pier. After an hour and a half speedboat ride we stepped off the dock and onto Koh Pha Ngan.
Tons of people were swarming us asking if we had a bungalow and blah, blah, blah. Thankfully I had already made reservations for all of our rooms so we headed straight to a song tow and then to Bayview resort. The hotel was the nicest I had stayed in so far. I paid a total of $30 for two nights and it was well spent. There was a mini fridge, huge bed, hot water and complimentary drinks and breakfast. There was also pool and beach towels, which never happens. The rooms had white tile floors, wooden accents and one entire wall of glass with huge sliding doors. The hotel also had an infinity pool, the first one I’ve ever been in! I was pretty pumped about the accommodations. After throwing down my stuff I ate lunch at Sun, Moon, Star restaurant, which I talked about in a previous post, a lovely little place on the hillside that overlooks the ocean and has bomb food. After lunch a walk on the beach was in order and then I lay in between two palm trees to nap in the sun. By the time I woke up Kara and Alice had arrived. We all took showers and went to dinner at Sun, Moon and Star. We ended up talking to two Israel men that were sitting at a table nearby. They were in the restaurant earlier when Saleem and I ate lunch too. We chatted about where we had been and what we were doing in our lives. They were also going to the full moon party so we decided to buy some brews and pregame together. We met them an hour later on the song tow and we played a drinking game on the way called a truth and a lie. You had to say two statements one being false and the other true and everyone had to guess which one was the truth and if they got it wrong they drank. I ended up stumping everyone with my first one which was “My first vehicle was a pickup truck or my first vehicle was a punch buggy,” everyone picked punch buggy as the truth, I wish. I can’t remember what my next lie was, but I remember I stumped everyone again so apparently my hidden talent is telling fibs. I must have picked it up from Dave Shaw as that’s one of his favorite past times.
After about an hour-long bumpy ride we made it to the east side of the island. We ended up making friends with two funny Canadians before we walked to the beach. They were really cool and became our new drinking buddies. We all skipped down to the beach and took off our shoes in the sand. It was absolutely insane. The entire beach was packed with half naked gals and guys who were covered in body paint. I didn’t get the memo; I was wearing a long skirt and a tank top. There were stages and dance areas all along the beach and different music was blasting from each bar. The first stage we went to was playing great electronic music and I loved it. I just kept closing my eyes and swaying back and forth and hugging Alice and Kara. I was so happy to be with them. I don’t know how, but we ended up on this mini stage with a bunch of topless old Malaysian men. They were hilarious and it seemed like a scene right out of Hangover Two. They were so excited to talk to us in English. After a mini photo shoot we scooted on over to another stage and then we walked down the beach. Dancing was fun, but it was also great to just take in the scene. There were fire dancers and different forms of entertainment and everyone looked like they were having a ball. A few girls looked like they drank some shroomshakes. After buying a variety of drunk food, food you would only eat if you were wasted, we headed back to where we came from. On the way back down the beach we randomly ran into two people from orientation and the Canadians from earlier in the night. We also saw a flaming jump rope, which we couldn’t pass up. There were literally dozens of people trying to jump in at once so it was a little bit crazy, but I hiked up my skirt anyway and ran for it. The first time the jump rope, which was about 5 inches in diameter and on fire, hit me in the forehead. It didn’t burn me, just sent me into a daze of laughter and confusion. I saw that Saleem had jumped in and out successfully, but he dropped both his beer and his glasses. Thankfully he was able to blindly scoop up his glasses before they got trampled. On my second try I was more successful, I jumped it twice, but then it hit my foot, which got a little burned. I also did the limbo a few times under it, which brought back childhood memories of roller skating parties and limbo contests at Skate-R-Way; I used to own that shiz. At this point we were all feeling pretty tired so we wandered back to where we came from in search of our hotel’s song tow. I don’t know how, but we walked right into the driver who showed us to the truck. Right when we boarded so did ten other people and we headed out immediately. Talk about perfect timing. On the ride home Alice was so tired that her heading was bobbing left, right, back and forth. We couldn’t help, but laugh at her for the full forty minutes.
The next morning I felt like death. I didn’t even drink that much, three big Leo’s and some sips of everyone’s buckets, but I felt sore and dehydrated. The buckets of alcohol had both soda and red bull in them, both of which I hate, so I think that’s what did me in. I remedied my hangover by eating a huge breakfast of toast, fruit and eggs and napping by the ocean for a few hours. It was really breezy and cool, perfect sleeping weather. When we woke up we were all starved. We wanted something cheap, Thai and delicious so we went to….. I’ll let you guess. A couple minutes after we sat down our Israel friends Shai and Guy walked in. It was so weird that we all ate at the same place, at the same time, three times in a row. That’s an indication of just how good the food and atmosphere really was. We all talked about the full moon party and they had noticed I lost my voice. I don’t know how it happened. I think when I trying to talk to people. I didn’t realize, but I must have been yelling over the music all night. We all agreed that we wanted to do something fun and nature oriented so Saleem and I suggested we walk to a small island nearby. It is connected to Koh Pha Ngan by a sandbar so we just had to make sure to go during low tide.
After lunch we talked to the people at the hotel about transportation and it turned out our best bet was renting one of the Jeeps and exploring on our own. After a few gear grinding starts it was smooth sailing up, down and around the windy curves of the mountainous island. It took us about forty minutes to find the island and it the sun was just about to set so we hurried onto the beach and into the water. We left our cameras and clothes behind and walked, sloshed and swam over to the smaller island. I was infinitely jealous of whoever owned the bungalow on that little patch of land. Someday I want something like that; just a little shack to sleep in. We skipped stones, searched for seashells and sidestepped pieces of broken glass for a while and then decided it was time to head back before the current picked up. By the time we got to the Jeep it was dark already. We stopped at a restaurant on the way home that I also wrote about in my last post. I really liked it there and I had a feeling that if Momma Schu lived in Thailand she would open something very similar. It was all outside and plants and trees surrounded the tables. The mosquitoes were pretty bad, but they gave us bottles of bug spray and after a few minutes we forgot about them. Soft lights in different hues gave the space a glow that was perfect for relaxing, chatting and enjoying a meal with friends. I got a bowl of curried vegetables and tofu, white rice and a cup of tea for my sore throat. The meal and tea warmed me up and put me to sleep. We headed back to the bungalow where I took a much needed nap.
Around 10:30 Shai came knocking on the glass. He wanted to know if we wanted to do something. I didn’t want to drink, but I was up for a walk so we all strolled along the beach by the light of the moon. We admired the stars and the glow of the Milky Way. I had never gotten the chance to see it in Thailand because there has always been so much light pollution. I’m hoping Dave gets a chance to experience it when we go south. We got to the end of the beach so we decided to stop in at a bar. I ordered a hot tea and an ice cream cone. Two opposites that paired perfectly together. We questioned Shai and Guy about Israel and their adventures. It is so nice meeting new people and connecting with them like you’ve been friends forever. It makes it easy to share and talk about anything. The conversation was really flowing and I learned a lot. I told them I’d come visit them someday so hopefully they were serious when they offered me a couch to stay on. On the way back I had my head up the entire time just staring at the moon. I was inspecting the craters when I saw a shooting star dash by. I made a wish that I would never wake up from my dream of a life. I really hope I continue traveling, learning and loving every day. I also wished that time would fly by over the next two weeks so that I could share all this with my dude. I think my wish came true because in only four days I pick him up from the airport.
