Koh Pan Ngan

We've finally left Tonsai and have made our way over to Koh Phangan, a small island on the east coast of Thailand.

We left yesterday morning at 8.30am from Tonsai beach and endured a 12 hour journey to get to the island. First we caught a long tail boat to Ao Nang before getting a pick up truck to Krabi with some Spanish people we met on Tonsai. They couldn't speak very good English but it was clear that they were a bit nuts given that Andreo was drinking whiskey at 9am on the side of the road outside a police station!

After the pick up truck we caught a coach which was supposed to be headed for Surat Thani but ended up being taken to Don Sak to catch a ferry. We had to wait for about an hour and by then we were both getting a bit pissed off at waiting around and being taken from place to place; saying that it was pretty well organised for the Thais.

We weren't exactly sure which ferry to catch and I don't think many of the Thai staff were sure either so we just jumped on the one that everyone else seemed to be getting on. Bought a couple of beers and just before it was due to leave we had a bit of a panic attack that we were on the wrong ferry as we were seeing a few cars getting on with Koh Samui signs in the window. Fortunately we were on the right one but we would have to change ferries at Koh Samui to get to Ko Phangan - nightmare!

The ferry ride was a bit bumpy and it was leaning a bit too far starboard but we were confident in the Thai health and safety policy - NOT! We finally arrived at Koh Phangan in the dark and were hussled into a taxi by a nice Thai woman, aka "scary money grabbing witch". There must have been about 14 people trying to get into one pick up truck, not ours incidentally, and then the nice Thai woman tried to get us to change taxis. There was absolutely no room in the other taxi but she insisted we got in it, so annoyed at this point we just walked off into town to get a taxi.

On the taxi ride to our resort the driver picked up a few other people. The first three girls were from Carlisle which was a bit bizarre; more bizarre to hear Cumbrian accents so far away from home more than anything. On arrival we met up with Pooch, one of the lads we've been traveling with and he showed us where our guesthouse was. Quick shower and straight out on the tiles with a group of us.

I have to say, Koh Pangan is basically Benidorm in Thailand, nicer of course but totally set up for western tourists to party like they would back home. There's loads of beach bars selling cheap booze and playing commercial shite music, right next to each other so you can hear about 7 different DJ's playing at the same time which is just awful. Saying that, we still got wrecked and had a laugh watching fire dancers and fire limbo which was pretty cool. Not quite sure what happened after the beach, it's a bit hazey to say the least and we didn't get in until about 5am. Buckets of JD & coke were 400 Baht, which is about 6 pounds, and included a third bottle of JD, coke and red bull.... heavy going!

Contrary to Tonsai and everywhere else we've been so far, some of the people here are proper arseholes - middle class rich kids spending daddies money, crying and arguing with each other over nothing. Think I was told to "fuck off" at one point by a charming young lady - how rude! Loads of the bars are playing friends re-runs and they're just packed with western tourists - can't believe that some people come to Thailand and decide to sit in a bar watching friends - sad or what.

Anyway, we've taken it pretty easy today with some quality Thai food and a few beers. The highlight had to be seeing Liverpool beat Man U - hahaha. Once we've finished on t'interweb we're off back down to the beach to be tortured some more. Full moon party tomorrow so don't think I'll be updating the blog for a few days, although if it's anything like last night it has the potential to be a load of shite.