Well, I'd never have thought we'd end up spending three weeks on Ko Phangan, but we did! We found ourselves a perfect little beach paradise with a really special community to match- out of the tacky debauchery and madness of the Full Moon crowd, Ko Phangan has some lovely gems to offer and my view on it changed alot whilst I was there.
Before finding TNP, we spent 2 nights at the Power Beach Resort in Ban Tai on the southern side of the island, a very manicured and pciture perfect resort with no soul- it could literally have been in any country on any beach. The gaggle of Brit 'Laaayyyyyds' at the bar playing the verve and oasis on repeat all day and necking beers sealed the deal for us and after enjoying the Black Moon Party and spending a day recouping lost sleep, we took a tuk tuk over the mountain to the other side of the island, where both Kim and a friend of Ben's had been urging us to go since they heard we were visiting Thailand.
The Black Moon Party was essentially a quite cool and fairly standard Psytrance party on the beach. Very commercial, cost 6 quid to get in and drinks not cheap. We only had one or two each as we;d arrived at the end of a long day's mission from Railay. The crowd was pretty good- a couple of slightly sordid Thai girls and the odd ladyboy cracking on to Ben and Greg, but otherwise a nice mix of travellers and thais and not too crazy or crowded.
When we arrived at TNP we were a bit tired and cynical about Ko Phangan and it's slightly trashy vibe, but as we stepped on to the beach and saw the breathtaking sweep of crystal clear aquamarine water, I nearly wept- it was exactly the island paradise I'd been dreaming of for years. We asked around a quickly found Bamboo Bungalows as recommended by Kim. A super friendly and perky Thai guy called Eddie runs it with great success, so much so that there are a hard core of people who have either been coming back for up to 15 years or even those who spend 6 months of every year staying there. For 7 pounds between 2 a night, we got a lovely bamboo bungalow with a balcony, a minute from the beach, with a good fan and clean functional bathroom and a huuuge super king sized bed. We hurried down to the beach as soon as we could for our first flop into the crystal waters. Sooooo warm and so beautiful, could see perfectly clearly to the bottom and a few little zebra striped fish go scooting past your feet every now and then. I could have stayed in that water forever just floating around like a hippo.
Sorry, bad day to start this large and important entry, 2 hours sleep in 30 odd hours, a plane trip and a new country (arrived in Laos today)! Will carry on soon as I want to get everything in and am too tired to concentrate today xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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