The last chapter of South East Asia has come upon us, and boy, did it go by in a flash! So much so, that I barely had time to collect my thoughts, and hence the tardiness of this post.
Bangkok Part II was a completely different experience from two months previously, and not just because of the difference in us. With my sister Ellie, and good friend Helen arriving, it was sure to be a party. However, I don´t think we could have ever been prepared for what was to come!
It was Thai New Year, or Songkran as it is locally known, and Bangkok was transformed. The backpacker mecca of Khaosan Road, with its wonderful shopping and spa treatments, was on a lockdown, and in its place was a constant flood of Thai people, armed up to the eyeballs with supersoakers, hoses, and buckets of clay. For tradition would have it that the Thai people take to the streets for a 3 day waterfight! Luckily for us, and you may read into my tone if you will, the festival started a day early. So it was four days of being completely drenched, in water warefare. And no one was safe, especially tourists.
Young and old took to the streets, where loud music boomed from 10am up to midnight, the Royal Family visited Khaosan Road for a presentation, but otherwise everyone was a guerrilla waterfighter. All of my best travel companions so far were reunited, and donned up with Supersoakers and scruffy clothes (which were going to be ruined). You got used to having handfuls of clay wiped in your face by every other Thai person who spotted your Western face. You got used to being attacked by your own side, slap right in the face. You got used to loud booming music throughout the day and into the night. You never got used to feeling that cold, wet and dirty!
It was warfare all day, and party all night. Even after 8pm you´d still risk being soaked if you stepped outside your hostel for a quick Pad Thai (how much I´d missed that treat!). Ellie and Helen were so overwhelmed by it all, but quickly jumped in with both hands securely round a supersoaker.
To top off the crazy experience, we had the, erm...´pleasure´ of an authentic Thai Ping Pong show. An well known tourist attraction of Bangkok, the seedy sex shows that you are a approached for, finally attracted our attention. Six of us girls, accompanied by two excited boys, piled into a tuk tuk and ventured off into the Bangkok underworld. It was an experience alright! We had front row seats for the 40 minute long show of dimly lit girls entering the arena and producing various objects from their...private areas. Even when you thought you could be shocked no more, you were shocked again. I´ll just leave it at that...for your own curiosity!
So after a hectic few days in Thailand´s capital, we covered ourselves in bin bags and walked through no mans land to the bus stop. Our backpacks merely acted as targets for more clay and water, but we survived it, and had the pleasure of a damp overnight bus to the islands to look forward to...
Koh Phangan: Thailand´s party island. Thousands of party goers flock to this island every month for the infamous Full Moon Party. For every backpacker in Thailand, you simply must attend a Full Moon Party on Koh Phangan´s Haadrin beach. Due to this fact, the island was something of a tourist trap. The prices dramatically increased from the rest of Thailand, and sadly the island offers little else other than its famous parties. After a long, hot, sunburnt ferry over to the island, we all found out how much of an expensive few days it was going to be.
For one thing, the island was a lot bigger than we anticipated, and we were all staying in different hotels. Around Full Moon, this time on the 19th of April, the hotels book up quickly, and so prices are also high. Our hostel, Blue Lotus Resort, was lovely. It was on the quieter part of the island, but about a 10 minute taxi ride from Haadrin, where the boys were staying. The taxis on the island have a little agreement going that every taxi ride, regardless of how far, is 100 baht per person. Rip off. This didn´t sit well with us, but luckily our host, Pong, was happy to offer discounted lifts to Haadrin for us, in the back of his pickup truck.
We soon discovered that these lifts were to become a highlight of the trip. The crazy windy roads up and over the mountains towards Haadrin were like white knuckle rides in the back of a pick up. It was great, but terrifying nonetheless.
Despite the obvious party to look forward to on the nineteenth, we ended up partying EVERY NIGHT. The nights leading up to Full Moon are also famous, especially with the pool parties at Coral Bungalows (where some of the boys were staying). Every night us girls would meet at ours, eat delicious Mexican food, and pile into Pong´s pick up, playing "Dude Looks Like A Lady!" at high volume and winding round the bends. Coral was insane too. We all piled into the pool, drinking buckets and partying hard in our bikinis. The nights blended into one really, but the biggest by far was Full Moon.
Full Moon also fell on the birthday of Nadine Spoor. So obviously there was even more reason to make it a night to remember! We piled into Haadrin town, to buy our neon outfits, UV paint and Nadine a crazy birthday hat. I ended up going for a tye-dye dress, pleasing my inner hippy, and after the daily power cut, we UV´d up together and headed to Haadrin. Our little UV flowers, heart, peace signs, or other private in jokes were plastered all over our bodies.We armed ourselves with sufficient buckets and headed off in one big group.
Now, like every touristy place in the world,the Full Moon Party does not come without its dangers. There have been instances of drink spiking, robbery, attacks and other things, so we were all on our guard. Yet, honestly, my night couldn´t have been any better!
The long stretch of the beach was full of neon bodies, dancing, drinking, stumbling, singing, partying all night long. We stayed together in our group and joined in, sipping buckets and dancing to our favourite tunes being pumped out by twenty different makeshift bars along the beach. I was drenched from a mini water fight, but couldn´t care less, singing Rihanna, doing Sinead´s drunk dance, partying with Superman and watching the sunrise, sitting in the sea. When the sun came up, I was overwhelmed by how much fun I´d had, not just that night but in the whole two months of Asia. I fully loved life, and was so happy with the great people I´d met.
We partied on until 9am, as the party refused to quieten down. Sure, people had gone home, but the beach was still alive and kicking until midday. Now even I couldn´t make it until then!
The rest of the day was a write off, and we had our last dinner before some very sad goodbyes. Its the hardest thing about travelling, the goodbyes. For Asia to finally be drawing to an end, and for us to have to say farewell to faces that we´d grown so familiar to, was a little sad. But what a way to say farewell! It was farewell Thailand for Helen and Nadine, but for Annabel, Sinead, Rachel, Ellie and me, we still had the recovery paradise of Koh Tao to look forward to.
Koh Tao, (Turtle Island) is the more tranquil, laid back island next to Koh Phangan. A diver´s paradise, with numerous dive schools offering some of the cheapest dive courses in the world. Diving was top on my list of things to do, despite my fear. We settled into Phoenix dive schools accomodation, which wasn´t the best, but we got a great deal for an introductory dive. Koh Tao is much smaller than Koh Phangan, and you can see why people fall in love with it. Unfortunately we were unable to visit other great islands like Koh Samui or the stunning Koh Phi Phi, but Koh Tao was a great ending for us.
Diving was awesome. We were thrown right in the deep end, excusing the pun, with our first experience of using the equipment, after a short tutorial, in the sea! At first I found it a little scary, and took a while getting used to the mask, and my breathing. I don´t really like the sensation of being unable to breath normally, and it was always going to be overwhelming. Yet after the first 5 minutes at the bottom of the sea, just 5 meters deep, I was ready to go. It was just Annabel, Sinead and me, along with one other girl and three instructors.
I saw Angel fish, sea urchines, an eel and my top favorite, a stingray! It was beautiful, and so peaceful, just slowly floating along at the bottom of the sea. We were down there for 40 minutes, which was a long time, and we made it to 10 meters deep on our first dive. My ears were popping, but I made it back in one piece and absolutely loved it! We were given the opportunity of another dive before heading back, so we took it! When was I next going to have the chance?
This time it was a little trickier. Instead of a gradual decline down deeper, we went straight down to 12 meters. It was tough, and we followed a long rope down to into the darker water. Again, it took a while for me to adjust to the pressure and the breathing, but after the initial five minutes of discomfort, I was off again and finding it even easier than before! This dive took us through more rock and coral formations, requiring a little more physical energy, but still not much! I can now see why divers are so laid back and chilled out. They hardly have to use any energy! Back up on the surface, I could see the appeal of doing a PADI course one day. I could seriously get used to this life! For today however, that was enough diving for me, and the rest of Koh Tao was sunbathing on stunning beaches and sipping cocktails on the beach.
We grabbed a massage because we fancied it, and it was good. Why hadn´t I had more Thai massages? They are great! We did a little shopping, and organised our fretful trip down to Singapore. I didn´t like how quickly it was coming about. We had one last big farewell night out with our beloved Irish girls, and Aussie Steve who had headed to Koh Tao for some recuperation after Phangan. Koh Tao was paradise for us; slow, peaceful, beautiful paradise. What a way to end South East Asia.
After a tearful goodbye, Annabel, Ellie and I headed for our 2 day journey to Singapore and to and even bigger goodbye. On the bus I thought to myself, ´where did it all go?´ but I looked at my journal entries, and I saw that I had done so much and met so many that I tried not to feel sad, but to look forward to the next big adventure.
It was an unpleasant journey through Malaysia, with being ripped off through the currency exchange, and a hot sweaty mini bus journey, but we made it to clean, modern Singapore in one piece. Saying goodbye to Annabel, my companion, my partner, my best friend for ten whole weeks, was not fun at all. How could we do it without each other?! How would we survive?! This is what we both felt, and poor Ellie didn´t know how to make it better!
Looking back now, I can see that it was just us being tired and sad. With every ending there is a beginning, and boy, could I not wait for South America! Saying goodbye to Bells was sad and scary, but with it, I get to spend the next 12 weeks with another great friend, in another great place. I´m also a different person already, I can feel it, and I am a lot more equipped to deal with a scarier place!
Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia, you have been good to me and I will always have these great memories.
And finally, to all these places, and all you great people I have met along the way, I have just one last thing to say:
It´s never goodbye. It´s see you later...
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