South Thailand – Phuket

Onto Phuket…

Some really bad planning on our part meant that we were travelling on Songkran. This is Thai New Year, a national holiday and the day to engage in a massive water fight. No one is safe! So unfortunately the traffic was awful. Anyway we got to the bus station in Phuket not too late. However, we then had a 40 min journey and the only transport on offer was a 450B beemo….the sides are completely open. Needless to stay we and our stuff got completely soaked… as we couldn’t get our phones out the driver then dropped us at the wrong place and even though we asked him to wait, by the time the reception had told us this wasn’t our hostel, he had disappeared. Lara ran down the street but nothing… b*&^rd!!! So after a meltdown, and realising there were no taxis on duty as they were all in the water fight, we decided it was time to walk. We had been calling taxis for 3.5 hours by this point! The walk was only 30 mins but with all our stuff and water carnage going on things weren’t looking good. We stared walking and by the time we got to the end of the road a scooter stopped to ask if we needed a ride. In desperation we paid him the 250B and proceeded to balance myself, Danielle, x3 massive bags and a Thai man onto a small scooter. I wish someone had a picture! So we made our way through the soaked streets of Patong. As I said before no one is safe…the driver tried his best to tell people to not wet our bags, and a lot of people were respectful of this, but Songkran almost reminded me of reading lord of the flies and with that we got completely soaked.

So anyway sadly we missed getting involved in the new year celebrations and just got pissed off! Travelling lesson 1 million and 1: make sure you know dates of all festivals and public holidays!

The next couple of days we hired a moped and explored the beaches to the south of the island.  Firstly Karon beach where we sat for a lovely sunset. We’ve managed to see loads of stunning sunsets on the west side of Thailand.  Karon beach is really busy with loads of water sports, however it’s still a nice spot with great soft sand and blue seas for swimming.

The next day we went a bit further south to Nai Harn beach and Karon view point. We managed to get lost and find a small deserted beach with just a few fishing boats and a great cheap place to have lunch.

We also made sure to have a little explore of patong at night time….don’t worry we did not go to a ping pong show!

From Phuket we got a ferry to Koh Phi Phi, this was 350B which included the transfer from our hostel to the Pier in Phuket.

 

 

South Thailand – Koh Phangan Full Moon Party

From Koh Samui we got the ferry, from Big Buddha Pier, to Koh Phangan (200B) each. Already the vibe had switched, everyone was drinking on the boat and getting in the full moon mood! Our hostel was called Fellinis, a 2 min walk from Haad Rin Pier, above a pizza restaurant. The hostel was really small but we met a few nice people :). As it was full moon accommodation was really expensive and hard to book, a lot of places had a 5 night min stay. So if your planning on going to a full moon book asap!

That night we went for some food and drinks with a couple of people from the hostel, a girl from Spain and a guy from Pakistan. We then headed to the beach for the pre full moon party, lots of music and fire throwing!

The next day we chilled out before getting ready for the full moon party. There were more people in the hostel we joined up with to paint ourselves in bright colours and head to the beach, a girl from Sweden and a boy from India. The full moon was awesome, the beach was manic, packed full of people. Dancing, swimming, skipping in fire. Only in Thailand! We were lucky and had no bad experiences but had been warned about thefts etc., so left most stuff in our room. We stayed up all night and climbed over the the rocks on the west side of the beach to watch the sun rise.

Collapsing in bed, shortly after we woke up at check out and got a beemo straight to our next hotel where we were staying the night before going to Phuket. We didn’t fancy making the 8 hour journey today. The hostel, lime and soda, was in a great location just on the beach, however we again made the stupid error of booking a fan room (we are slowly learning now don’t worry!). So we relaxed for the day and then in the morning walked to Tonsai Pier which was about 15 mins away.

The ferry was simple enough…but then came the start of the journey from hell. Onto Phuket.

 

 

South Thailand – Koh Samui

We flew from Chiang Mai into Surat Thani, got on a bus from outside the airport and then on the ferry to Koh Samui. This was all pretty easy, we had booked our bus/boat combo to koh samui online but there were a few travel desks at the airport offering the same service for 400B. The airport is tiny and we got our bags and were out of customs all in about 20 mins.

At the ferry port in Koh Samui we then got a beemo (local bus) to our hotel near Big Buddha. We paid 100B each which was much cheaper than the 700B the taxis wanted. Just keep walking to the very end of the pier and you’ll see them. Koh Samui was a nice couple of chilled days mostly sat by the pool and a couple of walks along the beach. The hotel pool was lovely but thats about it, we were in a fan room which is a huge error in Thailand. Unless you are a great sleeper or completely broke don’t do it! Also a word of warning, Samui Mermaid where we stayed was right underneath the flight path so it felt like planes were landing in the bed.

From Koh Samui we got the ferry, from Big Buddha Pier, to Koh Phangan (200B) each. Already the vibe had switched, everyone was drinking on the boat and getting in the full moon mood!

Our hostel was called Fellinis, a 2 min walk from Haad Rin pier, above a pizza restaurant. The hostel was really small but we met a few nice people :). As it was full moon accommodation was really expensive and hard to book, a lot of places had a 5 night min. So if your planning on going to a full moon book asap!