Thailand (Bangkok -> Ko Samui -> Ko Phangan)

Eagerly awaiting the arrival of some of our friends, we sit outside the hotel they have booked and get a drink waiting for them to arrive. John, John and Andy have come out on holiday for two weeks and we plan on joining them for their comparatively small trip. We however are not staying in 4 star £80 a night hotel but are down the road in a nice clean guesthouse for £20 a night. I will refer to everything as a holiday as we weren't really travelling for these two weeks.

Bangkok is an interesting and bustling city similar to places we have visited like Saigon or Shanghai. The city seems multicultural and the stereotypes are true about ladyboys. The holiday got of to a boisterous start with the first night I ended up sleeping on their sofa and izzi on one of the beds in the lads hotel, waking up at 10am confused and dazed we had drank too much for sure. The good things is as the lads had booked a joining family room they got extra breakfast tokens so for the next three days me and izzi casually strolled through reception and into a 4 star buffet breakfast courtesy of the President Palace Bangkok, delicious it was too (even better as it was free!). That day we didn't do much other than sit by the pool and chillout. One of the main attractions was to go see some temples and then to go out down Khao San Road, a bustling party street known for ping pong shows and late night regrets. All together Bangkok was good although we didn't end up going to see a ping pong or ladyboy cabaret show which both of us said would have been interesting. We did manage to drag ourselves to one temple (while extremely hungover) which housed a ridiculously large reclining Buddha. 

Koh Samui is an island off the east coast of Thailand, used as a beach get away and a jumping point to the infamous Koh Phangan, full moon party. This time in Koh Samui we stayed with them and split the bill, racking up costs about 3 x what we would normally pay but we knew this would happen. We spent most days on the beach, water sports, drinking, reading and sunbathing being the main activities of choice. We went out to the main strip a few nights visiting many bars and even a strip club, quite an odd place, one street was lined with working girls and they literally would try and drag you in and garb you as you walked by. One night we went to see some Muay Thai fighting which was actually good fun, not that brutal until the last fight when someone got knocked out and bad way! Footbal golf was also good fun, however all of us were rubbish, and I actually won which is a surprise as am I totally useless at football.

Koh Phangan this mystical party island of the east coast of Thailand known for complete and uter debauchery where anything goes and the party is never too far away. Me and Iz had mixed opinions of what to expect from it, looking forward to the full moon but not sure what we would make of it. We have 5 nights here and plan to see some of the island as we've read its much nicer than where we are staying, haad rin bay (the party beach).  We rented a jeep one day, however it was more of a buggy on steroids and me and izzi sat in the pickup bit at the back, not the safest or the most comfortable and the ride was hair raising but we survived and managed to drive around to see several other areas which are definitely nicer and also beautiful. On the way back we stopped at a shooting range so John could shoot a gun, I wasn't that impressed with the range but the AK47 and M16 I shot in Cambodia and Vietnam felt a little more backstreet rustica style. We headed one night to Mellow mountain where they serve magic mushroom shakes, openly smoke ganja and playing really good music which turned in to a very funny night. We ended up sitting there and laughing, maybe offending some people, for several hours without realising, god knows why (um...?).

The fullmoon party was here, we dond our fluorescent gear and painted ourselves up, joining in with the kids, I say kids as sometimes we did feel a bit old. We headed down after consuming several buckets in the room, taking nothing but essentials as we hear it's easy to lose stuff. As you get closer to the beach the crowd starts to get thicker, the music louder with buckets on sale everywhere you can see. The beach is bonkers, packed with thousands of people all raving their tits off to some equally good and equally awful music. We wondered up and down stopping to take photos or to watch some fire rope skipping or juggling and to have a dance. After a while we got separated not by choice, I took John home as he was a goner, this was my biggest mastake. I ended up not finding them for nearly 2hrs 30mins. I had sobered up and they definitely weren't. After eventually finding them we got back on it and joined the party. The night was okay, in my opinion I have been to better parties and raves in the UK, probably not helped by me wondering around for hours trying to find them but still it was an experience. The next day was most definatly a write off for everyone, spent mostly doing nothing, occasionally stopping this to eat.

The next day they leave us to go home, sad and strange for us as we have a good few months left. We now plan to move further south into Malaysia and see what it holds for us.