Shoulda Woulda Coulda - Koh Phanang

Koh Phangan - Shoulda Woulda Coulda

We write as we our trekking from Koh Phanang to Krabi, as our Thailand visa runs out tomorrow and we are flying to Singapore to fly back into Bangkok! Had we done this properly (as in booked this visa run when we first arrived in Koh Phanang, we would have saved a lot of money and time, as it is - here we are.)

Our time in Koh Phanang was fun for sure - but also quite the ordeal. We stayed in the northern part of the island, far away from the party - but we had no idea just how far. We were under the impression it was about 20 mins away - in realty it was about 45.. For 200 Baht per person each way. It adds up. Well we arrived on Satrday, caught a taxi (which is benches in a truck bed) and got to our bungalow at shiralea backpackers resort. It was really nice (aircon and hot water!) but sefinitely a journey to get there on where hilly and windy roads. We napped in the afternoon and had an early night as to recover from our time in a Koh Tao.

Sunday we woke up and walked to Salad Beach (up and down two massive hills), hoping to snorkel - but the water visibility was not great due to rain the night before. Salad was pretty but it was overcast so the water looked more murky then bright blue. On our way back to our bungalow we stopped to get a coconut shake and enjoy the lookout view. That night we had a nice dinner on the beach then hung out in the lounge area of Shiralea and booked our hostels for Northern Thailand.

The next day we got up and caught a can to Haad Mae Haad, the most northern part of the island to go snorkelling and check out a bridge sand walkway to Mae Haad island. Thankfully the weather was beautiful! We ventured out on the sand bar walkway to go snorkel, but once out far enough we realised how bad the visibility was and how awful sea lice are. Literally feels like hundreds of tiny jellyfish stingers. We swam in and spent the rest of our time laying out and in the shallow waters - away from the sea lice. We wanted to see Salad beach on a sunny day and caught a cab there - we enjoyed a late lunch, took a few photos and trekked back home. That night we took a taxi down to meet up with Lindsey, David and Beulah for dinner and then to go check out the Jungle Experience - a giant dance party in the woods the night before the full moon party.

Although we made it fun - the night was kind of a bust. We read that if you get there before 11 it is free and after 11 it is 500Baht. We got there at 10, sober, to find out the reason they weren't charging yet is because it had not started. We also quickly learned that Monday was a Buddhist holiday and they could not start serving alcohol until midnight - AND! The buckets were 450baht each. We decided the most cost efficient thing to do was to send two people to go get alcohol and then everyone splits their entrance fee. Laura and Beulah volunteered to go and ...

While they were gone, Lindsey, Alexis, David and Kerri hung out at a meeting point playing word games until they began to get worried. The girls had been gone a long time - are they okay? What happened? Of course neither of them had a cell phone on them (#fail). We were all veryyyy relieved when they arrived back.

We then chugged some drinks and danced! The music was not great and we were determined to have fun but overall it was a little lacklustre. Laura, Kerri and Alexis decided to go home around 4 and caught a packed full taxi for our longggg ride home - the nightlight being snacks from 7-11.

We slept in the next day, dyed Kerris hair and then met Lisa at the pier that afternoon. We got some neon t-shirts, had a snack at the market then went to Lindsey and David's room for drinks and body painting!

We had a great time with the body paint and dancing in our room, got to the full moon party about 12am and danced our asses off til the sun came up!

-Wednesday slept all day, adventure to get our stuff, struggle Cityyy figuring out visa run, dinner crave again
-Thursday taxi to 7am ferry