Koh Phangan

The journey to Koh Phangan was one of the quickest and easiest we’ve had in Thailand. The ferry wasn’t too late, the water wasn’t too choppy, and we even managed to get a seat. When we arrived we ordered lunch (pad thai!) and cocktails to have by the pool. The weather was perfect, so we spent most of the day lounging around. Eventually we pulled ourselves away from the pool and explored the nearby markets. We both bought painfully bright tops to wear to the Full Moon Party (the following night) and had an incredibly yummy & cheap meal at the night bazaar. I may have had pad thai again...

Our second day in Koh Phangan was our busy adventurous day. Yet again we signed ourselves up for a tour. We’ve been finding that when we do the tours we get a lot more done than we would on our own. It’s also usually very well priced and we get to meet a few new people! This tour took us to many random places... 

1.       A quick boxing lesson. Boxing is incredibly popular in Thailand.  I had a few tips on how to use my feet and knees to hurt a guy..where it really hurts. I’m ready to defend myself now!

2.       A waterfall. We took our shoes off and climbed up along the beautiful waterfall; fresh water! Loved it. Afterwards we stopped for a quick dip in the nearby dam.

3.       Archery. On my first attempt none made it on to the board, second attempt three (out of five) made it! Quite proud!

4.       ELEPHANT TREKKING!!!! We got a half hour ride on a gorgeous elephant. It’s quite a bumpy, unsteady ride, particularly when they go into the water! I never realised elephants were so hairy.. Afterwards we got to give our elephant food and hugs. They’re so gentle. I love elephants! However, the guy running the trek was holding a rather sharp-looking tool, which had me worried. He never used it on the elephants but just seeing that he had it and could use it made me uncomfortable. 

5.       Snorkelling. This was definitely the best snorkelling I’ve ever done! We swam out about 100-200m and saw loads of fish, mostly quite little but some almost as long as my arm.  We saw a few jellyfish which I attempted to steer clear of. Snorkelling never appealed the me that much, but I really liked it. However, I didn’t find Nemo.. Or Dory for that matter!

6.       Canopy. When we saw this on the list (accompanied by a picture) we assumed we would be doing a zip-line ride but it was actually a high ropes course with a few zip-lines throughout. We were in the middle of the jungle, so in the few moments that I wasn’t completely freaked out by how high off the ground I was..I admired the view. I did something similar in Singapore.. The one in Singapore was much harder but definitely not as high. 

7.       Herbal sauna. This was the hottttest sauna I’ve ever been in! Before entering you had to throw a bucket of cold water over yourself, and then you’d come out to do it again every 2-3 minutes. I think that had something to do with opening your pores. It also smelt like tea, which was obviously the herbal part of it. Definitely something I would never have thought to try if we’d not done this tour.

The following day was probably the laziest day I’ve had in months! We slept til the early afternoon and achieved very little til it was almost dark. At this point we ventured out for a massage! I had a back shoulder & neck massage, then a foot scrub. The whole time I was getting the foot scrub (while lying face down I was unsure about what she was actually doing. It felt like she paper-mache’d my feet, then took it off and massaged with various creams. Both the massage and the foot scrub were incredibly amazing, and I paid a total of $12. Needless to say, we were back in the morning for another massage. This time round I tried a full body massage, which I didn’t like as much.. I’m too damn ticklish!