Ko Phan-gan to Krabi

It has been a while since I bloged due to the extreme expensiveness of the internet on Ko Phan-gan. Everything was expensive there because of the full moon party and the expensive place we were staying at, but now I'm in Krabi, the city, and things are back to normal prices. Soon we'll go to a beach near here and it will probably be back up to expensive prices. Again there are no pictures because I take less pictures with the group, I'll get some soon and get them up here.

The single day in Bangkok before the long overnight traveling to Ko Phan-gan was good. Sarah and I went to the Grand Palace because I hadn't done that yet, and she waited for me to get to Bangkok to go. It was really amazing. It had a large entrance fee but was well worth it. The gold work and tile work was simply amazing down to every detail. We walked around slowly and saw what we could and then relaxed at a shop at the end of the Grand Palace. Dharma and Ty came later and went through the palace really fast because of how hot it was, and met us at the shop at the end. They took a tuk tuk back to the guest house but Sarah and I walked because it wasn't that far and the heat didn't bother us.

The grand palace

That night we went to the train station to catch a bus (strange huh). It all worked out but it kinda felt like I was cattle. They put stickers on us and then moved us from one bus, to a waiting area, then onto another bus, then onto a boat. Everything was super packed with all farangs with stickers on. It really did feel like we were being moved around like cattle and everyone in the group decided we wouldn't do that again.

The view from the beach at the resort

The full moon party was cool, but I feel like I didn't really see the island at all, just the resort we were in and the huge party each night. We would catch a taxi to Hat Rin beach where the party was and then drink buckets until the early morning, dancing all night long. We went the two nights before the big full party and the night of the full moon party. The easiest way to describe it was a huge rave on the beach, that really describes it all. There were large speakers from different clubs all along the beach playing techno, some with more people than others (we gravetated towards the more packed sections of beach). The warm up parties were actually more fun because it was the same music but more room to dance, a more relaxed vibe, but still a huge rave like party. The actual full moon party had about 15-20 thousand people and was a much more intense experience.

The full moon party (Drop In Bar)

Dharma doing the fire limbo

Drinking Buckets

Some examples of the differences between the warm ups and the actual thing is that more bad stuff happened at the big party (not to us, but a lot of people). Like on the warm up nights people were not wearing shoes and dancing in the really nice fine sand. I almost felt weird wearing my sandles. But on the full moon party lots of people got cuts on their foot from glass, and no one did at the warm ups. Also a lot of stuff was stolen at the actual party. I was warned to bring nothing but some money, not a camera, not even my cell phone, so that is what I did. At the party one girl that we were hanging out with was having a good time and then lost her camera and cried for hours. And tons of people lost wallets too. It was the classic trick of cutting the bottom of people purses or bags. All the scams put a little bit of a damper on the big party and none of that stuff happened at the warm ups. Anyway, it was cool to see and I can party with the best of them so I had a blast. My friends were even surprised because I didn't want to party much before then, but since I came there to party, I gave it my all!

After a day of rest the group of us traveled over to Krabi, that was yesterday. The resort we were at was owned by some hustling british guys who couldn't be trusted at all, so we just left and went to the pier on our own. They kept saying all the boats are full but we got onto one litterally 30 minutes after we got to the pier and the boat was nicer than the tourist trap we came over on. Then after getting to Surat Tani we got a minivan to Krabi, none of which was full. The trip was pretty good but I got funny tummy from something from the resort food. Its strange I am the sickest from the resort with all the strange street food I've been eating, but I'm not too suprized.

Group dynamics are still very strange but I'm dealing with it better now though because I left and got a break and then came back knowing what I was getting into. Shy left his passport in Bangkok and needs to leave soon so I'm not sure how much longer he will be traveling with us. That should make the group dynamics better, and in a little over a week the group will be breaking up so pretty soon it will be back to solo, or a group of 2 or 3.

Well, thats another blog without too many details but I think the main things that happened came out. We are going to a beach from here to do nothing but relax for a few days. Now we are all taking care of stuff in the city of Krabi because it has good prices and is a nice town. We all needed to do laundry, check the internet, and get more money. So we may be leaving to the beaches tomorrow or the next day, depending on the Shy situation. I assume prices will be high out there so it may be more days of silence, but if there is internet for a good price I'll keep up the blog, I don't think I'll be doing much else. Peace to all!