Koh Phangan - Full Moon Party!

Hey people!

I stayed in Koh Phangan for 5 nights at a place called The Party Hostel. It lived up to its name! Met a lot of cool people there and had some great nights out. The final night of mayhem was the Full Moon Party. It was  a good laugh and I'd recommend people going to it for the experience. The night started with pre-drinks downstairs in the hostel and then we went outside and painted ourselves in the typical UV paint!

We then made our way down to the Full Moon beach which was 10 seconds walk from our hostel. It's an impressive sight seeing 1000's of people on the beach in their bright outfits and UV paint. The beach is lined with stalls selling buckets of alcohol as well as lots of different bars. They even setup a water slide, stages to dance on and a climbing frame for all the party goers to have fun with!

The night was so good and it ended by watching the sunrise which was stunning. Koh Phangan has the reputation of a party island but it is so much more. The Full Moon beach on a normal day is beautiful and you can easily sunbathe down there and chill out. However, after this sunrise, there was no chilling out to be done! The music is still pumping until the afternoon and the aftermath of the night is clear as you look along the beach. Hundreds of people are passed out and it is so funny to see.  I even watched as a group of people buried one of their friends with sand as he lay there completely out of his head. Great friends!

If you come to Thailand you have to do Full Moon to tick it off the list as it's good fun. I made it until around 8am but after that I was done and needed sleep! After 5 days of partying I slept really well! Here's a load of pics!

S x

Krabi - 1237 step mountain climb and cooking class!

My next stop after leaving Koh Phi-Phi was Krabi. I wanted to check it out and spend a couple days there seeing as it was on route to Koh Tao anyway. I stayed in a hostel in Krabi town and met up with two guys and two girls from the UK and we went and did two really cool things while we were there.

The first was Tiger Temple Cave. This is a cool area where there is a giant gold Buddha at the top of a mountain but to get there you have to climb 1237 steps... No escalator sadly. It was easily the most grueling thing I have ever done and I had a hangover too. I definitely deserve some kind of medal! By the time we reached the top it looked as though I had just come out of the shower, I was soaked! Doing that climb in 40 degree heat is brutal. It was all worth it though. The view from the top is stunning. You can see the whole of Krabi and it's something I would recommend doing.  If you don't think you could do it here is some inspiration...I saw a family walking up and their youngest daughter must have been 2 or 3 years old! Incredible.

Scary!

Happy Tiger

Guarding the temple

Little bugger  causing mayhem

Monkeying around

Oh god here we go!

View halfway up

At the top!

Massive gold Buddha

I made it, whoop!

Chilling

Lighting some incense as an offering

Base of the statue

Such a great view

After getting back to the hostel we booked up a Thai cooking class for the evening. I fancy myself as a bit of a Jamie Oliver so it had to be done! We got to make dishes which included hot and sour prawn soup, green curry, pat-thai and spring rolls. The green curry is my favourite dish in Thailand so it was great to make it from scratch. The evening was also really fun because of our instructor called Pear. A great name! She was a nutter. My favourite thing she said (and there were many) was that her son looked like a girl and she hoped that when he grew up he would become a lady boy so that he would never leave her! Ha!

Pear. Such a legend!

Cooking up a storm

The UK team!

Hot and sour prawn soup

Cooking up a pat-thai

Green curry and pat-thai

Two days in Krabi was just the right amount of time and I caught a ferry over to Koh Tao after that. I'll be blogging about this place soon.

S x

Koh Phi Phi - Diving/Viewpoint

I have now made it to Koh Tao! A really cool island but sadly the weather is awful and looks like it will be for all of next week too so it's given me a chance to catch up on this blog! Before I left Koh Phi Phi I got the chance to go diving and also visit the island viewpoint. Both were amazing so I thought I'd write a bit about them.

Right let's start with the diving. I paid for a whole morning in which you got to dive twice. You spend about 45 minutes under the water each time as I think that's roughly how long the oxygen lasts (no longer or I'd  be swimming with the fish permanently). To see all the different creatures was stunning. Puffer fish, lobsters and bat fish were just a few of the animals I got to see. It was also so cool to see massive shawls of fish all grouped together. I was lucky enough to have my own instructor as no one else had booked up for the morning session. This made it so much better as she helped me out whenever I needed and it made the experience more enjoyable. It was tough getting used to breathing under water at first but after a while it was fine and I was able to relax and enjoy the sights!

Dive shop

Ready to rock

Off to find Nemo

Trying to get close to the small fish

The viewpoint over Koh Phi Phi was great and it was worth the 40 minute hike to the top. I arrived just before sunset so I watched the sun go down over the island and and it was a breathtaking view. The colours in the sky were amazing. I made sure I left just before it got completely dark as there are no lights on the walk back!

Trek to the top

Made it!

Sunset

Happy Sean

Another happy Sean

The whole island

Bye bye sun

Amazing colours

Heaven

Overall I'd say Koh Phi Phi has been my favourite place so far. It was difficult to leave there and I ended up spending 13 nights instead of 7! I'll definitely be back there again one day. Tomorrow I'll be blogging about  my time in Krabi


S x