Juli's birthday in Koh Phangan: Full Moon Party (Countdown)

Day 64

Koh Phangan

Happy birthday, Juli!!!

First image of the day - Ariel's super sexy underwear :-)) (he ended up sleeping in our room, on the other bed - we had a twin bungalow).


This is my handsome husband, 33 y.o today!! :DD


And this is me in my "on the beach" office, taking advantage of wireless internet available for free in our place.

And famous Chang beer, that makes us so happy :-))


The sunsets on Koh Phangan are simply amazing..


We caught a car that agreed to give us a lift to Haad Rin for a good price and in 25 minutes we finally arrived to Full Moon Party location. We paid around 2€ entrance fee (just those who stay in Haad Rin area don't pay), got plastic bracelets and finally bought some drinks. The party was about to start!!




And “Chang Spirit Team” just founded "The fellowship of the Chang" :-DD


And these are famous "Buckets"(whisky, gin, ron, vodka…) with soft drink, choose yours and pay just 200 baht (4€) for any of these!




The beach was really full of people, all foreigners, europeans, americans, australians - dancing, drinking and peeing on the beach...yeah

Happy New Year!!!




¡5, 4, 3, 2, 1!










Fireworks did not really respect international security standards haha


At around midnight, most of people were completely drunk and out of control, but the whole atmosphere was actually fun! :-D


Around 4:30 us and Andreea decided to go back to bungalows to sleep, and Luciano with Ariel have decided to stay more.

And this is Luciano's room, R2-H, which means room nr. R2 - hammock :-DD


In conclusion, the party is good, lots of people from all over the world and it is a good fun, but the best time to leave is around 1-2 am, since after that most of people get so pissed that it is not fun anymore, it gets disgusting :-D

Crazyness in Koh Phangan

Day 63

Koh Phangan

Tomorrow is New Year eve and today we need to find a good option for transportation to Haad Rin beach (Full Moon Party location) and meet Luciano and his friend who are supposed to arrive during the day. This is the beach in front of our bungalow...nice isn't it? :-)


And this is our bungalow, number R2 :-)


After a short swim we were waiting for Andreea on the beach.


High tide during the day...

And low tide in the evening...


We went to check if it was possible to hire a car, but the whole island was full and all the cars were taken. The owner of the car rental place proposed to give us a lift to Haad Salad beach and then to bring us back. We negociated the price (800 baht both ways, around 16 euros for all of us, which was extremely expensive comparing to Bangkok prices, but what can you do?) and decided to wait for Luciano and his friend Ariel (argentinian, living in Israel).

The guys have arrived, but there was no accomodation left on the island. We decided to solve this problem later, bought some local beers (Chang) and snacks and went to the beach. The beach was beautiful, but full of people and locals selling things.




But it was enough to relax a bit and spend some time having a beer in the sea :-)


And Andreea was taking million of pictures playing with her new camera :P





The thing we did not realize was the fact that "Chang" beer has around 7% of alcohol, so after having 2-3 680 ml beers each we were really HAPPY!! That evening the whole islands got that there is a group of crazy spanish who like to sing loudly even they have no voice and don't know all the worlds :-)))





Luciano said that he was going out for a moment and he never came back. We found him sleeping in the hammock in front of our door - accomodation problem was solved! :-DDD

Arrival to Koh Phangan

Day 62

Koh Phangan

At 4 am we arrived to the pier and had to wait till around 7 for the boat.


Somehow those who were waiting for the boat to Koh Phangan, had to take another bus to another pier in Suratthani. Those who headed to Koh Samui were lucky, since they just got the boat directly from the first pier.


Ok, we took another bus for almost 1,5 hours to the other pier.


And about 1 hour waiting for our boat at the pier.




Finally the boat came, they took all the bags and droped them all together (at the arrival will be challenging to find the bags easily haha)


Finally, after 3 hours and 2 stops on the way (koh samui and some other island), we arrived to Koh Phangan. Lek, our tourist agent was waiting for us at the pier and arranged a pick up to our bungggalows, called "Benjamin´s Hut", at the Haad Chao Pao (chao pao beach).


As soon as we arrived, we found out that the price was actually higher then the one we have agreed with Lek, but since the island was full (really full, 2 days before New year every single place was booked or overpriced), we just took it. The place was really nice and bungalows were just couple of meters from the beach, really big and comfortable. Ours with fan was 15 euros (750 baht) and Andreea as real capitalist paid 1,000 for the air con one. (20 euros) :-D


We ate something at Benjamin's restaurant and went to bed, destroyed after tiring and long trip from Bangkok.


The Full Moon Party and New Year was getting closer!

Road to Koh Phangan

Day 61

Bangkok – Koh Phangan

Today we are going to Koh Phangan, for the famous Full Moon Party, to celebrate New Year.

This is going to be an overnight bus from Bangkok to Surathani and then a boat to Koh Phangan. In Thailand tourist transportation is really well organized. You buy a joint ticket at one of the agencies, and for the first ride they give you a sticker with your destination. When you arrive to the pier, you check in again and they change your sticker for the boat one.

The bus is normally with air conditioning and toilet inside. Be aware, that toilet stinks (do not sit close) and air con is freezing (16 degrees) the whole night - so better to put some clothes on :-D


The ride obviously is uncomfortable and impossible to sleep, but it is by far the cheapest option to get to the destination - Bangkok-Surathani-Koh Phangan total cost was 750 baht (15 euros). Train is around 900 baht, sleeping vagon and plane is around 100 euros.

Floating market, Kanchanaburi and Tiger temple

Day 60

Damnoen Saduak – Kanchanaburi

Today we are going on the organized tour, incuding floating market, Damnoen Saduak, bridge over the river Kwai, and Tiger temple.

First stop - floating market. Mini van takes us to the river, where we take a boat and head to the floating market.


As soon as we arrive, we change the big boat on small one, hoping to discover the smaller channels of the market.


However, it was not just our idea! Actually there are loads of boats in the channels, loads of boats with tourists and not a one boat with local people selling things....The only thing thai people sell here are suvenirs and other comercial stuff for the tourists. The traffic is terrible and we spent almost 30 minutes just stuck at one place. Terrible!!!



There were couple of boats selling fruits, which were actually nice and colourful but somehow artificial - you could not see any local people actually buying stuff, just selling.


Básicamente The direct marketing here works this way: a woman seller comes to you and says: "you buy, ok?" :DD


After the boat we finally felt the real ground and could have some mango with sticky rise and some noodles, which were actually good and cheap.










Next stop Jeath Museum and bridge over the river Kwai

If you saw the movie, this place could be interesting...but I have not seen the move :P

A local guy with with violin played the song from the movie, “Colonel Bogey march”, and Juli was very happy!

Next stop - Tiger temple. People say the tigers are drogged, that is why they do not move. I thought the same, but in the end when you see them you can understand, that the animals probably just used to the people, since they look pretty alive and not sleepy at all :-D Important is not to dress into bright colours like pink, red, orange, yellow - this can irritate tigers, the colours of the clothes should be pale or dark.

The entrance in the temple is 500 baht (10 euros) and you can take couple of pictures with the tigers, which is included into this money. Fist you arrive to the Tiger canyon, where you can see 3 lines of people waiting for the picture. The picture can be taken one by one, with different tigers, but obligatory with the personnel of the temple. The staff will take a picture, while you are posing with the tiger. 20€ extra money you pay in case you want a picture with tigeris head lying on your knees.


OK, and here we go the picture (at the back you can see staff, who is watching the tigers and takes the pictures of the people)


You should always be behind the tiger, not to irritate the animal and it is possible to touch.


They take you to several tigers, so at the end you get 8 or 10 pictures.

This one was funny :-D


This one was BIG!


And in the end, after Tiger canyon, we saw some monks playing with baby tigers, so we could take a picture and even hug a kitty :-D



And this is kind of same picture for which you need to pay extra 20€, but in this case taken for free :-D




Then trip was finished and we got back to Bangkok. Juli and Andreea finished the day with thai massage at one spa close to our hotel, 1 hour for 4€...nice!!!