DAY 24: THAILAND (Koh Panghan) Jungle Experience Party

 The weather this morning was really bad so we decided to stay at our resort and relax.. Again, we woke up around 9am for no reason. Almost all day I've been in a room while Maria was chillin at the bar. What a shity weather.. We met one guy from Slovenia - Jure and "killed" some time at the "chill out area" of a bar. Around 3pm I took a nap and after I was just surfing online, chatting with friends.. It was a pretty boring day... We couldn't wait for the night to come so we can go to "Jungle Experience" party deep in the jungle.
It was 6pm when I decided to dye my hair. Maria was a really good friend (love you M!) so she helped. She also dyed Jure's hair as well hehe.. After one hour power went off. It was completely darkness outside but the bar had aggregate so we went out of the room and saw our Mexican friends there and Jure. Maria was really in the mood and I was looking forward to go and dance to some tech house beats. You can't go wrong if you choose to go to that event. We liked it previous time.
My net book had fully charged battery so we had music to cheer us up.

 Green Peace chill out area

 Some British people lighted up the firework but it was nothing special, still good for a local one :)

And yes, happiness came at the right time - around 8:40pm we got the power back. Everyone in a bar were screaming and jumping. That's it - we were off to party.

<3

I guess that was a quick lucky, 'cause the rain started again. Damn it! " I ain't coming back even if the sky is falling down!" Maria said. And in a 10 minutes after we meet up with Speedy - Gonzalo, all 3 of us jumped in to first taxi for just 50 baths each. Off to party hard!

 Maria, Speedy and I

 

entrance

It was really wet because of all that rain with a high level of humidity. The same, very familiar road leads us through the jungle until we got to the entrance. Music was pumping that much that we could not just stand calm... Man, I love that party! After just ten minutes Simon came with friends.

Me with Speedy and Simon

Piece of Atmosphere

and one more

In one moment it was really rainy (shower) so I went at the bar to not get wet and than cold. From the main bar you could see the dancefloor very good. People were going insane at the rain.. Lasers were making unbelievable effects, like shinny dust in the air... And they were all dancing, specially Maria. The atmosphere was just too good to describe. I spoke with some kiddo from Australia about our route, specially Lao and he gave me few travel tips. Good chat. When the rain stopped me and my 2nd boyfriend Chang (meet Chang - Thai beer) decided to join the tribe. Fire show here was amazing as well. Such a great party!

 fire show

Rain again got me completely wet and I was on the dancefloor this time, dancing with brilliant people who just came here to have an amazing time. When I was at the bar when 1st rain started  - looked amazing from up there, but on the dancefloor while it rains - much better! For just one moment I've forgot about wind and cold but when I started feeling it I just decided to take a cab and go home. It was around 3:30am. At the exit gate taxi drivers and taxi checkers were "attacking" drunk people so hard. I was searching for any taxi that goes to Baan Thai and after five minutes I got myself into one. Sometimes I really like Thai taxi (on Koh Panghan and Koh Tao). It is like pickup with 2 benches so people facing each other and always chatting. This time I hated it. Some idiot was sitting next to me trying to start conversation like all the way to "Green Peace Bungalows" stop. When I got to my resort I saw people still partying hard at the beach on the rain. I just wanted a hot shower but you can't have it all.. Mine was cold one just on time to wake me up to check my inbox and things.

Good night!

Yelena.

DAY 23: THAILAND (Koh Panghan) Discovering north coast

The 2nd morning and again Maria woke me up 9:30am.. Walking around bed, taking and moving things, she really tried to not make any sound of her existence but she was bad in that.. "Damn it Maria, again?? I almost shouted. "Sorry i did not mean to... I can't sleep anymore" she said. And that was it, I tried to continue my sweet dreams but no luck.. I was already awaken...
We just took a key and ordered breakfast in our resort bar. Simply - eggs and toast. Pineapple shake instead of coffee. Omelet with cheese that you could barely taste the cheese.. Aaaah... Asia.....!
After the breakfast we decided to take a long walk to Thong Sala and from there to take a cab and visit 3 beaches on the north of the island. The first one - Bottle beach. It was really hot for a morning walk so after 5km of walking (and hoping we'll find some rental office to take quads as I am not getting any moped). When I saw that we are actually on a cross road where is a turn to road that leads you to "Jungle experience" party, I started to "sing" my "crying - complaining" melody: "This is so far, we should get some taxi... I can't walk anymore ..."  Maria was pretty cool about all that crying. We just stopped at "7 eleven" to get some water and few things. Well as I am a good girl, God "looked" me and one older Thai couple offered us a ride in their (call it) pickup to the port.

From there for 100 baths each we took a taxi but taxi checker said to us that might be a bad weather and long tail boat maybe will not go there. We played on risk and ended up in small fisherman village of Chaloklum.

We chose to have a coffee at one small - cute beach bar and get some tips about the price of long tail boat ride to Bottle beach and back.  The owner of the bar told us that we should wait for more people and only then they'll make a better price for like 100 baths per pax. When we asked they said 800 bats 2 ways for both of us, plus they said that weather is not good. However we decided to stay on Chaloklum beach and after to go to Malibu beach as well.

 

The weather was really good so we stayed on the 2nd beach until 3:30pm. I am in love with this island and seriously I am thinking to just skip Malaysia and stay here longer. We'll see about that :)

No plans for tomorrow except the Jungle party if this rain stops (hopefully will). Good night world!

XX

Yelena.

DAY 22: THAILAND (Koh Panghan island - Haad Rin beach) FULL MOON PARTY

Chillin all day at Baan Tai beach and our resort made us more lazy then we thought .. Around 7pm we decided to move. Skipping our dinner with decision to have one at Haad Rin. We took a taxi for 75 baths each and in 10 minutes we arrived there. "Hello party people" kind a way... Yes, we could feel it in the air. After we finished dinner we went to the beach. Full moon and hectic atmosphere, happy people and good music... All in one, that was promising good vibration and awesome night out.

paint glow

"Let's grab a bucket!" Maria said. We chose rum with red bull and coke.

Cactus beach bar had a really good music (European kind a style of club house). I was making a photos and Maria was chatting with some Canadian guy for a while.

One quick look around us, we concluded that all people were mostly teenagers. Geez, is this really happening or we are getting old!!?? As long as music is good, I don't mind! "Look, crazy guy Aaron from Bangkok, remember him??!!" Maria said.. Hell yes, he was working in one bar on Koh San road. Quick photo and go.

After the 2nd bucket we were dancing like crazy with some great tech house beats. Some Reggae bar after for a chill and again party hard at some other beach bar. "Maria, am I imagining or this is Serbian music??" I asked shocked. Yes, it was. God, I am like far, far away from my motherland and the last thing i wanted to dance to was Serbian music. No Serbs around us, but people were going mad. Haha, good stuff!
We changed a beach bar again. Some jungle music and drum n' base was a good choice..
I can't remember when was the last time we danced so much...

 

Comparing to "Jungle" party - "Full moon" was nothing special but still, not that bad. Good to go, dance or just to see.

Tonight we might stay at our resort, relax and have some quality sleep. Tomorrow defiantly not 'cause there is another "Jungle" party :) Yeeey!

XX

Yelena.

THAILAND - KHAO TAO ISLAND - 6 days of awesomeness

Well yeah.. I haven't wrote anything for a few days and it is all because I was having an amazing time, no good internet connection and a bit of laziness.

Khao Tao is really nice place, I've enjoyed it to the max. We met many people, have our first "going out and drinking" night after boring Krabi and get ourselves "into the deep water". We became open water divers.
Two years so far, I always wanted to do scuba diving. I said to Maria: "If it's not too pricy, I am gonna do it here in Thailand". And here we are :) We were  checking the prices around Sairee beach and decided to do it at "Ban's diving resort". For 9000 baths they provide you free (fancy) accommodation and "PADI" course. Fair enough. Our instructor Fai is amazing. She had lots of patience and she is a really good teacher. In our group were two Mexican guys Gonzalo and Havier. So the 1st day we were watching a movie all together about scuba diving and the other day we were practicing skills in a swimming pool at our resort and the other 2 we were just diving... Great time!! There are some pictures from our diving but as soon as I find some computer with a cd reader i will move all pictures and upload here.

For a Christmas night we went out. It was a "break time" from our studding and good reason to celebrate.
We took some local rum and few shots from a local guy from the street.  We ended up at "Lotus" beach bar on fire show. After that, Maria just jumped into the pool, swimming and dancing in the same time. :)

We also took taxi boat and visited Koh Nang Yuan small island that belongs to Marine National Park. It was beautiful... I've stayed in a water for an hour...

Yesterday we finished our last 2 dives and took a catamaran speed boat to Koh Panghan island. We gonna stay here for 7 days and then, "Goodbye Thailand!" :(

I really liked Khao Tao... and I am starting to like more Koh Panghan.. Why did we even go to the west coast!!?? However, we are here now :)

Last night we went to Jungle party and it was awesome!! Tonight we'll go to Haad Rin (south) for a full moon party. But in this island it's not all about parties... It is so good to do some trekking, canoeing and maybe diving :)

CHEERS!!!
Much love!
xx

Yelena.

DAY 15: THAILAND: Goodbye Krabi, Hello Khao Tao island

Finally!!! :) We are fully packed, waiting for our bus to take us to Khao Tao, small island on east coast of Thailand. We'll have a night ferry ride and arrival time should be 7am next day.
Looking forward to see sunshine and turtles.. :)

xx

DAY 14: THAILAND - PHI PHI ISLAND: speed boat, snorkeling and barracuda catch

Cloudy morning... 8am.. Panic... Getting ready for a speed boat ride to Phi Phi island. The best for the end,  so tomorrow we can finally leave Krabi. We met two British girls from London on the way to our small port. Boat was already full so bitchy guide said to all people to squeeze a bit so we can have seat as well. Our 1st stop was Bamboo beach and we had just 20minutes ride till there.  

The whole bay was really beautiful, sand, sea, nature... but the real beauty is actually under the water.. I went in with my "cressi" mask and  underwater camera. I couldn't stop making photos.. It felt so good, watching all colorful fishes, swimming in a warm sea and feeling all that beauty that was surrounding us..  

It was 40 minutes stop but it felt like 5. I wanted to stay more. The weather was not so good - cloudy with few drops of rain.

Next swim stop was Maya beach. Maya bay is popular for diving, and has become even more popular after the 2000 movie "The Beach" was filmed there. It was so busy.. Right side of the bay is reserved for boat parking (not port) and left for swim. Like "Shipwreck" on Zante.. Many tourists making photos and swimming. We had 30 minutes. I did not go to swim and I did not like it much probably 'cause of many people. 

After we had one hour lunch stop on Phi Phi main port. The food was nothing special and I can't say I enjoyed it.. We just went on the beach and lay down. The sun came up and we were "lizarding" for the next 30minutes. :)

On a boat we met one Italian girl Alex from Calabria and two funny guys from UK. It was really fun making jokes and laughing with them. Alex spoke Croatian so we could speak our mother language with her as well. :)

For the next two hours we went on a two nice diving spots for snorkeling..  

Underwater visibility was not very good but we liked it anyway. Local guy from organization caught barracuda fish with a comment: "Who's hungry"?? :)

One more night in Krabi left. We can't wait tomorrow 4pm to see ourselves in a bus to Khao Tao island. I really wanted to go to Phuket to meet up with my dear friend Olga but the time is running fast :( 

Visiting Phi Phi today was a really good choice and next time we'll defiantly go there for a few days.

Let's see what the east coast of this "land of smile" has to offer.. 

xx

Yelena.