Koh Phangan

On the 22^nd of March it is time to travel back to the mainland by Ferry, take a Bus from Krabi to Surtthani and another ferry to Koh Phangan.

It’s a case of Fogorellis forever following the party (unintentionally).

We arrive in Koh Phangan at the same time as the full moon party which means there are heaps of cosmic party people on the ferry. Of course, Roger happens to know one of them from New Zealand which is kind of weird because we really haven’t seen anyone from Australasia for some time and suddenly there’s someone standing next to us saying “Roger?” That always happens!!

We are picked up on the back of a ute and drive for 40 minutes to the Mai Pen Rai resort on the East Cost.

It is dark when we arrive and we’re led across the beach and over the rocks. I’m looking for our house which I’ve pictured from the website, as being nestled on the rocks, close to the restaurant. We climb up and down, under large boulders and over steps. Our house is at the end of the houses on the rocks. About 700 metres from the main source of food, drinking water and toilet paper.

Thankfully though, it is cool at night with the air blowing in straight from the sea. And the extra bonus, it’s only $45 a night!

The next morning, we wake to the sunrise and the sea with enormous grey boulders sitting piled below our room and into the sea.

Every morning starts the same on our travels. By 7.30am Jasper is beside himself with apparent hunger and we are driven out of our beds to breakfast.

This morning, breakfast is more of a hike. The beach that we walk along to get to the restaurant, is very beautiful.

Sitting at breakfast is not so good. There are swarms of flies and I feel as though I’m sitting next to a corpse as Roger brushes them off his plate.

There are European hippies with babies who are sitting on the tables with their baby bums and crying incessantly in the heat. Sometimes travelling doesn’t seem so cool.

On the way home we see a snake and a giant Monitor lizard which is exciting.

Back at the room I do some home-making. Part of staying in a room that’s open to the elements, is securing our bags from rodents. Stella arrives in a place and her bag seems to explode all over the floor. The fear of cockroaches, giant spiders and mice seem to working on her personal organizational habits.

We had the tiniest little baby mouse explosion in our room at Koh Phi Phi and there are obviously a number of mice families in our room. Thankfully we have nets that tuck in under our mattresses.

We explore the rocks looking for a place to swim that is close to our room.

We are unsure of the waste management systems here as there seem to be pipes that lead from the bungalows to the rocks.

But the sea is so enticing that we decide to swim anyway. I suppose it’s no different than swimming off a boat in the bay of Islands in the 1970’s when someone pumps their toilet in the bay.

We discover another restaurant up a steep flight of stairs off the rocks and we eat most of our meals there from then on. It has the most amazing view out over the sea and down to the beach below and the breeze is cool.

On Easter Saturday (Easter is of absolutely no significance here except the children are talking incessantly about acquiring Easter eggs from somewhere) we rent two scooters and take off around the Island to banish the cabin fever we are starting to experience. It’s great to be out on a bike, exploring an Island. Added to the fact that the wind has got up on the East Coast and what was a tranquil sea outside our little house has become a turbulent wavy sea and we can no longer swim in our little private spot. Plus, we have a Wi-Fi issue (we don’t have any) and we have a problem coming up with our Indian Visas which needs some sorting.

We spend a while looking for a place that makes Banana cake for Jasper’s 12^th Birthday on Monday (food being a big focus at all times, particularly on a day of importance) and once we’ve got that sorted, we explore. There are still an awful lot of dirty-looking cosmic hippies everywhere and our circumnavigation of the island just takes us past a whole lot of fluorescent full-moon singlet shops.

It’s proving hard to get off the beaten track in Thailand but the kids seem to find some comfort in being around other tourists.

Stella even tells me off for being intolerant when I undertake another rant about how difficult it is to get people to smile and say hello. I reiterate that language differences aside, smiling is a universal language, unless you’re a monkey, in which case, it means something else.

We visit the Than Sadet waterfall which is not particularly spectacular as it’s dry season. It seems to be the water source for the whole of the valley below, including our water which is rather frightening considering the colour of the water. We accidentally trip over a pipe and disconnect someone’s water supply then spend quite some time trying to reconnect it.

I’ve become quite intrepid on my bike and head up a track that says ”views to die for”.

‘No buy drink, no see view’. By the time we’ve almost died getting there, it is worth a drink although Jasper is whispering fiercely in my ear that the dirty cosmic hippies who have also come for the view are smoking marijuana and it becomes hard to relax.

Easter Sunday is spent quietly reading books and preparing for a big day of travel the next day. We are taking the ferry back to Surrathani and then the sleeper train back to Bangkok where we need to go straight to the Indian Embassy to sort out our visas then onto a bus to the south of Bangkok to Samut Songkhram where we are staying on a river with a Thai family.

Monday 28^th March, Jasper’s birthday.

Today is about finding the balance between travelling for the entire day and night and making it seem like a birthday at the same time.

We have a birthday breakfast before hiking our stuff out of our little house, across the rocks (where we are almost permanently lodged under a rock with our packs trying to pass through) and across the beach.

We are driven to the main town where we have another birthday brunch (with the banana cake) before catching the ferry.

The sea has got very rough since our last trip and I spend most of the journey outside standing up facing into the wind (a special sea-sickness trick of mine).

The turn-over time between ferries and buses is pretty fast and we are learning to be pushier getting our bags out and running to the bus.

Perhaps we are starting to see the worst parts of humanity in these stressful bag grabbing moments and it is putting me off other travelers, some of whom are extremely self focused.

Perhaps this is how I almost get into a fight on the ferry when we are hurried inside, only to find that about 20 people are lying across each row of four seats. In an attempt to find somewhere to sit, I lift a sleeping woman’s feet off the seat and sit down. She wakes up and scowls at me and I apologise but explain there are no seats and then we have a little argy bargy because I don’t like being reprimanded and after all, I am the mother of a birthday boy trying to make the day all about a party and have no time for an argument.

I walk away leaving her scowling at me.

 

With my new pushy attitude, we get a better seat on the bus where we can all sit together and we arrive at the train station an hour later.

We do meet a couple of Maori boys on the ferry who are also travelling on the train and we all realise how much we miss the openness of other folk from Aotearoa.

The train experience is much better the second time around, partly because I don’t feel like I’m going to die and also because the kids are looking forward to it and we have 3 bottom bunks which makes it easier.

I’ve saved the ultimate travelling birthday present (all of the Star Wars ships in miniature) until the end of the day. It’s amazing how a tiny toy can transform the day. Especially for a child who loves little things.

I read a story to the 3 kids (a nightly ritual that we have resurrected since we spend so much time together) and they all fall asleep.