Ko Phangan umm honestly can you be just too old? (Dec 10 - 13)

So we arrived at Ko Phangan, which is known as a party island. We found it's reputation fitting. There were tons of misfits and well, we felt too old for that, so we headed up the coastline to the absolute opposite, or so we thought. The only way to get there was by boat. This time a small fishing boat that had side rails for seats and a loud, smoky petrol engine. I happily splashed through the water and jumped on board noting to myself that I could indeed swim out of this one… I hoped. We hugged the coastline as we went north to the third bay where we intended upon staying for our final travelling days. After a hot walk in what felt like a palm tree plantation, we found our place and checked in. This place was owned by travellers, English no less.

Picture this a single bay surrounded by large boulders and rocks, a curved sandy beach and a palm tree plantation (I prefer native trees, oh well paradise ain't prefect). The main building was inviting and had an open veranda to the sea. There was a no shoe policy, and we were served a dizzying array of crazy vegan food whilst reclining upon the cushioned floor. There were message boards everywhere that caught one's eye with words like Meditation, Yoga and Creative Writing. There was even a bloody spa. Oh my was I in Heaven!!
We took in the beauty with a strange juice and reviewed the menu. It was for cleansers. A truly well researched menu that showed which days you should eat what and why. Tyler, didn't think so and soon gets busy asking people where do people go to eat real food around here! Ha. We climbed the winding staircase though the forest to our own little bungalow. It had a separate toilet/shower area but still this room had a balcony with 2 chairs and a hammock over looking the bay and surrounding forest.

We settled in then wandered around for awhile enjoying the general tranquility of the place compared to the craziness of the Thai cities we had visited. We found the library and met the crazy cleansers. They weren't that crazy though. In fact, they were quite nice. We struck up a conversation with a Brazilian man, called Aloisio living in Singapore. This was his second visit, and he looked exceeding well for it. I figured there must be something to it. I’m was already down for this natural healing, but some of you may need an extra push. We later shared several activities with our Brazilian friend, but I never quite manged to join him for that morning vinyasa flow, maybe next time!

Tyler wanted to check a local restaurant and the only way to get there was to walk, and walk we did. An exciting walk it was up carved steps, over the top of the hill, through little villages, passing gyms with muy Thai boxers, even along a logged jetty precariously attached to large stone rocks with water crashing below. This is where we came across the Stone Bar, a place we would return to later. We moved onto the next place, a restaurant high up on top of the stone covered hilltop. We shared some food and listened to an annoying, loud American that drove us back to our little bay.

By this time, it was dark, but we had brought lights thankfully – travellers are nearly always prepared. As we walked, we became aware of a distant noise which seemed to be getting louder and louder with each step. It was a Friday night, and a huge party was going of near our camp. I must say that it did not sound all that good, especially through my ear plugs and pillow placed over my head at 5am. This was a weekly party.

We managed to pass the days away very happily, doing morning yoga, afternoon chillin and evening meditation. We even had time for a little swimming in the sea. On one occasion, we rose at the beach for sunrise, where we met a fellow Californian called Randy – nice chappy!

From our friend Aloisio, we heard about a wooden structure that extruded out of the stone wall overlooking the neighboring bay we hadn't explored yet. We just had to check it out. It was a short enough little walk, and we were able to get the platform all to ourselves for hours. We lost hours playing follow my leader with different yoga poses, mediation and such. Total relaxation!
During a sneaky visit to the steam room at dusk (no light in there and the only sound you could hear was the bugs scuttling), I joined forces with a fellow Brit called Hitesh, who despite being from an Indian family was a complete northern lad, and a Kiwi who had more in common with India that his home country. Very strange and very wonderful! We created the awesome foursome of trouble, not really. Lined up on mattress all four of us enjoyed a traditional Thai massage from a family of Thai woman. May have been the best one yet. Her touch was partially electrifying. I thoroughly enjoyed it as did everyone else. The Kiwi Mark, cracked me up by stating that quite frankly that his massage was better that 80% of his sexual experiences. Our British friend felt like someone had battered him black and blue and swore he would not do it again. With respect, he had jammed toe and the lady worked on it. Granted it was still swollen the following day, but he could walk on it without pain! We enjoyed hours of conversation with our new friends, and somewhere along the line, we decided that maybe we weren't that old after all and we should see for ourselves what the full moon party was all about. So, three of us did.

A very choppy boat ride later, we found a magic castle where we enjoyed a drink. Before we had even left, the trouble had started. Tyler's flip flops where missing, and we did not hear the end of this. I guess it was understandable as the sand was wet even though the sea was going out??? We decided to head into town for flippers, not the best choice as it was heaving with touters and tourists. There were rows and rows of mini buckets with half a litre of straight liquor and red bull cans. This was not my kind of place. We were soon pushed back on to the beach. We located a spot to sit down on and people watch. I came to the conclusion that these people were crazy and I was too old to be patience with them! Along the beach, there were many establishments blaring out awful music trying to see which could be the loudest. I could not tell one beat from another beat as it all blended into such a din that it drove me potty. We were caught with nowhere to turn and stuck on a little piece of sand with a tacky fun fair behind us. Fortunately, I was in good company, and I enjoyed a giggle. Like all good things, it had to come to an end though, and we had to be patient to leave as the boat captain wanted a full boat before setting off. In the interim, we learnt why the sand was wet. Oh boys.

Back in our bay, we intended to meet up with our two friends, but somehow we lost each other. Tyler and I figured that they were heading to the source of the noise, so we wandered to find the party, but instead we bumped into a wandering drunk old enough to be my dad. He was lost and needed to get back to his place. After helping him up the stairs in the dark, we continued on only to bump into another drunk old man. He had fallen and blood was dripping down his face, but somehow managed to come off as quite proper still. This was the second lost old drunk wandering around the bay. We knew that we where in the older crew, but surely this is not the norm. This guy thought that I was his lover or something and started talking about old memories until Tyler put him straight and said that I am with him. How very sad he acted like an English gentleman come boat captain. We helped him out, and then later found the place of the party. By this time, we were too tired and shocked to go inside, our ears were ringing and the music did not sound inviting. Plus this was where the other two drunks had come from, so we turned on our heels and disappeared back to our bungalow. Best choice we thought.

The next morning our time had come to pack and disappear, so reluctantly we moved on once again.