Tuesday 22nd December
We had ‘another’ early morning today, but this one was probably the one we looked forward to most as it was getting us to our Christmas destination :)
We caught the 9.45am plane from Phuket to Koh Samui on a very nice little prop plane that was so well decorated that the whole flight was very impressed as we pulled up to the aeroplane. You’ve got to give Bangkok Air for their individuality as they had decorated their whole fleet with an underwater theme!
The plane had barely climbed before it was descending again, as it was only a 40min flight, but the views as we were coming into Koh Samui were breath taking.
But we weren’t staying on Koh Samui till later. We got off the plane, got onto a coach, then onto a boat straight to Koh Pha Ngan which was our destination for Christmas! After a choppy journey over, we got into a multi person taxi and thought that we had a long way to go, until 1km up the road, we got dropped off at the end of a dirt track and pointed in the direction of our resort!!!! All seemed very dodgy!!
But just off the dirt track was the entrance to our resort. It all looked very nice! We checked in at reception of Weangthai Resort, but the beach side bungalow we had been promised was not available! So instead we got upgraded to a superior air con room. We had initially only paid for a fan room and for some reason, within seconds of being in our room, a handyman was in there too, putting up a fan. We tried to fathom it, but still can’t!
And so our chill out on the island of Koh Pha Ngan began.
For the next two days we just chilled by the pool, meeting new people and just relaxing.
Christmas Eve
We had met a load of people, those staying at our hotel, those working at the dive centre, those working in the hotel too, and it was a very communal feel to Christmas Eve. We spent most of the day by the pool, and then as evening drew, 5 of us went to an Italian restaurant for dinner to fill our stomachs before the night’s festivities.
The plan for the evening was to go to the Half Moon Party, which is set in the jungle. We all sat around the pool bar getting ready, applying our UV paint and getting some early Christmas drinks in.
So off to the party we went. It was a good half an hour drive, and there were two truck loads of us!
As we arrived, there was a massive queue to get in and it was already 11.30pm!!! There were an estimated couple of thousand people there!! So we joined the queue and waited patiently, slowly sobering up! The other truck had not joined us at this point as they were waiting for some to finish work.
Unfortunately, we didn’t make it in in time to celebrate the turn of midnight, but we still celebrated outside! And we could hear the music so we had a little boogie too!
So we finally got in. The music was pumping! There was one big stage with one DJ and a load of podiums, bars, chillout zones, UV painting stores (like face painting), tons of food etc etc. You couldn’t tell you were in the jungle at all! The whole place was lit up by UV lights!
One of the many UV painting shops and the big funky screen!
The boys and the girls ‘respectively'!!!’
Unfortunately, when the other truck arrived at the party with everyone else, one of the guys couldn’t get in because he was gay!?!?!?! Yeah, we couldn’t understand it either. In a country where ladyboys run rife, how could they be so prejudice!!!
So on we moved!
All cosy inside the truck!
This time we all bundled into one truck, all 17 of us! And off to Haad Rin beach we went! This is the site of the infamous Full Moon Party, but it is pretty much a party every night!
There was literally a line of bars with massive speakers and a huge line of stalls selling buckets of alcohol!
The strip of alcohol bucket stalls and the funny names of them (parents we apologise for the rudeness of them lol!)
Robyn had been to this particular bar so many times, he even had his name on the bar!!!
And so it was time to celebrate with friends. It was Christmas day!!! Woop woop! The bar/beach club we spent the night at had everything! A foam party, buckets, fire skipping, buckets, ladyboys, buckets, great music and buckets buckets buckets buckets BUCKETS!!! Lol!
We’ll let the pictures do the talking!
Jay J and the boys :)
Naomi having a boogie and Chris and Germaine with our hotel manager Ann!
Somewhere in the picture on the left is Jay J, having a Jay J sandwich!! Lol!
The foam and Jay J swanging his thang :)
Christmas Day
So we woke up with enough time to give each other presents and go down for the last breakfast orders at 10.30am!!!
Chris got a CHANG!!! T-shirt and a Koh Pha Ngan t-shirt from Naomi! Naomi got a Koh Pha Ngan t-shirt and frisbee (woop) from Chris! And apart from the colours, yes our t-shirts were almost identical, spooky!
We also opened a lovely package that Mummy Feast had sent us to our hotel, “NOT TO BE OPENED TIL 25/12!!!” We were amazed it actually made it! And what a nice surprise it was. When you are so far from home on Xmas day, a touch of home really helps! There were crackers, sugar mice, chocolate coins, racing snails, an angel (of course), some reindeer antlers and Father Xmas headbands. It was just like a stocking! Big smiles all round :) :)
So we joined everyone for a much needed breakfast, heads banging after a great. The general consensus was to have a chilled out day, by the pool, drinking and then the important dinner in the evening!
We decided to spend a bit of quality time together, and went out on a bike (moped) ride around the North and Western parts of the island as we had only really seen our resort so far!
We firstly went to a waterfall and viewpoint in the centre of the island. However the waterfall did not currently exist as there had been no rain for a while. Chris gave up at that point and left Naomi to ascend the further 300m almost vertical forest hill to the viewpoint. Worth it but god was she sweaty by the time she was done lol!
We then continued on the road north to other side of the island. We took a sharp turning westwards, and just as we did, Naomi caught a glimpse of the sea.
We took the next turning and we were very glad we did. The little bay of Chaloklum was absolutely stunning. And empty at that! Our own little bit of paradise on Xmas Day :)
We stopped off in a cafe for a quick drink, but noticed they had ‘real’ cheese on the menu, so Chris ‘had’ to order a cheese baguette. Having not had proper cheese for 6 weeks, cheddar was a luxury on Xmas day!
We continued on our journey round the island. We took the coastal road back, which had to be one of the sketchiest roads we had ever seen. Chris has never driven so sensibly!!! On a winding hilly road, you would turn a corner to find collapsed tarmac or sand everywhere. Very very dangerous!
The road took us about 45mins but took us back into our resort. Past the local Tesco (yes, they have dominated here too"!) for some alcohol, pick up our laundry (very important job on Xmas day!) and back to the pool in time to chill out before dinner.
We got dressed up in some of tailored clothes from Hoi An, what with it being a special occasion and all! See below, Naomi sports a bandeau flower dress and Chris sports a check shirt and jeans (all made to measure and at ridiculously cheap prices!).
Dinner was a bit of a disappointment. We sat down, as required, at 7pm for the commencement of mass eatage! Half the food was already out and getting cold! We had to wait for the staff to fully put out all the food before starting, which took 30mins, so everything was cold by then.
You couldn’t fault the meat though. See the pictures of the turkey below, succulent not dry turkey, yum! They also did beef which was more like steak, rare to medium, and absolutely delicious!
Due to the heat though, no one managed to eat their usual Xmas helpings, except for the Irish lads! Heat/food sweat was not good lol!
After dinner, the hotel put a fireworks and caberet show for the guests. A lot of fun!
The fireworks were a case of the staff lighting them and then throwing them seawards and hoping for the best! One actually came back into the hotel, everyone nearly sh*t themselves and Chris nearly ended up with a stocky lad on his lap lol! They also had hand held sparklers that put UK sparklers to shame, scary, petrifying and somehow fun with a lot of adrenalin.
Even baby Fang was getting involved!!!
The caberet show was…….hmmmmmm…….. how do we put this!?!?!?! Interesting! If you like ladyboys prancing around stage doing songs, then you would have loved it! But it was entertainment, and we all kept in the spirit of things. Except for poor Robyn who they kept on making a beeline for!!! Pure entertainment!
And the fun begins!
Boxing Day
So once again we chose to stay by the pool all day long!
Oh the life! Lol!
We were shattered from a couple of days of hardcore partying and entertainment! Can’t do more than one night in a row without suffering heavily nowadays!!!
After a disappointing Xmas dinner, we had heard from all our English friends that there was a top notch English pub, that has spot on English food. So we decided to head there for our dinner! And funnily enough, quite a few people tagged along for the ride. It ended up being 6 English and 1 Canadian enjoying the delights of one of best menus and best cooked English food this side of the world!
On top of that though, the building is a bit legendary too, as the owner built it from scratch, all made from authentic English products and timber, shipped over from the UK! Incredible!
Best of all, they had the football on too as it was Saturday Night! Once inside, and chatting with English people, apart from the fact we were in shorts and t-shirts, really didn’t feel like we were away from home!
Leaving Day :(
And very reluctantly, our fab trip to Koh Pha Ngan ended, far too early than what we had hoped. But we had accommodation pre-booked and pre-paid on Koh Samui. So we spent as long as we could on Koh Pha Ngan, and caught the last boat to Koh Samui, after a sad goodbye to Weangthai.
Thank you to Weangthai and all our friends there who made Xmas 2009 a great one :)
Naomi and Chris
xx
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