Juergen's Night

Well, well being in Beijing at the mo its a bit difficult to remember all the way back to the glorious days of Koh Phangan but let me just say that it was, well, amazing. Jo and I arrived after choosing to take the night ferry route leaving Koh Phi Phi at 2p and arriving Koh Phangan 7 or 6am don't really remember but it was quite an adventure. Ferry out of Phi Phi included Shakira singing over random scenes of Thailand with "whenever, wherever" was spell binding. Also the movie that they decided to play which i dont know what it was but it was good. Some horrible alligator dinosaur in Australia but it was a Thai movie. Makes you respect the entertainment we get in the States. There was a fairly uneventful bus ride across the peninsula with the usual stops at random food places that the bus driver's sister owns or some such nonsense. We ended up being the only ones going to Phangan so by about 8 we head to the pier for the 11p ferry ride which is like 7 hours when the normal ferry is about 2. We get on and check it out and there are some mats on the floor as expected per Estob's email but it was a bit warm so we get off to walk about and check out Surat Thani a bit. Good fruit stands and food stands right there so we get some melon, pina, and banana and go to town on our dinner. Good stuff but too much sweet fruit makes you sick after a bit. Walked around a bit more and came across a German dude sitting there drinking Mekong and waiting for his friend. Hung out with him for a bit learning about his life since kindergarten, time in India (which Jo disagrees with by the way even though she was there 1 month and he 2 years), and all sorts of other random tidbits of knowledge. We invited a French chica over to join the party and she had the hardest name ever: Olepheus, or something along those lines. After a few drinks we boarded the ferry and found our mats and bags as we had left them and settled in for the night. Wasn't too bad. Had a good chat and laugh and slept alright but when they turned the lights on at 5am was a bit early still. Getting into Thong Sala, the port town on Phangan we found a ride to Haad Rin (the party town, oh yeah) and headed down. Upon arrival we headed to a place Jo knew was good bc of last year's travel so we headed but it was about 630 and nobody came out till about 7 or so. Got a room, broke a bottle of Mekong, and passed out. Haad Rin was nice but not as much party as expected. Saw fire shows and a few people but for the most part shopped around and had some meals. Laid on the the beach and watched soccer, read, and took it all in. Decided to Head to Thong Nai Pan Noi bc Jo had old friend there and I had to see Doc's land and the place he calls his 2d home.

Noi, as it came to be known was quite chill and just the place for us. Found a nice bungalow for 250 with the best view on the beach. Could see the whole thing from the porch bc it was at the end. Found good restaurants: Baan Pong's. Good bars: Flip flop. And met some cool people. Found our French friend again, met 2 of Jo's mates from Somerset, some Swiss, and tons of others I'm sure. Loved it. Found a sweet waterfall with good action and a crazy bar below that seemed to cater to those into mushys, took a trip around the island by scooter, against Ash's best advice, and had one hell of a go at the half moon party. The trip around the island was great with more waterfalls, tales of travelers wrecking scooters, a blind man getting coconuts, running out of gas, Jo yelling at me, and Sheesha a sweet all white bar in a crappy fishing village who had kick ass juice. That's all that we could afford there since it was probably the most expensive place in Thailand. Beautiful though with all white furniture that opened up to the beach and was quite elegant. The half moon night there was supposed to be one but we couldn't find a ride after dinner and drinks with some top notch Irish guys. A really wasted German dude stumbles in who is all smiles. Come to find out his name is Juergen and hes a pretty cool dude. About 35 with crazy long hair and just been down there drunk too long. Finally found a ride after searching the beach for 600 which we thought too expensive but seeing as how it was 1am there weren't many choices. We were told it may be canceled but nobody had ever heard of one being canceled so we pressed on. After a 40 minute cab ride of singing Thai reggae ("no war, I can't take anymore") we arrived to find no party. We, as well as the driver were all quite confused and disheartened after all the prep that went into the night. Jojo had the perfect outfit. We turn it around for the long bumpy ride back. Only bar open on Noi at 2am is the Thai karaoke bar with many gay guys and lady boys so what else would we do but pull up a chair. Turned out to be great with the 3 of us singing every half way English song in the book (all of 10 id say). Headed home to get a couple hours sleep because we had to catch a cab to get to the ferry at 10a. Kick ass. Next days after trying to obtain a ticket to Beijing for over a week with frantic emails to the States and to airlines I found a travel agent with the best price but the problem is when I finally saw the ticket it was for the wrong day. They got the people who issued it to fax the schedule and it was correct so i put blind faith in the lady who booked it because she showed us her gun that she used to protect herself from the crooked Thai police. Yeah, cool, good times.