Arrival Koh Phangan Island, Thailand

I booked an overnight train ride from Bangkok to Surat Thani taking 13-hours. It was very clean and comfortable despite the long ride. Then they had our butts parked in a holding terminal area for five more hours waiting on the ferry ride. The ferry ride was about 2 ½ hours. Upon arrival to the island I was transported with luggage on a scooter to my hotel. I was beat and had not fully recovered from the plan flight from Goa yet!!!!!

I’ve been in Thailand almost a week. It is very different than India. The filth and chaos in India is hard to handle sometimes. So the cleanliness and orderliness in Thailand is one of the first things you notice.

Within 24-hours of being on Ko Phangan, I ran into several people I know from Rishikesh from my yoga studies. It is comforting to arrive to a foreign country and already know some people!

Koh Phangan is in the South and located on the Gulf of Thailand near Koh Sumai, a larger better known island. Koh means island, pha means meet or find, Ngan means a sandy beach that can be seen at low tide. Most of the people are Chinese descendents. It’s 100 kms from the mainland, 168 square kilometers in size and has a population of 14k. This island is famous for its Full Moon Parties. They are generally located on the other side of the island, thank goodness.

I rented a scooter from an Agama yoga teacher. It is a bit older but I got a fair monthly rate for it. After we greed on the rental, he said “By the way, you need to put the orange string tied to the key around the handle bars.” After making several start and stops and running errands, within hours of renting the scooter, I looked down and the key had vibrated out of the ignition. I panicked and called the owner. He was kind of a smarty pants and said, “The thing to do is to retrace where you have ridden”. I rode for 45-minutes looking for the key to no avail. We met with the bike still running for about 30-minutes without me riding it. His spare key had broken and wouldn’t turn off the ignition either. You would have thought that the owner should have a spare key that works. I complained to him about the brakes. Remember, the bike is still running and instinctively he tried to use the brakes while standing at the handle bars. So instead of squeezing the brakes he squeezed the gas and was run over by the bike. He jumped out of the way then it hit another bike nearby. What a fiasco, but luckily with very little damage. I never found the key, nor had a new one made from the broken one. I ended up getting a new ignition installed for him. Thankfully it was not expensive! But I am thinking he should re-imburse me because he should have had a spare key and/or the bike should have been fixed before he rented it to me.

I booked a beach bungalow with the Milky Bay Resort on-line with travelfish.org prior to my arrival. The rate was great for such a nice place! When I got here, they tired to put me in a Robinson Caruso bungalow. It was adorable with lots of amenities and had beautiful views of the beach. But it was pitch black on the inside and you had to open the shutters for light and views. There was nothing on the large open shutters and I felt too exposed since my room robbery in Guatemala. I didn’t want to wake-up with two men in my room again! Besides, my last night in Bangkok, I awoke at 1:30 am to someone trying to get into my room. Honest mistake right..........NO, I looked out the keyhole and disocvered this Thai man trying to get into several rooms. I guess he was hoping people forgot to lock their doors. It was an old-fashioned lock at a pretty nice place. So you can understand I am overly concerned with my security now. So this hotel did not have another room in my price range and put me at their affiliate, a lower end property called Lime-N-Soda. It’s cute and professionally run by a lady from South Africa, but a tad overpriced in my opinion. I planned to stay here a couple of days anyway until I could find a suitable monthly rental. So today I finally found a bungalow. Of course I am here during high season so everything is way over priced. I’ll move in 2-days and have the bungalow for a month. It is cute, has a kitchen and a great location with everything but air conditioning. I hope I won’t burn up! It’s terribly hot and humid and little to no breeze. I haven’t had a/c since August, and hope I’ll acclimatize!

I’m still adjusting to being here and ready to have a routine. Because of the high tourist season, I am unable to take my Level I yoga class again for free. I am too early for Level 2, it starts in early February. But my visa expired so I had to leave India. There are 80-people in the class and the management says it is too crowded for any more people. I am missing the quaintness and quiet days of Rishikesh. Repeating some of Level I was a selling point to joining the program and for me coming here to Koh Phangan. I’m a tad pouty and realize it sounds like I am complaining. Although I really am happy and grateful to be here! Just a bit bummed.

The massages are more expensive here than Bangkok so I can’t afford one every day…. darn it! I got one earlier today and it was quite good too. I was sore from the ones in Bangkok and needed a few days to recoup.

While exploring the island on the scooter I rode to a waterfall and scenic over look. Boy did I work up a sweat on the journey! Last night I walked in to the main town of Thongsala to the food court and shopping area. For 110-baht or $3.50 I had pork fried basil and rice, a Tiger beer and a scoop of coffee ice cream. The atmosphere was lively and fun! I think I'll try it again tonight. The low price for a meal helps with my budget for the next few days while I am paying a higher hotel rate than for a month long bunglow rental.