As I remember it the first couple of days on Phagnan were a bit of a washout to say the least, it was a bit disappointing as i'd fancied a few days chilling out on the beach but the weather's been pretty lovely so far so I couldn't complain really. The "Holiday Beach Resort" which we were staying at had seemingly plenty of DVD's and a rather large projector screen so the evening's were always easy to fill and it also gave me a chance to catch up on my travel journal. I did manage to catch a few good films although on closer inspection the collection wasn't as expansive as first thought due to them being damaged or more likely stolen, in a week we managed to catch Quantam of Solace and 21 twice respectively as well as get through Narc, American Gangster, Rescue Dawn, 1408 and a few others so yeah, it clearly rained quite a bit. Narc was suitably bleak for my tastes and 21 was pretty enjoyable too.
Mark had went for a bit of a walkabout earlier on the day we got there, and informed me that some bars up the road looked quite promising. I needed to look for an ATM machine so thought i'd do my own traditional scout about and have a gander at the bars in the process. "Promising" soon turned out to be a phrase that set me up for disappointment as there was nothing the bars were just like Kata with their scores of Thai girls and Ladyboys standing outside hollering at you as you pass, if you manage to find yourself on the wrong side of the road to then you'll just get grabbed or find one of them suddenly linking in with you. Not as much fun as it sounds when by yourself looking for a cashpoint. The first of these bars was named the rather classy "Big Wills" (Others include "Fanny bar" which i pretty sure waas ironically full of Ladyboys.) in it contained a grotesquely obese man behind the bar who i assume was "Big Will", another obese man sitting with a petite Thai girl and finally another Thai girl propping up the bar. She must've have caught me walking past and then turned shouting "Come sit here" while pointing at the chair, I have to say i've never seen anyone so delighted to see me in my life. She then preceded to lift her legs up on the air, pretty much above her head in hoping that would sway me.....yeah i'm definitely not in South Shields now, you only see girls with their knickers out there if they're drunkenly "squatting" in a back lane haha. I manage to trek on passing numerous other bars and finally found an ATM about 20 minutes down the road, on my way back as i approached the corner that was full of what pretty much had to be prossies a black window tinted car approached me sidling along the curb. This definitely made me feel like I was in the wrong part of town so it was with some relief that a "normal" looking woman stepped out to go to a shop. I finally made it back unscathed, greeting Mark with a "Thanks for that", to be fair Kata is identical. During the day it looks like a family resort but it all changes when the sun goes down.
Wednesday was a pretty similar affair in the sense that the weather wasn't too hot for long periods so little was achieved outside a stroll down to the pier, I did manage to bang my head about four times on the way challanging the Krabi record in the process. On the evening we met a rather nice girl from Croydon named Becky and she soon became the latest member of the group, it quickly became apparent she was the unluckiest traveller possibly ever. Despite traveling roughly the same amount of time as myself she managed to catch E Coli, a parasite, various bites as well having the misfortune of previously traveling with a spoilt, stuck up condescending cow but none of this seemed to bother her too much and she could laugh about it which is always a good sign. The now three of us decided to check out the bar the hotel regulars frequented but it soon turned out to be another shitty Rasta/ Reggae bar, I don't recall if i've mentioned it but Thailand is full of these places. It seems like every single place you go to must have some reggae undertones, i personally don't see the connection between Thailand and Bob Marley but they sure love him here.
Talk soon turned to my experience of the bars the night prior and we decided we may as well go and brave them to satisfy our burgeoning curiosity if nothing else. The group dynamic and having Becky there certainly made it more appealing then going in by myself, we decided to try and visit each bar on the strip which initially sounded like an absolutely awful idea. It turns out that they couldn't have been any nicer or pleasant once we got inside; no hassling to buy them drinks, outside an arse pinch and a leg run no groping and they were just rather normal people. To be honest neither me or Mark got a look in with Becky getting all the attention. They loved her "white skin", looks, make up, everything and were very keen for tips as well as telling her not to get too tanned. Its quite ironic here that all the Thais want to be whiter, their creams, soaps, lotions all contain "whitening" and their magazine covers contain the whitest Thais you'll ever see. Meanwhile we're all obsessed with tanning and view that as looking healthy but they just want our skin, funny world. They also informed us that the reason they like western men isn't based on looks (there's a shocker for nobody) but because they're so tall and broad compared to short skinny Thai guys, so if your old and fat you can't really be blamed for coming here really. I have to admit while looking around the mall in Krabi i did feel rather odd, not only being the only "farang" there but i was about a foot taller then everyone else and really got the feeling everyone was staring at me. I guess it's a short glimpse into the life of a minority, nothing more than that obviously. I have to admit i did enjoy the feeling mind. We went to a few more bars and had a good laugh really, we decided to open our own named "The Clunge". On the way back home we went for a bit of food to find a young guy staring at us over his shoulder with look of "oh shit, i've been rumbled" The reason was he was dining with two ladyboys, i say ladyboys but that would be an injustice to them, these were two blokes with plucked eyebrows in a dress really. He kept glancing over but still drunkingly sped off into the night with the men in tow.
Thursday finally brought blazing sunshine so most of the day was enjoyably spent cooking in the Sun, since i'm off to Sydney soon i thought it was about time i got my head stuck in Brysons "Down Under". I've not even stepped on the plane yet but the man's got me paranoid about stepping anywhere in Oz with all the talk of Jellyfish, Spiders, Snakes and everything else in between. The area we're staying on Koh phagnan is called Ban Thai and is about 11km from Had rin the home of full moon party, to which we were all on the island for; more of that one later. Anyhow we decided to go there for a night out and check the place out so we weren't going in blind for full moon. Becky had randomly bumped into a girl she'd spoke to online her before she left for here so Charlene became the newest member for the night and was again another great girl. It turned out to be a rather random but great night in the end, Becky was fire breathing and despite the fact I can't skip a rope i decided to do some skipping with a rope set on fire. I woke up with no hair on the left arm and smelling of burning so that tells you how well i did, Mark had the better tactic of getting in and out and that being the end of it. The sun was out on our return so that told me a great night was had as it literally seemed we been out 2 minutes but obviously the next days events were going to be lazing about and watching dvd's.
It soon became Saturday 31st and Halloween, this means nothing to me but obviously a lot to everyone else so we decided to venture out looking for a bar called Jumanjy we'd heard good things about that was putting on a party for it. During the day Mark mentioned one of his mates named Phill from traveling elsewhere was on his way to Ban Tai, literally mid sentence he appeared walking down the beach. It's quite amazing how much this occurs over here, it's a truly massive country but you're always bumping into people you've already met. Funnily enough it was around this time i realized i'd messaged Becky a few months back while planning my trip on travbuddy. I'd only messaged 4 people and met up with one and randomly seen the other 3 so it's a pretty massive coincidence, she'd hadn't bloody replied to my message mind haha. The two of us went for a walk and came across a stray dog with a litter of new born puppies barely days old, obviously everyone wanted to keep them but they looked healthy for now at least, they soon became the celebs of the island too. The four of us with Phil (once again sound guy) the latest addition headed to Jumanjy, after some initial mishaps (including our driver coming within an inch of sending us into a massive drop with no chance of the car getting out) we found it. To borrow a Mark term the place was rather "funky" and they'd made it look great, it was amazing to see peoples costumes too given that i doubt most backpackers carried one with them prepared. Either there was a shop on the island or a guy was carrying a six foot tampon around with him for months haha. But yeah, another great night out coupled with random photos and events. We rested the next day to get ready for Full Moon Party but that deserves its own blog, a rather surreal night indeed.....
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