If you are a budget conscious traveler on this side of the world, and our age, hostels are pretty much the norm. Hotels are reserved for #treatyoself weekends & when mom/dad/adult is visiting. Compared to what we are used to staying in, this air bnb we rented for Amanda’s birthday was a solid 100.
Real beds, a real kitchen, a couch, on the beach, surrounded by palm trees…#paradise much?
On Thursday, I headed down to Koh Phangan with Amanda, Darian and Erin. A 1 hour bus ride, 1 hour plane ride, 1 hr 30 min van ride, 3 hr ferry ride and 30 minute songtaew ride later, we walked into this beautiful slice of heaven.
The home owner met us by the ferry to take us to the house and then came up with us to eat dinner and give us the lay of the island. He also introduced us to this appetizer at the restaurant (which we ended up eating at almost every day) called MYSTERY VEGETABLE which was really delicious and mysterious, like most foods here.
The next morning, MC, Naomi and Coco came over on the first ferry. After a relaxing morning on the beach and laying around, we headed over to Slip N Fly water park. Umm…so that was pretty intense. You go down a slide that at the end, flips up so you fly up into the air before crashing/landing in the water. Well, he gives you tips like sit up slightly while going down, point your toes down, etc. but lets just say its harder put into practice. I remember the entire thing perfectly, sitting down, counting, going, screaming..and then I remember being in the air and that’s where my brain stopped working until I found myself flailing in the water. The video gave me a good laugh since I resembled a corpse for the 5 seconds between the slide and water. I only went down once before I retired my slip n fly jersey and stayed in the pool at the bottom.
In a normal day here, I exert very minimal energy going about my day to day activities. On the scale from never leaving the bed to working a double shift in the restaurant industry, I would say my day would land much closer to the first than the second. So, after being in the sun all day, nearly dying and just being social, I was exhausted. We were planning to go to the half moon party that night (which would mean being up past my grandma bedtime), so I obviously took a 4 hour nap…and then because I was still tired, caffeine pills. After eating, getting ready, putting on glitter & having a dance party, we got a songtaew and went to the half moon party. For 1000 baht, you are basically paying to dance and party from 10pm – 4am in the jungle. There are multiple stages, lounges, etc. and lots of lights, colors and people. I wasn’t sure how the night would go, mainly because I never go out here, but it was actually really fun and I contribute that 110% to the people I went with! Vibing under the light up mushrooms and flowers with my lady friends was prettttty lit.
The next day was pretty uneventful, just consisting of laying: bed to beach to porch to bed. Since most of us were present (missed you Ally!), we made sure to do a little photo shoot during sun set.
The next day, after sleeping in, consisted of packing and doing our 7 hour trip back home! Remember, for almost everyone beautiful beach photo I post, there is an at least 4 hour travel time behind it 🙂
Sincerely Sione 