Koh Phangan Christmas

Since we arrived in Koh Phangan last Saturday we've been taking it easy and just relaxing on the beach and around the pool. On Christmas eve night there was a massive party on Sunrise Beach. About 10 different bars had sound systems set up and were hosting free parties. So we got ourselves some flashing Santa hats and joined the other five thousand odd revellers for some festive fun.
We had a really great evening watching and joining in as the chaos unfolded. As well as the music there where the fire performers who were holding a flaming limbo competition, which needless to say we didn't join in, loads of fireworks and other nonsense.



I even managed to get hustled at Connect 4 by a local girl on the beach! Big loss of man points that one. I fancied my chances as I was undefeated all afternoon at Pog and Kelly's wedding last year. I think the girl was using Jedi mind tricks . . . or I'd drunk too much Chang.

Unfortunately Christmas day itself was the wettest day we've had since we left the UK. We had a lovely sparkling wine breakfast (couldn't get any champagne) before we headed out to get some Christmas day tan action.

However our plans (and tans) had to be changed after about half an hour on the beach when the rain started. Thankfully it had stopped by the evening when we went out for our Christmas dinner. No turkey this year so we went Italian which was certainly a bit different. Then it was back onto the beach for more party action. This time there was a kick boxing ring set up where tourists who had been on training courses at the local gyms were having bouts. It was very entertaining . . . a little bit like watching Fight Club. The best fight that we saw was a blindfolded one where the contenders appeared to spend more time clobbering the ref than each other.

Happy Christmas from Koh Phangan

We just wanted to wish everyone back home and out there on the internet who's following our jaunt a very happy Christmas.


We're not sure what our Christmas day plans are yet but I think it may involve a little sunbathing and maybe a Chang or two!

Koh Phangan

We eventually arrived in Koh Phangan after a bit of a nightmare journey. We left Bangkok at 9 in the evening on one of the overnight buses and arrived at the ferry terminal at 5am - I don't think I've ever seen Liz awake at this time before! At 7 we got onto the catamaran ride from hell. I never get sea sick but even this 4 hour journey had me feeling queasy at times. Liz along with most of the other passengers wasn't so lucky. When the boat was sat in the port the water looked as still as a duck pond , but as soon as we got out onto the water we were pitching and rolling like cork in a storm. Liz is going to look into how much it will cost to fly out because the crossing was that bad.

We staying at a lovely resort called Rin Beach Resort which is a little bit flasher that what we are normally used to but we thought we would treat ourselves and stay somewhere nice for Christmas and new year. It has a lot of bungalows that overlook the sea but our new found flashiness didn't quit stretch that far and we instead have a lovely little spot in a jungley garden. Here's our place and another picture of the resort from the pier on the beach.

We overlook sunset beach and have been able to watch the sun go down from the pool most evenings.

Five minutes walk across the peninsula takes us to sunrise beach which is packed full of bars and hosts the full moon parties. They have some amazing fire artists doing their stuff every night.

On our first night here they had a huge flaming skipping rope and were inviting the spectators to have a go. Liz and I kindly declined after one dufus managed to get hit by the rope!

During the day the beach is really laid back and a great place to catch some sun. We're currently working very hard on our tans!!!

Christmas and New Year in Koh Phangan

We have now decided on a place to stay on Koh Phangan over Christmas and New Year. We have chosen Rin Beach Resort. Rin Beach Resort has over 40 bungalows directly near the Had Rin pier, most with sunset seaviews overlooking Koh Samui and the Southern coastline of Koh Phangan. We are looking forward to the Full Moon Parties over Christmas and New Year. Had Rin has become the global party centre of the world (apparently!), attracting up to 30,000 people to the Full Moon Party on New Year's Eve and 10,000 on an average Full Moon, so it should be fun. We'll be staying on Koh Phangan from 20th December 2008 until 2nd January 2009. After this we plan to head off to Koh Samui, Krabi and Koh Phi Phi. Hopefully some of our friends, Nic, Sarah and Paul, will be able to come out and visit us for New Year.