Still on Ko Phangan…
I haven't updated this in a little while so I figured I would just give everyone a heads ups that I haven't died yet nor do I intend to. About 3 days ago I moved about an hour away to the otherside of the island to a place called Haad Yao Beach (still on Ko Phangan). I am sharing a bungalow with 2 English guys named Chris and Alex that I met at the previous place I was staying. They were sort of doing the same route as me so I figured I would tag alone with them for a bit. The place we are staying at is called Haad Yao Bungalows; It's a small little bungalow about 2 rows off the beach that cost 300 baht/night or approximately 7.80 USD. Split between between 3 people that's about 2.60USD/night. Nothing too special really but not too shabby for less than 3 bucks a night.
The on-site restaurant here is pretty good as well but a bit more expensive than the last place I was staying. "Expensive" is all relative here. You have expensive in terms of the United States (and other Westernized countries) and expensive in terms of Thailand. Once you get used to the prices here you realize things can get expensive. Of course when I say expensive I mean 50 cents to a dollar more which when you think about it is quite irrelevant back home but when you're traveling for 3 months you begin to realize that a dollar here goes a long wa.y
Anyway, since the Full Moon Party I haven't really been doing much except sit on the beach, peel my horribly burned back and go swimming. Today finally intent on actually accomplishing something, the three of us took a long boat ride around the island all day and went to a couple different waterfalls, some really nice beaches and did a few hours of snorkeling as well. It was pretty good to finally see a bit more of the island instead of just the same two places. We also went to this beach called Bottle Beach (It's heavily advertised in the Lonely Planet guide) which was extremely nice. It's claim to fame is that it's only accessable by boat so it obviously wasn't very crowded compared to some of the other beaches here. The rest of the beaches I can't remember their names or if they even had names but rest assured they were all postcard material.
It's getting scary but the longer I stay here the less and less I want to go home. Not to say I don't want to ever go home but I feel like I should do a fair bit more traveling. What was originally supposed to be only a month when I planned this trip 6 months ago turned into 2 months; when I finally got here it turned into 3 months and even then I thought I was seriously stretching it beyond my limits. Now I am having serious thoughts about extending my trip to 6 months to a year. For the past 2 days i've been trying to work out the logistics in my head of me not being in the United States for 6 months. My biggest problems are my car payment, car insurance, and the fact that i've already been on a leave of absence from Salem State College for an entire year working.
The first problem realistically isn't bad. I can always have my mother take over the car insurance and car payments for a while since they're already in desperate need of a reliable car. My leave of absence from school presents a BIG problem. If I remember correctly, the maximum amount of time one can take a leave of absence from Salem State is one year. By September my one year will be up. If I don't enroll in classes by that time i'll be forcibly withdrawn from school which means I would need re-apply all over again and I believe I would start having to pay back my school loans immediately. Not very good. I am going to wait a few weeks and give my advisor a call and see if there is another solution.
From everyone i've spoken to, getting a job seems like the easy part. Teaching English in most places such as Thailand, Cambodia or Korea requires literally no experience or a degree. You get paid wages that are in essence much higher than the local population here because they're so desperately in need of English teachers. The other option I was exploring (the one I would most likely do) is catch a flight over to New Zealand and acquire what's called a Working Holiday Visa which would allow me to legally work in New Zealand for up to a year. Unfortunately, the United States is pretty much fucked over in regards to Working Holiday Visas but I assume it's because we do the same thing as well. It's reverse discrimination since it's almost impossible for lots of these countries to get working Visas here. Countries such as Canada, Australia, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Japan, Ireland, and Norway can easily acquire Working Holiday Visas which allow citizens of their respective countries to live and work there legally for up to 6 months to a year. Doing a small amount of research, the only country I could find that will grant a U.S. citizen a Working Holiday Visa is New Zealand. I would have prefered Australia but it would basically mean that I would need to illegaly work under the table.
That's pretty much what's on my mind right now. I have a shit load of pictures I need to post on here but the internet connection on this island is extremely slow and twice as expensive as the last place I went. I probably won't be uploading any pictures for a while. Tonight, we're heading into the Haad Rin which is the main place where people go on this island for nightlife and the home of the Full Moon Party to watch the English World Cup Match (soccer). Obviously, i'm not the world's greatest soccer/football fan if you know me but i've been trying to watch most of the games here because there is really nothing else to watch. So far they've been pretty entertaining to watch.
Photos of Ko Phangan
Here are some more photos. Most of them are Ko Phangan but the first 5 are from Ko Samui. Nothing to special just some sunsets taken from the ferry boat. Pictures of the bungalow I am staying at and more beaches.
Full Moon Party
Holy shit. So many people. I woke up this morning at 7AM; I passed out on the beach and slept there. All I remember is sitting down for a little while because I couldn't find any people in the group I was with. When I got up all I saw was empty buckets and bottles everywhere with hundreds of people passed out face down in the sand. I didn't really take anything with me so I wasn't worried about anything getting stolen. I left anything important back in my bungalow and just carried a small amount of cash that I would need for that night. When I woke up I still had all my money in my pocket and I still had my backpack.
The common drink is literally a bucket. It cost 150 baht (3.90 USD) or cheaper if you buy it off the beach and it gives a small bottle of sang som (thai) whiskey, a can of coke and a redbull with ice poured in a small bucket and served with multiple straws. Drink 2 of them and you'll be completely wasted. Hell, just one will do the trick for most people. Hell, you can even buy them pre-packaged at the 7-11 on the beach.
The best way I could describe the Full Moon Party is that it's like springbreak in Cancun but ten times crazier. The beach has mats everywhere where you can sit and drink but most people are dancing. The entire beach is one large dance floor on the sand. In the midst of all this madness there are also fire dancers performing everywhere. Lots of people also get their face or body painted. You see hundreds of people walking around with their countries' flag painted on them so you can tell where you're from. It's pretty wild. Biggest party i've been to. You can easily find girls. Lots of drunk people swimming. Even if you're not a party person it's definitely a must see if you visit Thailand. It happens every month on the full moon but there are also half moon and black moon parties. Since it's started to become really popular, pretty much any phase or alignment of the moon is used as an excuse to have a party. After everything is over, the entire small island of Ko Phangan turns to a ghost town and reverts back to a fishing village. The majority of the people don't even stay on the island too. They hop on one of the many ferries from Ko Samui (2 hours I think) and take the next ferry back in the morning.
Each bar/club on the beach plays different music. If you don't like rap walk in any other direction you'll be immersed in music from another bar completely oblivious to what's going on 50ft away from you. Rock, Reggie, Rap, Trace, House. If you're feeling a bit more adventurous, you can walk out into the water and swim out to one of the many boats that also serve alcohol.
They also had these massive projection screens on the beach that were being used to broadcast the World Cup. Apparently this Full Moon Party was pretty large due to the world cup.
Also, you need to be careful of broken bottles and burning cigarettes. Luckily, me nor any of my friends had any problems but you hear horror stories of people cutting their feet open on broken glass. You will almost certainly lose your sandals and step on at least 5 people passed out so don't bring any expensive clothing. It will either be lost or covered in paint and sand.
Overall, I had a pretty good time. I am still trying to get all the sand out of my hair though. I didn't take any pictures because I didn't want to bring my camera however some of my friends took plenty. Once they email them to me I will post them.
Huge storm on Ko Phangan
So far everything has been pretty good here on Ko Phangan. I am planning to stay for about a week and then I am heading to Ko Tao for some scuba diving. I am staying at a place called Or-Orawarn Bungalows which costs 500 baht (13usd)/night for the room. It's a simple wooden bungalow with 2 beds, a bathroom, shower and a fan. The view out my front porch overlooks the ocean and I can generally see the sunset. I am literally right on the beach. I didn't bother to get A/C this time because the breeze from the ocean keeps you quite cool at night. The only unfortunate downside to this place is the beach is too shallow to swim, it's all coral. Had this place had a good beach, it would be a gold mine. It's not a big deal however because the main beach is only a 10 minute bus/taxi ride. 30 Baht (.80 cents USD) to get there.
The food here is also excellent (and cheap) and the staff are extremely friendly. Last night we had an all you can eat BBQ that included chicken, beer, all sorts of spicy rice with vegetables and catfish on a stick. It was wild. Tasted really good. Basically the place has about 20 bungalows which are spread out all along the edges of the property. In the middle of the property, there is an open-air bar/restaurant with a canopy on top where everyone sort of congregates for food and entertainment. For the past 3 nights, i've just been sitting out on the patio drinking with people from all different countries and watching the World Cup (Soccer=Football). People from England, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Italy, Argentina, Germany, France, Holland, Australia, Israel, and of course me and another oddball from the United States. It's literally a microcosm of all different countries with English pretty much being the universal language that everyone understands.
Last night was insane. At about 7:00PM it started to get extremely windy. Looking out on the horizon you could clearly see that a MASSIVE storm front was coming. The whole entire sky was black, I mean pitch black. Literally about 15 minutes later came a massive down pour with hurricane force winds. Palm trees were uprooted. Since we were all sitting in an open air patio drinking and watching TV, the owners of the resort/bungalows quickly pulled and tied down all the shades which pretty much turned the open-air patio/restaurant into a make-swift tent.
At the same time as all of this, we lost power for approximately 4 hours on the entire island so we ate our BBQ by candle light and listened to someone's battery operated radio. 4 hours later the sky was clear and the electricity finally came back on. It was pretty much like camping. About 20 of us were just sitting inside a tent-type structure listening to the radio and eating while the tropical storm outside pounded the sides of the restaurant. It was a wild experience.
Today I sort of just slept on the beach and went swimming. I don't think i've ever had this dark of a tan. I'm going to be absolutely black when I come home in 3 months. Actually, it's funny I should mention this. To Thais, being dark-skinned or tan is a trait of a commoner or someone from the working/lower class. Thais can't understand our fascination with the sun or why we like "to be dark." It makes no sense to them. Most Thais aspire to be as white and pale as possible. Thai Teenager buy something called whitening cream to appear whiter. All Thai movie stars are generally extremely pale. To them being white (not tanned) means you are someone of high class that doesn't need to work. It's a status symbol. Being dark means you're a poor farmer from the country side.
Again, back to what I was doing all day. I did nothing. To quote one of my favorite movies (Office Space): "I did nothing and it was everything I thought it could be." 
. I'm just getting back from the beach and some shopping and it's about 8:3PM. I am going to take a nap for an hour or so and then head into Hat Rin Nok for one of the monthly full moon parties that everyone raves so much about. I'll update everyone tomorrow on how crazy it is. Supposed to be about 7,000-10,000 people on the one beach. When I left this afternoon they were putting out mats on the beach and setting up huge projection screens to broadcast the World Cut. This full moon party is supposed to be awesome because everyone is literally here to drink and watch the football game.
Anyway, I've heading off now. Oh yeah; I also bought a cellphone (It cost 45 USD) while I am in Thailand if anybody needs to reach me the number is 062779067. To dial a Thai phone number from the United States you need to dial 011 + 66 + 062779067. It actually doesn't cost me any money to receive incoming calls so you can call me all you want. Just check out much the long distance chargs are in the U.S. All incoming calls on my Thai cellphone are free and don't waste any of my minutes. I've got so many pictures I want to upload but it's going to take me a while so it might need to wait a few days.
