Lazy days in Koh Pha-Ngan

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  Koh Pha-Ngan, Thailand
Friday, November 24, 2006

It begins with a scary taxi ride to the ferry wharf. The minivan is packed with people heading to the island of Koh Pha-Ngan. The driver drives most of the way on the wrong side of the road, busily over taking slower traffic obeying the law. At times there were three abreast on a dual carriage road!
The ferry trip is a quick one on board a fast catamaran and we are in KP within 30 minutes. As usual, we decide that morning to stay at Rainbow Bungalows. We arrive to find that it is well run place right on the water (we chose well).
Our bungalow is new, clean and quite large all for 600Baht ($24 AUD). The couples who run it are Thai-Australian. Noy is wonderful cook and very welcoming host, her Australian Husband Martin, is a top bloke who keeps me updated on the cricket progress.
The GH has two cool dog Rex (head of security) is 10yr old German Shepard cross Rotti, and then there is Rollie (full Rotti) 2nd in command, and worthy successor to Rex's crown one day. Rollie is only a 4mth pup, yet almost as large as Barney (Erin's dog) he already weighed 26kg.
KP is a beautiful island and much more laid back then the "in your face" Koh Samui. Although during a full moon party it would be quite hectic. Our water frontage is great and there were some cracking sun sets from the beach/restaurant. The water is quite warm and you could literally walk near on 300 metres and still be in waist deep water.
Generally we did little on the island, just choosing to take some time to relax and read a book and eat. For those that know my reading habits (I have about 20 books that I have started reading and never finished), I actually finished a 300 page book in 2 days.
On our second day we decided to hire a scooter and head to the remote North of the island. Our mission was to catch up with Prue and her friend Anna, who were treating themselves to a relaxing spa resort (after their two month European travels). For those that don't know, Prue is a friend from OMD.
The mission itself seemed simple enough. Hire a scooter and ride up to Prue, only 15km away. Problem one. The road to the north of the island (well most of Koh Pha-Ngan) is unsealed and quite possibly one of the worst dirt roads ever. Problem two. The scooter we are given (125cc manual) is quite possibly the worst on the island. I had contemplated a 250cc dirt bike but a quick look at there condition and they were worse then the scooters (too many farang, thinking there valentine Rossi). I might just add that even the sealed roads (or I should say road, as there is only one sealed road from the west to the east of the island) are terrible, with concrete falling away from the edges. 10 years ago only a handful of cars inhabited Koh Pha-Ngan, now everyone seems to own one.
We set off and soon realise we are in for a serious ride, which will see us cover 15km's in the quick time of 45 minutes. Rossi would be proud! There were about three hills where the bike struggled to make it up with us both on (but it did), and two hills down the other side where Erin would get off and let me go it alone, in a classic open the throttle, close my eyes and pray that I don't go down (I didn't). To give you and idea the tyres on the scooter are no wider then a bicycle and the ruts in the dirt road are about 20-30 cm deep and running at many different angles. It is a ride a only for the experienced or the very brave.
We make it to the resort and meet up Prue. It is quite funny as the staff of the resort were all running around like little ants trying to inform Prue that her friend was here to see her and at the same time waving there hands at us. It is great to see Prudence and have a laugh! We go to a little restaurant on the beach and have a few cocktails and lunch. Prue and Anna shout us the lunch (thanks guys, very kind of you) whilst we share travel stories. We decide to begin our journey back as the sun is setting as we don't want to have to traverse this road in the dark.
We don't accomplish much more on the island other than to check Haad Rin (home of the full moon party) and have a spa treatment at a resort. Ez gets the works thai massage, facial and jaccuzi, while yours truly juts gets a thai massage and relaxes by the pool.
Time has come to leave KP and head to Koa Tao to go scuba diving............

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Our visit with Prue

Rainbow Bungalows

Sunset

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