I've been slacking on the blogging these days...life is just so darned relaxed! I've been on the beach in Ko Pan Ngan for a week and it feels like only a moment.
The trip down south from Chiang Mai was a bit epic. I took the night train to Bangkok, then the day train to Surat Thani. The train actually arrives in Phu Phin, so was a pick-up truck taxi into Surat Thani. After a very welcome night's sleep, I got back on another bus to the ferry terminal. After a three-hour ferry ride and another pick-up truck taxi, I was squishing the sand between my toes just 48 hours since I left Chiang Mai.
Along the way, I met Kofi, a Canadian-Jamaican artist, former jock and part-time Rasta-man. He is Zen personified - the perfect person for me to meet coming out of my meditation retreat! We've spent many chilled out days on the beach, slowly sipping our pineapple juices, really tasting our food and feeling the moments. We're on the west coast of Ko Pan Ngan at Haad Yao beach, which is a good distance away from the bustling main tourist town of Haad Rin.
Ko Pan Ngan is famous for its full moon parties when thousands (sometimes tens of thousands) of travellers descend on Haad Rin for a drug-infested, all-night, rock-out dance party. I purposely avoided Full Mooning and arrived a week after the monthly party to find Haad Yao very quiet and relaxed. There are lots of couples and families, very few hawkers on the beach, and lots of seafood restos and massage huts.
The days go by both slow and quick: we've had leisurely breakfasts and nice swims in the morning when the tide is high. The water is that classic aquamarine that you see in movies and magazines, framed by palm trees. I've never been to a more beautiful beach. Afternoons have usually been nap-time for me, or a chance to continue reading my excellent book in the hammock. Evenings we settled down with a Chang beer or a Mai Tai to watch the sun go down and eat lovely food on the beach by candlelight and starlight. My favourite is spicy papaya salad, with peanuts and shrimp and drizzled with a sweet/salty/sour dressing of lime juice, fish sauce, garlic, etc. The weather is consistently sunny, with the occasional down-pour of hot rain. This place must be paradise because it is amazing even when it rains.
We rented a motorbike one day, which was the great extent of our activities. I realized that I hadn't left this little strip of beach in five days so it was good to get out and see the island. It doesn't take long to drive the length of the island and mostly you see the same thing: gorgeous beaches, mountains covered in lush palm trees, relaxed and happy people.
There's not much more to report. Thailand has been the perfect dénouement to my travels around South East Asia. I head to Malaysia tomorrow, on my way south back to Singapore. Hopefully I'll have more exciting things to write about next time! Lots of love to everyone back home.
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