Island-Hopping, Temple Fair, and Full Moon Party

Island-hopping in the South with Belou!
Stephane’s friend, Belou, arrived in Phuket in mid-May and spent 2 ½ weeks with us. He brought his bicycle with him and we biked around the southern part of Thailand between the provinces of Phuket and Krabi. Swimming and island-hopping was “au rendezvous.” It didn’t take long to get down to business…half an hour after Belou’s plane landed, we were on a tranquil beach in a national park, swimming and snorkeling in the very warm turquoise sea.

The sun-drenched islands were calling us. So after visiting the markets and making a couple of small purchases for the bikes, we took a boat from Phuket to Koh Phi Phi, reputed to be not only one of the most beautiful Thai islands, but also one of the most beautiful in the world. The cliffs were breathtaking, and the sea magnificent. The sun set behind the cliffs in the evening and the moon shone above in the pink sky. A barbecue, music, and fire show on the beach welcomed us to the island. The following evening, we went to a Full Moon Party at the beachfront Hippies Bar, where fire-lit torches and colored lanterns in the trees gave off a warm glow.

We climbed up to Lookout Point and down a slippery, forested trail to the other side of the island, where we snorkeled among coral and colorful fish. We took a snorkeling tour, as well, stopping at several points, including the wonderful Monkey Bay and Shark Point, where I was one of the lucky ones who saw a shark.

From Koh Phi Phi, we took another boat to Krabi Town, the capital of Krabi province, which is known to have some of the best scenery in Thailand. The mountainous province has an extensive coastline, many beaches and bays, and about 150 tropical islands. Krabi’s waters used to be a favorite hideout for Asian pirates because of all the islands and water caves.

We used Krabi Town mainly as a base from which to explore the surrounding area. From Ao Nang, we took a long-tail boat across the bay to Phra-Nang and Rai-lay beaches, which presented a picture-perfect tropical paradise! The area is characterized by steep limestone cliffs with pocketed walls, overhangs, turquoise water, white beaches, the occasional hanging stalactite, and a view over nearby small islands that jut out of the sea. The still-pristine area is gorgeous. We spent four or five hours snorkeling, exploring caves and looking at the underwater life. Belou eventually traded in the water for his hammock, which he strung between two palms on the beach, near a couple of playful monkeys.

The tall cliff by the beach contains the Outer Princess Cave, said to be the home of a mythical sea princess – the spirit of an Indian princess whose ship sank 2300 years ago. Local fishermen place carved wooden phalli (up to 5 ft. long) in the cave as offerings to the Holy Princess so that she will provide them with plenty of fish!

We visited other islands and beaches in the area, all with exotic names and so picturesque as to be unreal. Our time with Belou was starting to fly by really fast on these islands, so we eventually got on our bikes and pedaled back to Phuket. On the way, we passed tropical jungles, cliffs, and floating houses. We stayed overnight in a temple and visited three national parks. The Than Bakkharani Park looked like it was straight out of a fairy tale, with its stepped waterfalls, cliffs, mountainous caves, tropical plants, vines, and palm trees that had leaves 30 ft. long that fell to the ground. A hike through Ao Phang-Nga National Park took us through the largest remaining primary mangrove forest in Thailand.

And before we knew it, we were back in Phuket again, and Belou was getting ready to fly back to France. The 2 ½ weeks that we spent with him had flown by too quickly. The parting at the airport was a sad one, but he promises to come see us next year with his whole family, so that gives us something to look forward to!

Teaching in Koh Yao
From Phuket, we decided to take a boat Koh Yao Island, found in Phang-Nga Bay between Phuket and Krabi. We hadn’t gone far on our tiny boat when the motor crapped out. We were stranded at sea! After swaying for 1 ½ hours in the wind and the rain, we were thankfully rescued. We transferred to another boat, and then we were on our way again.

The first thing we noticed on the island was a sign advertising a teaching and lodging exchange. In other words, in exchange for speaking to or teaching local junior high and high school students in English for 2-3 hours per day, we would get free lodging at the school bungalow. We set up a deal for three days – until the end of the school week. It was our first teaching experience, and I was a bit nervous, but the students in Thailand are very respectful of their teachers and elders.

We attended the annual student-teacher ceremony, in which the students pay respect to their teachers by presenting them with hand-made threaded flower garlands or sculpted fruit. All Thai students practice these arts starting at the age of 7! During the ceremony, the students got up one row at a time, walked in a single file line to the front of the gym, where the boys bowed and the girls curtsied – first in front of the Thai flag and then to a photo of the Thai king. Then they moved in front of the row of teachers, bowed in unison again, and on bended knees, presented their gifts with the wai (prayer-like gesture).

The experience was a good one and the local population extremely friendly – perhaps because they aren’t used to tourists. (There were only three other tourists, and they stayed on the other side of the island). When we would bike or walk down the street, greetings came from all sides: “Hello Sheri! Hello Stephane!” Or, from the girls, “Sheri, you’re so beautiful!”(The Thai people love fair skin!).

The temple fair at Koh Samui and the world-famous Full Moon Party
Our next island after Koh Yao was Koh Samui, Thailand’s largest island, located in the Gulf on the eastern coast. We biked to Krabi, and from there to Surat Thani, which smelled of rubber and smelly palm oil. From the first moment, it was obvious that this island experience would be different from that on Koh Yao. Hundreds of backpackers piled onto the ferry, testament to the explosion of tourism on Koh Samui since the first tourist set foot on the island in 1979.

We went to Koh Samui to visit Irwin, a Dutch cyclist that we had met in Istanbul last year. He’s been living there for the last six months, house-sitting and living the idyllic life with his Thai girlfriend, Kan, and white kitten, Dodo. We rented a bungalow on the beach next to him in the relatively quiet town of Mae-Nam, where we enjoyed a secluded beach and took a snorkeling and kayaking trip in a marine park.

But we saw the nightlife in the popular tourist town of Chaweng, too. It is a 3-km. long beach filled with tourist restaurants, upscale hotels and resorts, bars, Internet cafes, travel agencies, and dive shops, all piled up one on top of the other. All of the bars and clubs were teeming with young hookers in mini-skirts, teeny black tops, and towering high heels. They filled the streets, and many bars had more sex-workers than clients! We went club-hopping with Irwin and Kan, and though the music was bad, it was great fun. Still, it was a bit strange that the only Thais in the clubs were ladyboys, gay men, or young female hookers, either dancing and looking for rich foreign men or already sitting with fat and old men, looking bored.

Irwin and Kan took us to a village temple fair in Mae-Nam. Street vendors sold strange, unrecognizable parts of animals, fluorescent sweets, and juice in plastic bags. The locals played games and bingo. First we saw the famed “Muay Thai” boxing matches. It was a local affair, with boxing matches between contestants as young as 10 years old! The contestants start by performing a ritual in which they touch the corner posts, run their hands along the ropes in the ring in order to seal out spirits, and finally bow in the center of the ring. It is a custom to pay respect to the fighter’s parents, teachers, institution, the king, and other things he holds sacred. It is also done for protection and victory in competition. The matches are often held during festivals, and the contestants compete for monetary prizes (500 baht, or $12). The crowd gets quite worked up, and the contest is over when one contestant has clearly hurt the other more. Almost all of the matches ended when a player was knocked out. One poor guy was thrown to the ground perhaps 7 or 8 times, and had to be carried from the ring!

Kan performed brilliantly at the karaoke contest, and when I tell you that the Thais love their karaoke, I’m not kidding! There was a huge stage for the contestants, with stage-lighting and several accompanying female dancers…everything to make you feel like you’re a star!

We watched a dance performance and comedy skit at the fair. It was a distinctly Thai performance, with most of the performers being ladyboys (Ladyboys are boys who choose to become women. They dress like women and almost always use either hormone injections or breast implants, so that they become women up top and men down below. As both the Thai men and women are petite and have delicate features, it can be very difficult to distinguish a true woman from a ladyboy. To read more about the ladyboys of Thailand, click on the Journal entry entitled “Thailand’s Ladyboys.”). During the comedy skit with crude sexual pantomimes, the adults and children alike were in hysterics.

From Koh Samui, we took a boat to Koh Phangan for the famous (or infamous!) Full Moon Party. What a crazy scene! The small beach was crammed with over 5000 people, dancing to several huge sound systems blaring hip-hop, drum-and-bass, and trance music from beachfront bars. This was low season…during high season, there are supposed to be upwards of 10,000 party-goers dancing (or drinking!) their way through the night! I couldn’t imagine how it would be possible to squeeze twice as many people on the beach! And the drug scene of yore was now absent…only alcohol was left in its place. Most of it was served in buckets – whiskey, red bull, and coke. While some people danced, others passed out on the beach, looking half-dead. Despite the speakers being too close to one another, I still had a great time. But Stephane was disappointed. It was more like a huge open-air discotheque, and he had expected something along the lines of a rave party in France, in which the drugged-up ravers like piercings, tattoos, shaved heads, and hard-core techno.

We continued dancing until the cops broke everything up at 8:30, but the sunrise shed a whole new light on the scene, which looked a bit like a war zone. The seawater smell of urine, and bodies, buckets, and bottles lay scattered haphazardly on the beach.