South-East Asia

From Railay, we went to Ko Lanta, South of Krabi. We really fell into the off-season here, with probably 90% of all shops, restaurants and bars shut down. The beaches here are also not too impressive and do not live up to the expectations created by the ads we saw. So we were basically refined to our bungalow resort, lying on the pool, reading and watching movie channels the whole day, and eating in one of the two open restaurants - sometimes life is really hard on travelers

After four days of doing nothing substantial, we went to Ko Phangan, back to the Gulf of Thailand. Phangan is mainly known for its monthly Full Moon Parties, which have developed to an event that probably keeps the whole island alive, as there are not too much other attractions here and by beauty of its nature and beaches, Phangan can not compete with Phi Phi or neighbouring Tao.

The Full Moon Party itself is a big beach party, organized by ten or twelve bars that are close to Sunrise Beach. Each of them gets a couple of DJs for the big night, and there is some music for every taste in front of a nice beach background. Party goes on all night until late morning, and around 3 a.m. it gets interesting as adequate behavior starts to fall victim to alcohol abuse and people start fights about minor issues or pass out where they stand. The local clinical emergency service keeps a tent and a sleeping row on the beach, where the "dead" bodies are collected for overcoming their hangover and can be picked up by the less intoxicated, or crawl home when they feel fit enough.

It is amazing how quick the island empties after the party - we stayed one day longer and had the impression that it became really deserted. So we dared to rent a motorbike for some island excursion. Bad decision, as we had to find out. The island is very mountainous, and its roads are steep, with sharp curves and lot of sand and dirt. In addition, we got a weak motorcycle with the result that it actually simply stopped at some hill, and Vera had to walk to the top while I was driving at 5km per hour, merely keeping balance and definitely annoying the line of cars in my back. Add the scary road conditions, and we decided pretty quickly that its better to spend the day on the beach instead of taking unnecessary risks. Driving here is really dangerous, and everybody can rent a quad or a motorbike here for cheap money. You have a drunken crowd inexperienced on local road conditions driving at night, and as a rule without helmet just in shorts and flip flops. As a result, there are literally hundreds of people with the typical marks of road accidents - bad burns, abrasions, broken bones - and that are only those cases which already made it out of the hospital.
On the positive side, we found a good Nepalese tailor here and got a few excellent tailor-made suits, dresses and shirts for a really good price here, which were even delivered to our last stop, Ko Tao.