Maxin Relaxin Not Too Taxin

Posted by Danae

I was pleasantly surprised when we woke up to see that the bungalows we are staying at (Morning Star) looked very sweet in the light of day, all clustered around a pool overlooking the beach at Baan Tai. I hadn’t been able to appreciate the true beauty of our surroundings last night, when we arrived in the dark and I was feeling very crochety from the very, very long travel and going to bed on an empty stomach (sadly, the kitchen was closing just as we arrived).

We decided to go for breakfast in the “city”, closest to the main beach, which is not far away by vehicle – about 15 to 20 minutes drive, in the opposite direction to the ferry stop from last night (Thong Sala). We found a decent-looking place and Chris dined on fried rice while the rest of us had yummy omelettes. Surprisingly, I’m not sick of eggs yet despite eating them in some shape or form for nearly every meal.

We then went for an explore at the main beach, where the Full Moon Party was to be held, called Haad Rin, or Sunset Beach. I went for a quick dip in the ocean, which was very shallow even a fair way out, and enjoyed the gorgeous scenery of rocky cliffs overlooking the beach. There weren’t many people on the beach in the morning, but by the afternoon it was pretty busy.

It having hit about quarter to 12, the time seemed right for an alcoholic beveridge or 2, so we went looking for a beach bar. Unfortunately for us not much was open yet (most of the bars don’t open until around 2pm, recovering from the celebrations of each night which usually flow until the wee hours) but we eventually found a nice looking venue overlooking the picturesque scenery. Naturally, Heidi and I had some sort of delicious cocktail (I think it was a banana shake with vodka in it – ohhhhh yeah!) and Chris and Ryan unsurprisingly had more of the Changs. After that, I was keen for some massage and shopping, and managed to coax Heidi into getting a massage too. We had a very relaxing Swedish oil massage each at a nearby massage place, in airconditioned comfort. The place was very nicely set-up; even the towels were arranged like swans on the massage beds (they took the swans down during the massage, though – otherwise I expect would be a bit pointy to lie on). It was a pity to walk back into the humidity and the heat, but things rapidly improved when we went shopping and I bought 2 sundresses for about $8 AUD each. Meanwhile, the boys had met a pair of brothers from the UK and had beers with them.

We met up with the boys, at which point Chris decided he’d had enough of Ryan again and wanted to spend the QT with me, so off we wandered in our respective couples only to come face to face with each other about a block away. Doh. Anyway, off we wandered again and Chris and I had lunch at the Drop Inn Restaurant & Bar, a Scandinavian/Thai joint (and the apparent hub of / original Full Moon Party bar) that served some pretty delicious chicken, bacon and lettuce sandwiches and cheap vodka and red bulls.

Back to the beach for some relaxing (I thought) but unfortunately my peace was interrupted when Chris decided it would be a great idea to hire a jetski for 20 minutes. It was the longest 20 minutes of my life, and I was quite relieved when the owner raised his red flag from the beach to indicate the ride was over. Chris was a very good rider but it didn’t stop me from being scared. I hung on for dear life whilst meanwhile Chris had the time of his life.

Later that night we headed over to the other side of Koh Phangan to the Pirates Bar, as we had heard that this is shaped like a pirates’ ship on the side of a hill overlooking the sea, and apparently in high tide becomes half surrounded in water. But when we arrived sadly the place was just shutting down for the night (it was about 7pm) as the owners were going out to dinner with their friends. It didn’t look as good as the reports anyway. None too impressed, we headed back down the road and found a very chilled out place called The Freeway Bar. The place had a very cool ambience about it, with groovy tunes playing and you sat on cushions on the floor at low tables, and an impressive water feature (a mini waterfall behind us, and we were sitting on an elevated platform with a little moat of water between us and the rest of the place, with goldfish swimming around). Ryan appeared to have become completely plastered at some point between our bungalow accommodation and the bar, probably something to do with caining tallies all afternoon including a roadie. Heidi was having a hard time trying to prop him up like in Weekend at Bernies and stop him from falling in the water feature.

We had some more delicious cocktails, and chicken and cashew nut and pad thai dishes (some of our best yet). We’d ordered two of the chicken and cashew nut dishes, but only one came out originally - this was fortunate, though, because the serves were massive. Just as we were feeling full, the second dish suddenly made an appearance and we of course had to eat that as well. A bit of a struggle but well worth it in deliciousness.

After several drinks, we decided to call it a night. Ryan had his stubby cooler (the one he’d brought for the roadie) on his hand and was pretending it was a puppet, so we knew that it was time to go home. Taxis/pickup trucks were pretty few and far between at this time of night on this part of the island, so we weren’t in much of a position to barter about the fares (not that this stopped Ryan who was intent on haggling about a 20-cent difference until Heidi took control). Soon though, we were home in bed exhausted after a very fun day.