The morning after the buckets, beach swim and Burger King, 13 of us meet for breakfast on the beach, as the boys have organised a charter boat to take us from Koh Samui to some of the surrounding islands. Despite some hangovers masquerading as seasickness, we relish the beautiful weather, fresh air, stunning island scenery and ice cold beers. On Mae Koh island, we climb several hundred vertical ladder-steps to reach the lookout, and stop for a swim on the way back to the boat. The swim is cut short after an official from the island chases us, furiously yelling something in Thai. Numerous hand gestures and concerned looks later, he manages, “Ahh I can’t think of word. Ahh…shnakes? Shea shnakes!” Everyone makes it safely back over the barrier, and we all agree it’s a 10/10 day. Until the swells on the way home.
I nervously laugh the first few times the speed boat flies into the air and slams down again, knocking the wind out of us. The Thai boat driver doesn’t look at all concerned, but the ride back to Samui becomes less and less fun for the passengers (well, for me, anyway). When we hit another massive wave, I sustain my first battle-scar of the trip, in the form of a 20cmx20cm bruise in twenty shades of purple on my ribs as I fly off my seat and slam onto the floor of the boat. Nothing a Tiger or two can’t fix though. One for the ribs, one for me.
The next day is New Year’s Eve, and I meet up with Hanna for a traditional Thai breakfast of eggs Benedict and a flat white. We spend the majority of the day haggling for jewellery, and finalising fluoro outfits for the evening ahead – the Full Moon Party (even though it’s not technically a full moon tonight) on Koh Phangan. Tim arrives from Phuket in the afternoon, and we have pre-drinks in Emily and Chris’s room, followed by a moonlit dinner overlooking Koh Samui beach and posing for a host of photos capturing the 18 of us in the brightest hues of yellow, green, pink and orange. For another 20 Baht, we’re decorated in fluorescent paint to match the garish outfits, and board the boat bound for Phangan. A little Dutch courage (in the form of a Smirnoff strawpedo) is required for me to board another speed boat after the bruising incident of the previous day, but I brave the waters and the ride goes off without a hitch.
I nervously laugh the first few times the speed boat flies into the air and slams down again, knocking the wind out of us. The Thai boat driver doesn’t look at all concerned, but the ride back to Samui becomes less and less fun for the passengers (well, for me, anyway). When we hit another massive wave, I sustain my first battle-scar of the trip, in the form of a 20cmx20cm bruise in twenty shades of purple on my ribs as I fly off my seat and slam onto the floor of the boat. Nothing a Tiger or two can’t fix though. One for the ribs, one for me.
The next day is New Year’s Eve, and I meet up with Hanna for a traditional Thai breakfast of eggs Benedict and a flat white. We spend the majority of the day haggling for jewellery, and finalising fluoro outfits for the evening ahead – the Full Moon Party (even though it’s not technically a full moon tonight) on Koh Phangan. Tim arrives from Phuket in the afternoon, and we have pre-drinks in Emily and Chris’s room, followed by a moonlit dinner overlooking Koh Samui beach and posing for a host of photos capturing the 18 of us in the brightest hues of yellow, green, pink and orange. For another 20 Baht, we’re decorated in fluorescent paint to match the garish outfits, and board the boat bound for Phangan. A little Dutch courage (in the form of a Smirnoff strawpedo) is required for me to board another speed boat after the bruising incident of the previous day, but I brave the waters and the ride goes off without a hitch.
We meet up with Hanna and her friends and spend the evening at Cactus Bar – very reminiscent of our Otago days, with plenty of cheap drinks, broken glass, sticky floors, the latest Katy Perry and Lady Gaga tunes on repeat. There are a few minor hitches later in the evening, including a couple of hospitalisations; some friends of our party have their bucket spiked, and one of our crew falls on the cactus bushes adorning the entrance to the bar, requiring cactus needles to be extracted from her hands. The Koh Phangan Hospital is conveniently the only medical centre on the island and charges an arm and a leg (8000 Baht) for treatment, so there’ll be some sizable travel insurance claims when we all make it home – fortunately not on my part…yet.
I make an early-ish exit at 2am, thanks to Tim indulging in one too many buckets; he’s dangerously close to not making it back to Koh Samui, so I enlist the help of Anth and Gab to help me drag him back to the ferry terminal. We source a burger to sober him up, but he promptly regurgitates it as soon as we get it down him (ungrateful bastard). Miraculously, we make it back to Ark Bar in one piece, and after his initial resistance to come home early, Tim declares his love for all of us and repeatedly thanks us for the favour (not so ungrateful, after all). The early departure saves me from a hangover the next day, and all in all, it’s a super night –everything you’d expect (or not expect) from a Red Bull and vodka bucket-fuelled party on a small island with 20,000 fluorescent-clad backpackers.
As good fortune would have it, the remainder of our party safely make their way back to Koh Samui, with the last ones rolling in on the 7am speed boat and the 10am one-and-a-half-hour slow ferry – a truly painful experience, I’m told. We succumb to a Coffee Club brunch, bid farewell and go our separate ways for the next leg of the journey - most of the group are off to other areas of South East Asia, while Pete and I are making our way to India. This has so far been the greatest holiday I’ve ever been on, and we’re only up to day 6 of 59. The next 53 days have big shoes to fill.
I make an early-ish exit at 2am, thanks to Tim indulging in one too many buckets; he’s dangerously close to not making it back to Koh Samui, so I enlist the help of Anth and Gab to help me drag him back to the ferry terminal. We source a burger to sober him up, but he promptly regurgitates it as soon as we get it down him (ungrateful bastard). Miraculously, we make it back to Ark Bar in one piece, and after his initial resistance to come home early, Tim declares his love for all of us and repeatedly thanks us for the favour (not so ungrateful, after all). The early departure saves me from a hangover the next day, and all in all, it’s a super night –everything you’d expect (or not expect) from a Red Bull and vodka bucket-fuelled party on a small island with 20,000 fluorescent-clad backpackers.
As good fortune would have it, the remainder of our party safely make their way back to Koh Samui, with the last ones rolling in on the 7am speed boat and the 10am one-and-a-half-hour slow ferry – a truly painful experience, I’m told. We succumb to a Coffee Club brunch, bid farewell and go our separate ways for the next leg of the journey - most of the group are off to other areas of South East Asia, while Pete and I are making our way to India. This has so far been the greatest holiday I’ve ever been on, and we’re only up to day 6 of 59. The next 53 days have big shoes to fill.
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