The Islands

Location: Kho Phangan (Haadrin beach)
Country: Thailand

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My apologies for not updating the blog last week, the Internet in the islands is really expensive, and seeing as I have been concentrating my energies on doing nothing, there really isn’t much to tell.
I spent a few pleasant days in Bangkok, even venturing around the city a bit, the shopping malls there are just unbelievable. I don’t know about Thailand being a 3rd world country, they look Israel look like one.
The shopping malls are huge and so modern looking, and there are just so many of them around. I went to one that had 7 floors of electric appliances; I was dizzy when I came out of there.
In Bangkok I met quite a few people that I had met during my trip, was very nice to see some of them, seems like everyone ends up in Thailand eventually.

From Bangkok I headed down to the Islands, decided to go to Kho Phangan.
When I was in Thailand last time, I came to this Island and stayed on Haadrin beach, which is the party beach where the fullmoon party takes place. I heard that it had changed a lot and become like a small town. I also did not fancy going there as it was a week before the fullmoon and I knew that it would be packed with people.
I wasn’t really sure which beach I was heading for.
On the ferry on the way to the Island I met this nice English guy – Sadler, and was chatting to him, he said that he was going to Thong Nai Pan Yai beach, it sounded good, so I let him know that I would be following him.
In all, the trip to the beach from the island ended up taking about 20 hours, was quite exhausting.
The beach was really nice, huts all along the front with nice restaurants around and a bit of a night life (though not much).

The weather has not been perfect, as it should be this time of year, have had some cloudy and rainy days, but seems to be getting better all the time and last few days have been lovely and sunny.
I stayed at Thong Nai Pan Yai beach for about a week and a half, ended up spending most of my time with Sadler (nothing romantic, too big an age gap). We got on really well, he’s a great guy.

My days were spent on the beach, reading, chatting, eating and playing cards. Can’t complain.

After Sadler left and a noisy construction site suddenly appeared outside my room, I decided that it was time to move on.
Even though I knew that Haadrin beach would be nothing like I remember and rather developed, I wanted to see it.
I arrived today and was quite shocked by what I found; there is not one thing that I recognized. There actually is one club that I remember from last time, but the only thing that is the same is the name (The Cactus), it is completely different.
I have about a week left in the islands, and I think I’ll spend it here. Even though it is very developed, it seems quite pleasant, and I can hang out watching films in the restaurants when I’m not at the beach, catch up on current movies a bit.