Full Moon Party - Thailand

At the Full Moon Party - Kho Phangan

After returning to the mainland of Malaysia from the Perhentian islands we flew from Khota Bahru to one of the main 3 islands off the East coast of Thailand, Koh Samui. One night here was enough as it was very built up, tacky and expensive compared to Malaysia. Becky got food poisoning from a salad washed in local water - that will teach her to eat healthy food! So we made our way to the island of Koh Phangan in time for the legendary "Full Moon Party".

Buckets of joy

We were joined here by Fido, Reza and another friend of Holland's (From University), Cornish Andrew. The next 4-5 days were spent in a hedonistic daze. We discovered the local drink of Sam Sung which combined with concentrated Red Bull (about 100 times stronger than the one at home) in buckets of cola and ice kept us dancing on the beach all night - we named these insomnia inducing concoctions "Buckets of Joy".

Its hard to describe the full moon experience; gargantuan sound systems are lined up along the beach and every night the show commences with such attractions as all night dance parties, fire skipping rope, fire hoop jumping (which Holland did and burnt his leg, again!), fire dancing and snake shows (Holland held a poisonous, angry snake by its head while its body curled round his wrist trying to get free and bite him. The snake charmer got bitten and had to take anti-venom.)

In the day-time we hired mopeds and whizzed around the Northern beaches of the island which was fun, although as it was low-tide season the beaches weren't as spectacular as we had thought they would be. We also took a day snorkeling tip to Anthong reef. We snorkeled with some amazing corals, kayaked around dramatic island cliffs and hiked up to a green lake in the centre of an island, it was good to see beautiful Thailand rather than just party Thailand. We also discovered wonderful Thai massages for just 3 pounds each.

After the full moon party Reza and Fedo went back to Malaysia and we headed over with Andrew to Kho Tao for some R&R. Unfortunately our first hour here was spent trudging up and down looking for rooms in tropical heat with heavy backpacks but we finally found somewhere to stay and booked a snorkelling trip for the morning. The trip was great, perfect weather and we got to snorkel with sharks again, see some beautiful islands, coral and tropical fish as well as jumping off the high old boat that was our tour vessel for the day.

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The Perhentian Islands

Perhentian islands "long beach"

The next stop on our continuing adventures was the Perhentian islands off the North-East coast of Malaysia. With white sandy beaches, crystal clear water and hot hot sun the Perhentians were everything that paradise islands should be. Getting there however, was another matter, and the journey from the mainland was on a terrifyingly overcrowded speedboat with people hanging on to their bags and praying we wouldn't capsize everytime the boat swerved at high speed.

We stayed on the main backpacker area of Long Beach in a wooden beach hut with a fan to help cope with the intense heat, and a net to ward off the evil hordes of mozzies. The electricity switched off at 9am every morning when the hut immediately became a sauna. Not much fun on the mornings after nights out partying!

We spent a relaxing week swimming, snorkelling, sunbathing and eating, and on one particularly energetic day we really pushed the boat out and walked 15 mins across the island to the beach of Coral Bay.

One of the highlights of our time here was a fabulous snorkeling trip where we saw world class coral reefs (almost as good as the Barrier Reef in Oz) and swam with a huge Hawskbill turtle, loads of BIG black tip reef sharks and 2 enormous Napolean fish more than a metre long with giant lumps on their heads. We had a great day including lunch at the local fishing village where we met an Aussie couple (Joel and Tasha) who became our new buddies for the length of our stay. It was Joel's birthday so we got rather merry and then cursed in the morning when the fan went off and left us roasting like potatoes!
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The Cameron Highlands

Tea plantations

The Cameron Highlands sits in the centre of Malaysia and is one of the countries premier tea growing areas. The thought of all the yummy tea was enough to make us want to go. In Malaysia they have a drink called 'Teh Tarik' which is tea mixed with lots of sugar, cream and condensed milk. It is okay but we were craving the real stuff. On the way there we nearly missed the bus from KL but in true Malaysian style they radioed the already departed bus and it stopped and pulled over for us 300M down the road, even waiting while we got tandoori chicken and water for the journey.

Because of the high altitude (1500M) the Cameron highlands are much cooler than KL and the change in temperature was refreshing. At about midday, mist and clouds shroud the green mountains which surround the main town of Thana Rata. It's a beautiful sight which lasts for about an hour before the heavy afternoon rains come down.

During our stay we did a couple of self guided jungle walks and visited a tea plantation. The second walk we did lasted about 4 hours, the first few hours through the jungle were fine but as we ascended the last 4k to the Boh tea plantation in the midday sun the road seemed to go up and up and up and the walk nearly killed us. The ice tea and cake at the top were much needed. We then had a look around the Boh tea factory. The first thing to hit you as you walk in is the smell of fresh tea leaves being processed, a strong smell not unlike mown grass, then as you move through the factory the smell changes to dried tea smell we know from opening a packed at home. The factory was small and machines old, not what we expected from one of Malaysias biggest tea growers but apparently the machines that were installed in the 1920s are still amoung the best in the world for processing tea - if it ain't broke don't fix it seems to be the motto. It was great after so many years of drinking tea to finally see how it is made.