Ok, so the start off the craziest new years we have ever had it began with a 6 hour bus journey from Khon Kaen to Bangkok. This set us back
only 420 baht ( €10.50) for a VIP air con bus with reclining
massage chairs and food given to you every 2 hours, it had a touch
screen on the back of the chair in front with all the games and
movies you would get on a long haul flight , the company is Nakcorn Chai Air and we were advised it's the safest one to go by as the drivers are fined if they arrive to early, as it shows they were speeding. We arrived in Bangkok and
had to wait 12 more hours for our next bus which we had to get from
Bangkok to Chumpon, then a ferry from Chumpon for 2 hours to our
destination on the Island of Koh Tao. We booked into a hostel as we arrived in Bangkok at 1 am. This worked out well as we stayed on Koh San road, it was weird to see that many foreigners in one place, as in Khon Kaen you see a new Falang maybe once a week, in Koh San it was nothing but Falangs. But we did find an Irish restaurant which had full Irish breakfast with pudding and the sun newspaper - be it a week old. The fry was amazing and set us up for the day. We got a taxi to the bus station and the bus to the ferry. This is where the journey took
a nasty turn. We arrived at the ferry to find 100's of people waiting
to get across, we had paid for the bus and fairy totaling 8 hours
with a 2 hour wait in between at 5am, but alot of others had just turned up hoping to get a ticket to find them all sold out. It was new years weekend after all.
Then the Ferry arrived. We had noticed the water was a bit choppy and the catamaran held about 500 people, of that 500 I'd say at least
200 were violently sick due to the non stop bouncing of this huge
boat over massive waves big enough to splash onto the top deck where
we were sitting. A young Thai guy was handing out black sick bags and
there was Thai girls praying at the bottom of the steps. As most of
the people on board were heading to the festival a lot of them were
already drinking and in the party mood and somehow all the drinkers, bar one, was absolutely fine... so forget sea sickness tablets, just
get tanked before taking a boat ride. Hangovers not advised.
We had
met two friends in Bangkok who had put us onto the festival we were off to and were
travelling with us, one of them went downstairs on the boat to get
a more comfortable seat but staring at the horizon is suppose to
suppress sea sickness so we stayed up top, while down there he
witnessed a true pioneer of a man who had a Chang beer in one hand
and a sick bag in the other who was taken turns sipping and em.. well
you know in concession. This guy was not going to let a few waves
stop the start of his new years partying. :)
First thing we did on arrival was head up to the camp site to set
up our two person tent ( which we had brought with us after buying it
from Tesco for 300 baht ( €7). We had purchased the tickets at the
entrance but we'll give you a quick over view of the festival. Its
called the experience festival and its a trance/dance music festival,
costing 2500 baht (€55) for 6 days of camping and 4 nights 5 days
of non stop festival music that's on an island. Not bad deal.
The
island of only maybe 1300 people living there had to put up with it but
we were at the peak of the mountain in the middle of the island.
There was free shuttle bus taxis which later turned out to be just
4x4 jeeps that you would sit in the back, to climb the 60 degree hills for
about 5 minutes up to the festival grounds. They had over 50 Dj's who would
play the 4 day festival non stop.. yep non stop for the whole time
and DJ s from all around the world.
The camp site was only a few minute walk
from the chill out stage and a bit further from the main stage so
people would party the whole time in the festival and also in the
camp site, which made trying to sleep some times intolerable as our
tent would have 6 drunk french travelers stumbling close to our
tent and even falling into it the odd time.We had a word and they were happy to move away. We even ended up dinking with them the following night.
The forrest got packed out with tents and hammocks as some
backpackers had only brought clothes, money and a hammock which they
could set up on all the trees as it was warm enough at night to sleep under the stars. There was plenty of spaces between tents were we would sit and play music and having a drink before heading into the festival made for a good way to meet
some amazing people from around the world as they would just join us for a beer. Half the festival
goers would be going to bed at 5/6 am or they would be getting up to
party during the day with the amazing surrounding views of the
forrest and ocean, but we found it was to hot to drink and dance
during the day. I've had sun stroke before and I'm not a fan.
So the great thing is you could leave the festival anytime so during the day we would head to the beach for some swimming, relaxing and
some cocktails :). The beach was beautiful and being an island, it's
surrounded by them, so we found a lot of smaller secluded beaches to
hang out during the day with other festival goers who needed a break from the non stop partying.
When we first arrived, we checked out the dance floor as we had one night before the mayhem would start, some of the backpackers in our group decided to do some yoga on top of the mountain over looking the forrest and we joined in. I was in agony the next day from not having done stretches like this before and if you haven't tried yoga.. Its bloody tough and requires you to be very flexible and bendy,which I found out I wasn't. Kristine had it down though.
On new years night, we
were sitting on a mat on the sand covered dance floor at the Chill out stage . It was really laid back dance music from around the world and we spent the night cheersing a
guy from Zimbabwe and a guy from Bahrain as well as some other random nations. All 3 of us had never
met any one from either country before so it was an amazing experience.
Most people stayed up for the
sunset of the new years and shortly after then we made our way back to the tent. The place was very well set up and they had good shower facilities and toilets which where cleaned regularly. The place was covered in UV lights and they had amazing art work set up all around the site that came up pretty bright on the camera but it all looked amazing using the black lights to illuminate them..
They had a 3 bar set up and even a small area of stalls selling the usual festival foods from fruit shakes to burgers and chips and Thai food stalls of course and a coktail bar but it was a bit more pricey. Throughout the day and nights the place was full of performers with LED hoops, juggling acts, poi performers and people doing acrobatic yoga which is crazy to see. Everyone we met was very nice and there was no trouble at all.nothing like the Full moon party which can be too crowded at times.
This is the 6th year its been held there and they had police sitting at the entrance but this was all for show as they had been paid off and only there for any big trouble but it was a great atmosphere and they never had to lift a finger all week. Most times we would be going back to the camp site they would be sitting drinking beer and listening to the music. I cheersed them every time and they would smile back and raise their beers.
They had a chill out stage playing much lighter music which had a dance floor made of sand and at night it would be full of mats so we could grab some beers chill out while meeting other backpackers on the top of a mountain and stare at the amazing night sky of stars. This is were we would get chatting with people who had come their from all around the world for new years at this festival were as the main stage was more for dancing but also had some hammocks set up around the outside for flaking.
We
spent the last day on the beach and got together for a Sunday roast
in one of the bars which still had their Xmas decorations up so it
was kind of a christmas dinner but still doesn't compare to the one back
home (That's for you mam ☺). The beaches all had adjacent restaurants serving western food so we got our last few meals in before going back to a Thai diet in Khon Kaen which we started missing near the end.
We took the same journey back which I can tell you from the camp
site involved : A 4x4 back of the truck taxi down to the pier then
a 2 hour ferry to Chumpon followed by a 2 hour wait then a bus ride
for 6 hours to Bangkok with another 4 hour wait and finally 6 hour
bus back to Khon Kaen arriving at 7 am and feeling like we needed
another holiday to get over that one.
Happy days ,Kristine got all her paper work sorted for her working permit meaning she wont have to do border trips for a year so we have to
make a trip to Laos in the New Year to come back across the border for me and a trip tot he embassy there for her.. so we
will turn it into a small holiday for the two of us to relax and have some of Vientiane's famous French.,Indian and Turkish food.
