We chose to spend Christmas on Koh Phangan, a small island off the eastern coast of southern Thailand. To get there, we first took a night bus from Bangkok to Surat Thani. The bus station was really confusing at first, and it took a while before we were able to figure out where to go to get on the buses. We ran into some foreigners who were trying to find the place to buy tickets. We had gotten ours ahead of time, so we had no idea. I hope they found some :/ We had gotten there early, so we had some time to kill. The station had a kind of mall inside. Nothing really worth looking at, but it was something to do while we waited. At one point, I walked in a shoe store that sold Thai-looking sandals, and as I picked up a pair, the guy who worked in the store came up to me, and the first thing out of his mouth was, "We have big sizes, too." I put down the shoes and walked out.
We spent a good portion of our time wandering around in one of the many 7-elevens that was around at the train station. We bought some snacks for the bus ride and some toilet paper, as we had come to realize that there generally is none. When it was finally time to get on the bus, it turns out that the time that they say they will leave is more or less just a general estimate, not a schedule. Most of the time they want to make sure that the whole bus is full so that they can make as much money as possible, so we sat for about 30 minutes waiting for people to board the bus. Soon after we left the station, they started to play "Salt" as the in-bus-movie. It was terrible. Don't see it. I was able to sleep on and off. We made some random stops in the middle of the night, and they kept telling us it was time to go get food, but who wants to eat dinner at 4am?! I would rather they had just let me sleep. At one stop, I experienced Thai-style bathrooms for the first time. Those things are quite an adventure. In Japan, I'm used to seeing the squat toilets, and as disgusting as they usually are, they at least flush and work like regular toilets. Thai toilets, however..... They don't flush. There is usually a basin full of water next to the toilet with a bucket. You use the bucket to scoop some water into the toilet and it "flushes" that way. It's gross and I was traumatized.
Very early the next morning, we arrived at the ferry port. We got on the ferry, which seemed to be a retired Japanese ferry - the Japanese writing was still everywhere - and after a few hours we finally arrived at the island.
We hadn't been on dry land for more than a few minutes before it started:
"Hey! You want taxi!?"
"Where you go?!"
"You need hotel?!"
and so on.
We spotted a 7-eleven across the street, and ran for cover.
In the relative safety and quite of the convenience store, away from the tourist-hunting taxi drivers, we pulled out our map and the directions from the hotel. We were staying on a beach called Haad Yao, which was on the northwestern part of the island. It was a bit far away-too far to walk- so we found the phone number and called them and it turned out they had a free shuttle from the ferry port. They said they would meet us at the 7-eleven in about 20 minutes. While we waited, we had a few people come up to us and try to get us to their hotel/bungalow/taxi, but they left us alone after we said we had already called someone.
Soon, the taxi showed up. I use the term taxi very loosely. On the island of Koh Phangan, "taxi" means a pick-up truck. They have benches on either side of the bed in back, and a cover over top with some railings to hold onto. It was quite the bumpy ride, and it took about 20 minutes to get to the hotel. Once we got there, everything became wonderful.
The people working at the front desk were so nice, and not the "I want something from you" nice that we had previously experienced. The hotel was right on the beach and there was a really cute restaurant/bar that we had to walk through to get to the ocean. After having lunch at the nearby 7-eleven (even in the middle of nowhere, they're EVERYWHERE), we went out on the beach to relax and watch the sunset.
This is Christmas Day. On the beach. \(^o^)/
Christmas Day sunset.
For Christmas dinner, we decided to try the hotel restaurant. They had a sitting area sort of inside, with a bar, tables and chairs, and also a section with low tables with pillows to sit on and hammocks. We chose to sit in the more outside section, directly on the beach. We sat at one of the tables that had the pillows, but some of the other nights, we sat at tables with beach chairs that were 10 feet away from the water.
The bar area of the restaurant.
View of the tables on the beach (they're right in the sand!!) and the Christmas lights the employees put up.
Christmas dinner. Hot and sour soup, and chicken satay and mojitos.
Sometime during dinner, a bunch of the guys who worked there would perform fire dancing on the beach. Some of the guys were just learning, but a few of them were really good. They all had burns on their arms from practicing.
Fire dancers at dinner on the beach.
Basically, my entire time on the island consisted of waking up, eating breakfast, going to the beach, floating for a few hours on a cheap raft that I had bought, laying on the beach, lunch, maybe floating some more, watching the sunset, eating dinner, sitting on the beach some more, and sleep.
One night, I decided to get a $5 Thai massage, and it was so fantastic. Thai massages are supposed to be very painful, but I think they are more careful with tourists- they know we can't handle it.
Pretty much the most perfect 5 days ever.
We had some cloudy weather one day, so James and I decided to go into town to go shopping. I bought some really cheap dresses (although I think I overpaid for them- my bartering skills were still kind of shaky) and James got a book.
We were both getting hungry, so we decided to have lunch. We walked around for a little bit, trying to decide which restaurant was least expensive/least likely to make us sick. We decided to go in a small cafe. Right as we walked in, we were looking for a place to sit, and I saw something on the floor. I looked down at it, and it was a centipede. Or milipede. Whichever one is the giant poisonous one over 6 inches long and as big around as your pinky. I started freaking out, James ran over to it to take a picture, and the lady who worked at the restaurant just looked at it, completely unphased. It was an open cafe, so I suppose they get strange Thai bugs all the time. We found a seat as far away from the door as possible, checked the cushions to make sure nothing scary was hiding in them, and sat down. I had a delicious sandwich with feta cheese, bell peppers and olives on ciabatta, and then we headed back to the hotel. We got a taxi, and the guy made us sit in the back for 15 minutes while he tried to get more people. It was extremely annoying, and I was very close to getting out and finding another taxi, but he finally took us back.
Then we sat on the beach and had dinner and watched the sunset.
Our hotel had really good food, and it was really cheap, and we ate at the restaurant there everyday. They had an amazing Thai curry and spring rolls that I ordered almost every night. I love Thai curry, because it's made with coconut milk which gives it a very unique, very amazing flavor. It was very spicy, and I know it was toned down because it was made for a tourist resort. I think eating Thai curry at the spice level it's supposed to be would probably kill me. 
This is a sauce that usually comes with another Thai dish- Basil Chicken and Rice. The Basil Chicken is already enough to make you sweat, and I can't imagine what adding this would do.
After a perfect 5 days, we (very regretfully) caught another ferry/bus combo, leaving the island and onward to Hat Yai, where we would catch the plane heading towards our next destination: Kuala Lumpur.
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