Arrival in Koh Phangan

Happy New Year from Koh Phangan! I hope you all had a great celebration and are happy and grateful to experience the new year. I would love to tell you about a big New Year's Eve party in Surat Thani, but unfortunately there wasn't much going on except for a few fireworks and hardly any people. Too bad, but I was already so exhausted that I wouldn't have been up for a party anyway. However, my night was not very restful, but rather restless. Jet lag greets me - despite deep fatigue, I kept waking up briefly to think about how great it is to be alone on New Year's Eve ;) and then falling asleep again after a long sleepless period. I really sympathize with anyone who has trouble sleeping through the night. As a result, my whole next day was incredibly exhausting, it's always amazing how much sleep can affect you. However, even though I was tired, I had to get out of bed at 6:30 am because my host was so kind to drive me back to Surat Thani airport, from where the bus and ferry to Koh Phangan left at 8 o'clock. He greeted me with a homemade breakfast and was very proud that he was able to create such a Western meal. Normally, this is not my time to eat, but when I wanted to decline, he was deeply disappointed, so I just ate the meal that reminded me of home. The bus to the ferry port drove through southern Thailand for 90 minutes, I was pleasantly surprised by how green and beautiful the country is. The downside of the heavy rain is the high humidity, but the abundance of plants, which enables the tropical weather, is a huge advantage. After a short wait at the ferry port, the ferry took us to Koh Phangan for a 2.5 hour ride. It was a beautiful journey, where you could admire small islands in the sea and enjoy the breeze. Although the ferry rocked more than I have ever experienced on a ship, it was an exciting ride for me. The ferry was even equipped with sleeping seats, so it was easy to rest and catch up on sleep during the journey. However, being so tired sometimes brings up doubting thoughts: I am starting to realize that once again I will be alone on tour for one month. I have to handle everything by myself, manage everything alone, and make an effort to meet new people. On the one hand, I am really looking forward to it, but on the other hand, doubts sometimes arise as to why I have to put myself through this again and fears of being lonely. But if there's one thing I've learned recently, it's that everything always has two sides and even with the greatest joy of traveling, difficult moments can arise. Thankfully, when approaching Koh Phangan, the biggest doubts were gone: The island already looked beautiful from the ferry. So green, hilly, and the perfect size (not too big and not too small). And the adventure actually started right when I arrived on the island: The taxi to my hostel was an elderly lady driving a scooter. She took me and my 2 giant backpacks on her small scooter, it was incredible :D! With one backpack between her legs and one on my back, the adventure ride began (by the way, in left-hand traffic) across the island and we actually survived. On Koh Phangan, almost everyone rides a scooter, while there are hardly any cars. Riding a scooter on an island like this gives you such a great feeling of freedom, I'm already looking forward to renting my own. The hostel where I am initially staying is part of a beautiful bungalow complex. Bungalows are typical for Koh Phangan and most tourists who are not traveling on a tight budget stay in bungalows. However, I am sleeping in the only 12-bed room in this park. While on the one hand it is the most beautiful hostel I have ever stayed in (private swimming pool, great food, just 3 meters away from the not overcrowded beach), the 12-bed room will be a real challenge for me in tropical climate. When I arrived around 1:30 pm, most of my roommates were still in bed. Mostly English people who live up to the stereotype of drinking heavily here and spending the day hungover. When I asked if anyone wanted to go for a walk, hike, or visit another beach today, they looked at me like an alien. Drinking and relaxing on the hostel beach is more their travel motto. Too bad, I guess I'll have to go on a discovery tour alone or hope for other nice travelers. So far, there is only one other traveler in my room next to me, the rest are all men - I hope that will change soon :D. Other than that, Koh Phangan is great, it's not overcrowded with tourists at all. The beaches here are pretty empty, the streets and shops are quite original, and hardly anyone speaks English here. The weather is perfect, around 27 degrees Celsius, and surprisingly, there is not too much humidity on the island. You can go hiking here, relax and swim at numerous beaches, ride scooters, visit markets, and see more or less the original Thailand. For me, the difficult part is that there are actually no sidewalks along the roads. Thai people hardly walk, they all ride scooters. There are also no developed beach promenades or anything like that, so long walks or the jogging I love are rather difficult. Also, due to the language barrier, it is difficult to have intense contact with Thai people - they still seem unfriendly, annoyed, and rough to me. Well, who knows what we would be like with so many tourists. And you definitely have to give the Thai people credit for being really good cooks!!!! Everything is fresh, well seasoned, and very tasty! Fresh fruits are available everywhere, of course, plenty of rice, curry, soups, vegetables, and chicken. Here on Koh Phangan, there are fewer typical food stalls, but rather mini-restaurants. The prices here are higher than in non-touristy Surat Thani, but still okay. For about €2.50, you can eat until you're full and see the food being freshly prepared in the small open kitchens. While eating, you often have the company of stray dogs or cats - they come so close and some of them are quite aggressive, so I'm very grateful for my rabies vaccination ;) Well, now I've written a lot and I'm going to think about what I'll do here tomorrow while I take a walk on the beach at night. See you soon =)

P.S .: The internet here is unfortunately not very good again. Don't be surprised if pictures and text are not aligned, I will always upload pictures when I have good wifi.