Phuket = Disgusting. Koh Pan'gnan = Awesome

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From Koh Phi Phi, I hoped on a boat for a 2 hour amazing boat ride from Koh Phi Phi to Phuket Town. Watching the cliffs of Koh Phi Phi fade away in the distance, the wind at my back and the sun in my face, it was the most beautiful boat ride of my trip.

We arrived in Phuket Town and headed for Patong Beach which was suppose to be where all the action was.

It was awful.

We arrived in the evening and began to explore the nightlife. Let me paint you a picture of the nightlife in Patong in 1 sentence:

Fat, dirty old white men chasing after 20 year old Thai prostitutes. There are more prostitutes than there are tourists in the this area. Aside from prostitutes, there are go go girls dancing all over the place as well as women soliciting ping-pong shows, fire shows, banana, tennis ball, and all kinds of rediculous shows you could possibly think of... to give you an idea of what these "shows" are, let's just say that they all involve one particular part of the female anatomy... enough said. And they, tried selling to our female friends as hard as they tried to sell us...creepy.

There was no backpacker scene and no decent bar to have a beer and chill out. It was like a dirty version of a Thai Vegas. We stayed 2 evenings, 1 full day and got the heck out of there.

We took a bus from Phuket to Surat Thani on the opposite coast and then a really cool overnight boat to Koh Pan'gnan, one of 3 islands off the south East coast of Thailand. The larger one was suppose to echo Phuket so we skipped it altogether and headed straight for the one that is famous for its "Full Moon and Half-Moon" Parties. Full Moon happens once a month on Full moon (duh) and same goes for half-moon. Unfortunately our timing was a bit off and we arrived in the middle of both and it was pretty low key. Still, the main tourists are backpackers so we met some cool people and have been really enjoying ourselves. We rented mopeds the last two days and toured the island. When I say "we", I mean Arnold and I the dutch dude. Our Aussie friend Toni decided to stay behind in Phuket (I know what you're thinking, but it wasnt because of that...). We plan to stick around until half-moon party on the 26th (which is in the jungle!!! woohoo!!) and then either head to the smaller of the 3 islands called Koh Tao (divers paradise) or head back to the mainland.

The beaches on this island are the nicest I have seen but the scenery isnt as nice as Koh Phi Phi. I will be posting pics soon of my trip thus far.

Pat