Sunrise Owls

For the first 4 days on this island, the wind has not been suitable for Kite Surfing. But on the 5th day, the wind picked up just enough to be able to begin kite surfing lessons. For those of you that don’t know what kite surfing is, in the sky is a kite that resembles a parachute, tied down to the waist of the rider with a control bar at the hands, with the rider having a wakeboard at the feet.

This area in Koh Phangan is the perfect learning ground for kite surfing because of the long shallow water beach protected by a reef and consistent eastern winds passing between the islands of Koh Phangan and Koh Samoi. Conditions couldn’t be more perfect for beginners.

At the first lesson, I spent 3 hours learning how to set up the kite, bring it into the air, and manipulate the kite left, right, up, down. Then power moves and more kite control. Yes, it took all 3 hours to learn. It is not intuitive, but it is effortless once done properly. The right way. What a thrill to get in touch with the ocean winds. Feeling the strength of the air and harness it with a kite. Gliding up and down the shoreline.

Next lesson is getting the board under my feet and riding the oceans waters. Unfortunately, the second lesson did not unfold as we hoped. The winds were quite slow. Despite setting up all the equipment and the instructor catching a gust of wind, nature had other plans and we had to call the lesson off.

Party Island

When researching for the trip, Lexi did not realize quite how large the Full Moon Party is here (claimed to be the largest beach party in the world) and just how much it influences the island.

We made it out to just one of the larger pre-parties, the “Waterfall Festival” hosted two days before and after every Full Moon. We are now ruined for American festivals! $60 USD each covered the cost of attendance, taxis to and from our accommodation up the steep dirt roads, and our first drink. The venue had four stages, endless fire twirling performers, and even a natural swimming pool! The sheer amount of petrol that must be imported to facilitate hours of day-in-day-out fire performance is mind boggling. Chris’ mind was bending backwards over safety concerns everywhere 😅

The Full Moon Party itself was a much larger, louder affair that attracted a different crowd — the crowd that guzzled cocktails exclusively made in plastic sand buckets and turned the shoreline into a free men’s bathroom…here each beach bar sought to out-compete another for the loudest music, the coolest sign, the most outrageous entertainers all bundled up right next to each other on the beach front.

We had the most fun painting each other with fluorescent art and even stayed up until sunrise (cloudy as it was…for a full moon party, the moonlight sure hid from us all night!)

Traveling is not an escape from reality — Lexi had been fighting a cold since our first few days on the island and at the end of the full moon morning, chipped her back tooth on a piece of pizza of all things! We are now keeping an eye out for a good dentist once we make it off the islands. Hopefully Chris can escape her germs!

We also learned about understandably mixed feelings on the island about the heavy party tourism — it’s been a boon for economic development, but late night beats are disrupting locals’ sleep and even carrying into morning classrooms. Many ex-pats appear to be running accommodations and government officials are known as the “taxi mafia” which does raise many questions about who is actually benefitting from these arrangements.

Everything Else

We also had a fun visit to the weekly Saturday Night Market in Thongsala, which was absolutely packed!

What’s Next

We are leaving this island and headed by speedboat to Angthong National Marine Park where we’ll be one of a few (or perhaps the only) people to spend an overnight on the main island.