8th of April, 2024.
Hitchhiking in Thailand: Koh Phangan
I walk for a while until I get to a suitable place for hitchhiking. The sun is very strong already, even being so early in the morning.
E. passes by me in his motorbike but then he comes back. He says he is early to work, so he can drop me off at the pier, and then come back to the resort where he works as a manager.
The first ferry to Koh Phangan, departing at 10.30, costs 250 THB. It is by a company called The Pier and it takes about one hour. I’m the first customer, as I arrive super early, hoping that there would be an earlier ferry.
In the tiny bathroom of the pier (even tinier if you consider the importance of Koh Samui to Thailand), I wash all my clothes and wash myself. I leave everything to dry, hanging by the metal bars of the pier, and leave also The Hulk by it, while I go to 7-Eleven to buy a yogurt and get some hot water.
After breakfast, I ask the ladies at the ferry counter if they can charge the battery of my camera for a while. If only I had thought of that earlier…
I have a nice and friendly moment chatting with the Thai guy responsible for directing all the passengers. We laugh.
I try to plan, carefully, how to be the first one to board on the ferry, so I could make sure I would have not only a god spot, but also that I would be able to finish charging my camera. Nowadays, you know, everybody is always charging their mobile phones. I don’t understand why they all don’t buy those external mobile battery, if they love to use their phones so much and at all times.
Anyway, my plan is almost successful… until I realize I forgot to take my charger and camera battery back. Well done, Lei! I get so angry at myself! What to do…?
I still manage to charge my battery but I have a very unpleasant moment with the lady working in the ferry. Well, you cannot really call it like that. It is actually a ridiculously small boat. She insists that I drop off my backpack immediately as I enter the boat, when all I really want to do first is to find the charger point to have my camera battery on going. But she’s rude and I have no other choice than just quickly dropping The Hulk down, and coming back later to sort it out things. Ironically, nobody else charges anything in this boat during the trip.
I feel like this is the first sign that Koh Phangan is not really my thing.
Thongsala Pier looks like a joke. And there’s also a lot of construction going on. There’s no free toilet, you must pay. I laugh.
The first beach I decide to visit in Koh Phangan is called Leela Beach. It is the last beach after Full Moon Party Beach, which I want so much to avoid. Leela Beach looks just like some of the other calm and peaceful beaches I’ve been hunting around Southern Thailand. Even for Koh Phangan standards.
But somewhere in the starts it was written that I was not supposed to visit Leela Beach. The most unexplainable thing happened, so I can only assume I was really not meant to see neither to camp in Leela.
What happened? I walk for quite a while through town, until finally getting to a decent hitchhiking spot. People look at me with strange, inquisitive eyes. More than usual, I mean…
A car stops. Saina, from Russia, and Leo from Ukraine, tell me they can take me until a little bit before Leela. It works for me! They are very friendly, and as both can speak English, we chat for the short distance that we drive together. Saina is very beautiful and she has got such strong Mongolian features, that I could never guess she is from Russia.
After they drop me off, I am picked up by another Russian lady, and she is such a lovely soul! Ievgeniia is a multi-task woman, who has been living in Thailand now and works with many different things, but mostly with projects management. We have so much in common! We talk about living a free life, doing what you love and what makes you happy; we also talk about human beings and what we are doing to ourselves, our souls, and our planet. It is so wonderful to have a great chat with someone so open mind and with whom you connect instantly. We chat all our way to Leelah Beach. Or at least that’s where I thought we were going. Anyway, she insists on driving me until where I want to go, even though it is passing her way. When we arrive, she gets out of the car, we hug, and I take my way to the beach.
It is a beautiful beach, I agree. It is long too and very spacious. But it is so crowded! There are lots of people lying down on the sand, there are many bars and restaurants, people are hanging around them, and I just cannot get it how and why it is so full. There are young people but also many different types of tourists. It was supposed to be a quiet and peaceful beach. Is it this how Koh Phangan is in general?
I get angry. Like really irritated. There only a few spots under the shade left, and it is near a restaurant / café or whatever. I drop off my stuff at it and ask at this place if I can use the bathroom just to change into my swimming suits. They are nice and say there’s no problem.
I take some photos. The sea looks gorgeous and some colorful fishing boats by the beach give a really nice touch to it. But I am still angry. I cannot enjoy myself in such crowded beach. It feels like everybody is looking at you.
By sunset I decide to leave. There’s no way I can / will camp here. My decision is to make camping somewhere on the way to my next destination, another beach called Bottle Beach.
I have directions of how to get from here to the Full Moon Party Beach, and from there to Bottle Beach. I start walking following my directions. I end up back to the same beach. What? Am I walking in circles? That just doesn’t make any sense. I try again, and this time I ask around how to get to the Full Moon Party Beach. They tell me and I follow their instructions. I end up, again, at the same beach I was just at, what I believed to be Leela Beach. No-fucking-way! This whole time, that crowded, annoyingly touristic beach where I was, it is actually the Full Moon Party Fricking Beach, and not Leela Beach. How the hell is that even possible? I myself put the directions in Ievgeniia’s phone, and she was following it since then. This is the worst karma ever!
At least that explains why this beach was so full. I feel so sorry for missing Leela Beach, mostly because it looks like a lovely beach, just my style. Perhaps it was simply not supposed to be.
I keep up with my plan but it is a hell of a walk to get outside town. I get a pad thai on my way.
The walk is not only long, it is hopeless. When the night comes, I end up among hills and valleys, unable to camp anywhere around here. To make it worse, the road is quite desert and not well illuminated, so I am assuming it will be hard to get a lift. Lift to where? Well, I believe that if I make out of this area, somewhere in the direction of my next destination, Bottle Beach, things might get “flatter”.
Two girls in a motorbike stop and ask if I need help, but when I explain to then the whole situation, they seem unable to help me. I don’t want to push, so I just say I will manage.
In a few minutes, a young man in his motorbike stops. He recognizes the name of the place I give to him, and says he can take me there. It is a short ride but even so he saves my life!
Once there, I talk with some ladies, but again, they don’t seem very eager to help me with a camping spot. I am sorry but I really cannot understand why some people are so afraid of helping a woman to camp somewhere. I do not look that scary.
I start walking again. I am almost dying and I can feel the blister growing bigger and bigger on my feet. I hear some women and kids’ voices, so I walk towards them.
Two small houses, connected by a wall, are not so far from the road. Sitting right in front of it, are three women and some kids. They cannot speak English but just my gestures they understand what I need, and promptly show me that I can put my tent by the grass, right in front of their houses. Yay!
They are family, and I don’t know where the men are. We are all girls here! Yes! I interact with one of the youngest kids, a lovely little girl, and she gives me some ice tea and candies. How sweet! And they also give me some water. People are so generous! It warms my heart, really! I make my camping in no time. The women ask me if I want some food, to what I answer by showing my pad thai. After eating, me and the little girl have our candies and soon enough I go to sleep.
Next morning I leave early, still in time to say goodbye to some of the ladies.
10 Years Around the World 