2nd Week On Koh Chang, Tattoo And More Partying

Hello all again, my last blog finished after week 1 on Koh Chang, we pick it up again on Monday 31st October for my second week on Koh Chang.

Monday 31st October

After a quiet night the night before due to today being Halloween and of course more big parties I was feeling pretty good. I had stayed at Ellie's again at Siam for the 5th night in a row and we had decided that it would be cheaper for both of us if I shacked up with her, this also benefited me as it was right on the beach. So I headed back to Magic, packed up my stuff, checked out, paid up and headed for Ellie's Bungalow just off Lonely Beach at Siam Huts. We had lunch at Siam and i bumped into Lek who had designed my scaled down version of the tiger on his wall. It was amazing, all drawn free hand, I wanted it, it wasn't massive but still big. I paid him for the design and said that I wanted it, even though deep down i still wasn't 100% sure, he said to come back the following day at 2pm and he would make a start, it would take around 6-7 hours! I hadn't taken it in when he first told me but later i thought 'shit!!! that's a long time!' However I had always wanted a tiger and this was the 1st I had seen which i thought 'I really want it', I decided 100% I'd get it done the next day. The rest of the day I chilled on the beach and swam as I wouldn't be able to for a few days after my tattoo. That evening we met in Magic Garden for dinner, which was strange, the whole time i had been there, not once had I eaten there. Myself, Ellie, Jazzy, Christina and the French guys met at 8pm, had a great meal, with most of us taking Thai chicken green curry, apart from Ellie who is a veggie and then headed to Siam for the big Halloween party. I knew it was going to be a messy one, i had already started on the sangsom buckets in Magic, I think i was in strange mood and wanting to get wasted. That was soon to be proved, at Siam the buckets flowed freely, i remember dancing around the beach dance floor at around 2am, the next thing i know I am waking up in bed with Ellie only just getting in at 6am!!

Tuesday 1st November

I got up still drunk and headed to Siam, it was now empty apart from a few party goers who had fell asleep there and others still drinking. I don't know what possessed me but i ordered another beer, clearly still drunk and not really knowing what had happened. I left the drink after only a couple of sips and headed for bed. I woke later at midday and still felt drunk, it turned out that i was in such a state at the party that Ellie had to put me to bed, I have no recollection of this at all, along with a number of things which people had pleasure in telling me throughout the day. I met Lek at 2pm, to my delight he had hurt his hand the night before and said could i come back on Friday, that was fine by me and gave me more time to decide whether i really wanted it. The rest of the day i almost hung my head in shame, I had embarrassed myself and upset a couple of people with my actions, I know my limits but for some reason the night before I had gone far beyond them. I laid low for the rest of the day and obviously didn't drink at all!!

Wednesday 2nd November

Today myself and Ellie headed for Whitesand beach. We hired a scooter and drove the 20KM or so in the midday heat, it was a hot, hot day and even the breeze hitting us as we rode was warm. Whitesands pretty much the Costa brava of Koh Chang, with go, go bars and old western men with their young Thai girls that they had probably picked up in Pattaya and had been talked into a few days away on Koh Chang. The beach was really only accessible by resorts as they all backed onto the beach, they were up market and definitely not for backpackers or even flashpackers. The only reason we were here was that Ellie was getting a tattoo from a well known tattooist who specialised in Thai writing, she was getting a well know Thai proverb. It would only take 1hr 30mins, I waited for her and took photos, as well as watching another great sunset. We headed back to lonely, on the way stopping at an Indian restaurant (there wasn't one in Lonely) as we both really fancied it. It was run by an Indian couple from Delhi and it was good. On arrival back at lonely i had a text from Nicholas advising of a party at Paradise Cottage's, which was just past Magic Gardens. I was cautious about drinking again especially after my last eventful night, of course this thought soon was lost. We all met in Stone Free for a couple first before heading to Paradise as the french guys had gone early and said it was dead, well of course, it was only 8pm!!! We left stone free at 11ish and headed for Paradise Cottages, it certainly wasn't dead now. It was a great setting and buckets of vodka and lemonade were on offer, these actually tasted good. For a change we bought one bucket at a time at passed it around, rather than having 2 or 3 on the go at once. Myself, Ellie, Christina, Dani and Gabrielle (american guy who we had bumped into a few times) who had joined us and the french guys partied hard to the early hours. Pierre worked his magic tonight and ended up pulling a rather good looking if not pastie polish girl, their lips were stuck together all night like 2 teenagers at a school disco!!! nice one Pierre!!!

Thursday 3rd November

Sunset View from Siam Huts

As I hadn't stayed out too late the night before or got in a drunken stupor i awoke feeling not too bad. However my body was really telling me now that I had to stop drinking. Even though I hadn't a date for when I was going to leave I had already booked accommodation for the full moon party on Koh Phangan on the 7th for 5 days on 'Hat Hin Beach'. The full moon was on the 10th but all the hostels, due to it being Full moon week required a min 5 day stay. The french guys, Ellie, Dani and Christina where all up for coming with me. So on this I cancelled my reservation, meaning that I no longer needed to be there for the 7th. That said koh Phangan was on the other side of where we were and it would take a whole day to get there, so we all agreed we would keep the 7th as the day we would leave. I was starting to think in the back of my mind that the Full Moon party might be a bad idea this time, I had already spent more than I wanted in firstly OZ and now in Thailand and I knew that koh Phangnan would be a very drunken, messy affair. I would think about it for a few days. Today I chilled on  the beach and swam, we ate together on the evening and then headed for a bar called 'Ting Tong', no drinking tonight but there was a live band on, they were pretty good and then best live act I had seen since being on Koh Chang. The following day would be 'tattoo' day, I was nervous, I loved the design, that wasn't the issue but it was where I was going to have it? top of my back on the left or right or bottom, left or right or bang in the middle. Ellie had placed the design on my back in various places and Nicholas had taken photo's, I couldn't decide between top left and middle of my back underneath my Japanese symbols, the others had indifferent opinions, I guess I would have to wait until he stenciled it on but I think top left was going to be my choice.

Friday 4th October

After a relaxing day the day before and not a drop of alcohol I was feeling good. Myself and Ellie went for Breakfast at a place called 'Joy'. A rustic, quirky old place, much like many of the restaurants and bars in Lonely it was a perfect chill out place and served good food. The french guys, Christina, myself and Ellie had arranged a scooter ride to the other side of the Island to see a couple of waterfalls, we were meeting at Siam at 10:30. While in 'joy' we bumped into Gabrielle and Dani and we invited them along also. I had arranged with Lek that i would be at his tattoo parlour at 4pm, so this gave us plenty of time. we didnt leave until gone 11am, the sun was beating down probably in the mid 30's and with various stop along the way for pictures, water and cash we arrived at the south east of the island just after 12:30. We found a roadside local Thai restaurant where we all had meals for 30BHT, less than 80p. After a longish lunch we set off to find the 1st waterfall, already 13:45 I was starting to worry about the time and getting back for 4. Even between 8 of us we got lost a number of times to the waterfall but finally found it. I figured leaving at 3pm would give me enough time to get back shower and meet Lek. However this wasn't the case we found the start of the waterfall walk and we started to climb into the jungle after 15mins we came to a dead end and had to come back by now it was 14:30, they had found another path but not knowing how far the waterfall was away. I decided that i was going to head back to Lonely, this meant unfortunately Ellie had to come back also, which i felt bad about but there was no other way of her getting back unless she did a '3 up' with 2 of the other guys, not a wise idea. So we left with Ellie driving, it had been flat on this side of the Island and even though she had ridden before she had preferred to negotiate the steep and tight corners on the west side of the island, so we would swap over before we came to those sections. As we got to the west of the Island everything was going smooth, it had crossed my mind we should swap soon but didn't say anything, we came to a real steep section with some 90 degree turns, as we climbed the hill there was a sharp left and then right still climbing, Ellie slowed down and instead of just turning and then accelerating after the corner she panicked and thought we were going to stop so accelerated, I calmly shouted to slow which she did and turned to get back on our side, however there then was a tight right, by now I think she had just lost concentration and accelerated towards the left heading straight for a 4ft ditch, I shouted, stop, stop with my feet now off the foot rests and she let go of the throttle but we had momentum, she turned hard right and next thing we were both on gravel floor with the bike on top of us, I slid from under it and quickly picked up the bike up, we weren't in the middle of the road but if 2 cars tried to pass at the same time at this spot they wouldn't be able to. We were lucky that no cars were behind or more importantly coming the other way, as we had veered across onto the other lane. Neither of us were badly hurt, only both our right sides had grazes on the arms, legs and ankles, Ellie I think taking most of the impact, now sporting a rather large gash on her right arm, she was clearly mad with herself and upset, I assured it was all good and neither of us badly hurt, which was more than could be said for the bike, the front right panel was all scratched, the indicator light pushed in and the front mud guard also with paint scratched off, it was going to cost us!!! We headed back bruised and a little shaken, we got back just before 4pm and I showered. I was now feeling really nervous especially at the thought of laying on my front for 6 hours.

1st Session, outline and Bamboo Shading

I met Lek who made some final adjustments to the design, he stencilled it on the top left of my back, it looked good. Lek started just after 4.30, i was told that bamboo tattoo's hurt less than the machine ones, I have to strongly disagree, the first hour or so went smoothly and only now and again did I feel in pain, we took a couple of 10min breaks and after 2 hours all the outline of the tiger and bamboo was complete. we then took 20mins break were i grabbed a beer with Ellie, who had been watching and taking photo's. After the break it was time for shading of the bamboo, this was pretty painful and thankfully being laid on my front with head turned away from Lek, he couldn't see me wincing. After 3.5hrs it was gone 8pm, the bamboo was finished, all to do now was the shading of the tiger stripes, we decided to call it a day and carry on tomorrow at 2pm for another 2.5hrs. I was already impressed, there was no bleeding and it looked great. I was even more impressed at the precision and detail of the work, especially given it was done by hand, i thought I had it rough, i cant imagine how Lek's hand was feeling. That night there was a party at Siam.. AGAIN!! The now, newly named 'bucket club' were all out but apart from Pierre and Christina no one was really up for partying and we had a reasonably early one hitting the sack at 2am.

Saturday 5th October

Today was decision day, myself and the French guys met for breakfast to discuss getting over to Koh Tao and Koh Phangan for the full moon party. Ellie had been waiting for a couple of friends to contact her that were coming over from her home city in Switzerland. They had been planning to come over and see her for a while as Ellie lived in Bangkok and also like many others had escaped to koh Chang after the floods hit. she was unlikely to becoming with us. We discussed various options of getting over to the other side, most having to go via Bangkok. It was here i realised that i wasn't that bothered in the Full Moon party, I had already partied enough over the last 2 weeks and the fact i only had 11 days left on my visa and i wanted to see the North also, Chaing Mai. Chaing Rai and Pae, I broke the news to the french guys that I wasn't going to go to the Full Moon or even South of Thailand this time around. what i did know was that I needed to get of the Island of koh Chang, I had loved my time here, made some great friends and had sooo much fun but I needed to move on. Everyone was the same, the french guys were still going to go south, Christina had left the previous day to do a visa run into Cambodia and Ellie was still unsure but thought she might go to koh Samet for a few days. After speaking to her we decided that we would leave the following day for Koh Samet. I would stay a few days before heading North to Chaing Mai. We found a travel stand and booked a minivan for the following day to Koh Samet, for 500BHT it included Ferry back to mainland from Chang, bus to Rayong where we would then get the ferry across to Koh Samet. After returning the scooter and having to pay 1500BHT, which to be honest was a lot less than we thought it would be I headed to Siam for the second part of my tattoo.

2nd Session Tiger shading

Well i got to say this was 2.5 hrs of pure pain but in the end it was all worth it, after just over 2hrs it was finished, if I thought the half finished version yesterday was good then the finished article was amazing, I couldn't believe the detail, I was chuffed to bits with it and have no regrets in getting it done and for £150 it was probably half the price i would have paid back home. That night was a quite one, we met up with the french guys for a farewell final dinner and chilled out, no one was up for partying and I think all a little sad to be leaving each other and not going to the full moon.

Me and Lek 

So after 2 great weeks, where I have made some great friends, partied like there was no tomorrow, got a new tattoo and experienced my first and hopefully last scooter accident I leave Koh Chang. After only meaning to stay a max 3-4 days, I really love Koh Chang, Lonely beach is a perfect spot for sea, sand, food and of course partying. The only thing is, its too easy to party, with something going on most nights at one of the many bars/clubs, its very hard not to party every night. There is plenty to do on the island as well as day trips to other islands and snorkeling. The sunsets from Lonely beach are the best I have ever seen and its a perfect spot. I was eager to get out in the end but only because I had overstayed my time there, now looking back i have some great memories and for sure if in Thailand again, will revisit Koh Chang.

Lastly I want to give a big shout out to all the great people i met on Koh Chang who I had so much fun with and who I am sure I will stay in touch with... Ellie, Jazzy, Camille, Pierre, Nicholas, Christina, Gay Dave, Guy, Carl, Dani, Gabrielle and Tomi, Kim, Will, Lyn.

End Result!! Amazing