Koh Phangan, Thailand

Stepping onto the bus to Surat Thani, we quickly realized why we avoided Phuket-proper.  The bus, which we instantly named “the party bus,” was filled with sunburnt bikini-wearing 20-year olds, shirtless Palestinian body builders in neon short shorts, and blaring club music (which would have been fine except it was 10AM and we had hoped to sleep on the five hour ride across the peninsula).  

We then sat for two hours in the scorching heat.  Next, we loaded onto a rickety school bus with drunk singing musicians before arriving to our overloaded party ferry (drunk college kids en route to the infamous full moon party).  Thankfully, Ken snuck us into the air conditioned VIP section of the ferry where we were spared the pre-party madness.

Landing in Koh Phangan, an island in the southern Gulf of Thailand, the entire mob headed east, while we taxied north to a secluded beach (and by “taxi” I mean a pickup truck with seats in the back... you know it’s a party island when all the taxis can be hosed down at the end of the night.)  Our ocean-view bungalow was perfect, that was until a rat climbed through our rafters (note to travelers: a bamboo-constructed bungalow is NOT the same as one made of concrete).  

We rented scooters and explored the west coast of the island (this is Ken at the “gas station”),

swam the picturesque waters,

and hiked to a water-less waterfall (dry season, I guess).

While 30,000 people danced the night away with glow sticks to techno music, our new years was low key as we opted to avoid the crowds and ring in 2012 on our quiet beach.  It’s going to be hard to top 2011--- what a memorable year!

Sold Hillary’s condo

Quit our jobs

Got married

Packed up our belongings and ...

Visited Hawaii, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Brazil, Italy, Belgium, Holland, Austria, Hungary, Turkey, Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda, India and Thailand