Merry Christmas!

PHOTO ALBUM - Ko Tao & Ko Pha-Ngan

We have taught ourselves this past week to do nothing.  And it has been great! 

After refresing our dive skills on Ko Tao, we took a ferry to the nearby Island of Ko Pha-Ngan, well known for the scandalous Full Moon party.  Every full moon a festival is held that attracts those in for a full night of partying, drinking, drugs, pool parties, bikini contests, etc.  Before you get too excited for an interesting blog story on that subject, we have to let you know that we are too old for that (except for maybe the bikini contests) and stayed far away.  The rest of Ko Pha-Ngan is very laid back and right up our alley.

For the past week and a half leading up to Christmas we have done not much more than laid on the beach, relaxed, read numerous books, and drank our fair share of fruit shakes and cheap Thai beer.

Bottle Beach on the northern side of Ko Pha-Ngan can only be accessed by Long Tail boat and is an ideal "cast-away" experience with inexpensive bungalows, white sand, and a good laid-back vibe.

Longtail Boat Ride to Bottle Beach

Bottle Beach

Since there was not great internet available on Bottle Beach - and we definitely wanted to spend time communicating with family over the holiday - we treated ourselves to a resort on Hat Nai Wok on the western side of the island for two nights over Christmas.  Turns out Becks Resort had two of the top-ten sunsets and the best pizza we've ever had.

Our Christmas Bungalow

Hat Nai Wok

Christmas Sunset

Well refreshed and enough beach time (for now) so we're leaving on an overnight ferry/bus to Bangkok tonight and then up to Northern Thailand for some temples, culture, trekking, and possibly a homestay.

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

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