Drinking – ThePassportPrincess

Day 62 – Dubrovnik (Croatia)

October 17, 2015June 13, 2016Sarah1 Comment

Finally!
The sun came out for us on the Monday 🌞🌞
I remember waking up thinking I was going to have a big sleep in and then hearing splashes outside of the rest from the rest of the group jumping into the water.
I quickly decided it was time to cure my hangover with a jump into the clear blue water.
Even if it was freezing!

It was hair washing day as well, so it was a win – win haha

I was not a big fan of jumping off the boat. I had this fear of slipping on the wood and hitting my head or something.
I did it twice and both time I got water all up in my nasal passages because I didn’t block it with my fingers.
My ears kept getting blocked for the next 2 days and my nose would randomly drip water! Haha. Not a nice feeling.
It was fun though, and I’m glad I got in the water at least once on my sailing trip! 👙

Once everyone had got a bit of water on them, we had some lunch and headed off to Dubrovnik.
Along the way we also probably drunk a few too many 1L cocktails.

Dubrovnik ended up being one of my favourite places! (Maybe it was to do with the sunshine and the alcohol in me 🍸🍹)

I had signed up for a Buggy safari tour when we arrived and I’m so glad it was nice weather that it went ahead!
About 10 of us got picked up and driven to the top of Dubrovnik. We got helmeted up and partnered with someone else to drive these buggys.

I went driving first (dunno if it was the best idea after my cocktails) but it all went well and I had such a good time! I now want a buggy for myself and a big land of grass with rocks and mud to drive through on my weekends haha.

At one point something happened with our petrol so we had to stop, and a few of us got stuck every now and again but it was still really good. As it had been raining there was lots of mud that I wasn’t prepared to get so dirty!

We got to stop off at different places on the mountain and take pictures of the amazing views which was great!
It really made the experience so much cooler.

Eventually it was time to drive back to our starting point and head home. Not before quickly taking an ‘after’ photo of our muddiness though! 😁

When we got back to the boat, the people who weren’t doing the buggy safari that day were all out doing their own thing so I went and had a shower and got changed.
The rest of us met up later on and went in search of some dinner. We were so over boat food and eating pizza all the time that we just wanted a burger and some salad or something (really healthy I know)
We came across this great restaurant right across from where we’d docked and we all pretty much ordered burgers from there.
Also, it was cheap and the wi-fi was bloody fantastic haha 😂

I had never been so hungry for a burger in my life.

When everyone got back to the boat, we all started drinking and got ready for our night out in Dubrovnik.
I’m not going to lie, I had a pretty massive night. Bianca told me later on that even when I got on the bus I was drunk as anything (Soz Mum)

It may have had something to do with the 1L cocktails they have on the boat and having skulling competitions with Kyran all night. 😯😣

Anyways, we went to a club (which I obviously can’t remember the name of) and danced the night away.
There was a Busabout group there too (which is another sailing tour the same age as us) and I ended up making friends with them and doing a few shots and drinking more buckets.

Next minute, Sarah can’t get back into the club until her lovely tour manager gets her back in. Then proceeds to be sick in the toilet for the next hour. 😄
I’m good that when I drink I can pretty much remember everything.
Thank goodness for my lovely Sail Croatia friends who took my drunken self home. Until I spewed in the taxi too and got kicked out on the curb with the rest of them 😟

We thankfully got another taxi back to the boat after convincing the driver that I was fine.
When we arrived, we all sat outside the boat for awhile talking about our night (I may have tried to sleep on the beautiful Croatian marble ground) until I got told to go to bed 😁
At this stage I was just really tired. I’d spewed out all my drunkenness and felt heaps better.
That is until I went back to my cabin, got ready for bed and then proceeded to shut the cabin door WITH my thumb still in the door.
MY GOD. It was the most painful thing ever to happen to such a little part of my body.
I seriously cried like a newborn child. I knew my thumb wasn’t broken but it was swelling and I was sobbing 😭😭 so I ended up being taxi’d to the nearest hospital with my 2 girls Maddy & Millie (god bless them)

What a waste of time that was.
We waited for so long at a hospital that looked like NO ONE worked at. I got x-rays of my hand (Even though I told him I just wanted pain killers and for him to bandage it up) and waited even longer for I have no idea what.
They didn’t even give me painkillers. Just a bill for NZD $300 and wrapped my hand up all cute.

It doesn’t look so bad now, my nail is just black but the swelling has gone l down and I can move my thumb without wincing in pain.

What a day!
And looking back, it ended up being my favourite day/night out of the whole week 😀

Day 42 – New York to London

September 24, 2015November 30, 2016Sarah1 Comment

I was so wrong!
I take back my negativity about Iceland Air.
I judged before I experienced and for that I am sorry.

Yes that picture above is correct.
I was near the back of the plane but I got the whole row to myself!
I started talking to another girl across the aisle from me who had the same deal. She had the whole row to herself as well! When we realised that the flight attendants had ‘armed their doors’ and no one had sat next to us we were stoked.
Not to mention the whole flight was smooth and I happily watched a movie ‘The longest ride’ (one of my faves) and then had a nap.
I had 3 blankets as well and a bag of candy. Life was plane perfect!

Apart from not understand half of what the pilot and stewardesses were saying as they spoke Icelandic, it was a thoroughly enjoyable 6 hour flight to Iceland which went so fast.

I am so glad I could look out the window on take – off too. New York City at night was one of the most beautiful sights I’ve seen. It made me so happy inside to be able to see such a massive city all lit up!

And as usual, my camera didn’t do the night time shots any justice… :evil::evil:

When I arrived in Iceland around 7am, I just hung around the very basic airport they had going on. I think I just read a magazine and looked in their gift shop.
Thank god I wasn’t staying in Iceland because everything was so expensive! I didn’t even get a magnet because the cheapest one was $10 NZD
Even the tea towels were about $16 each!!

When it was time to board, I had to sit between 2 others which was fine. We all pretty much slept the 3 hours into London.

When I landed, I got my bag and dragged it to the ticket kiosk to get my Heathrow Express train ticket into London. I should have asked the attendants where the actual Heathrow express left from because I then spent the next 20 minutes going up and down the lifts at the airport trying to figure it out!
Eventually a guy could see I needed help and pointed me in the right direction.
Not gonna lie, the train was pretty nice for an airport train.

I got off at paddington and then bought an Oyster card to take the Underground train to my hostel.
It honestly sucks having no internet on your phone and having noo idea where you going.
When I got off at my station I walked off in the wrong direction of my hostel until I eventually figured it out and walked 15 minutes to Wombats Hostel on Dock street. 😧 by this stage my bag was killing me.

Once I’d checked in, I headed upstairs to my room (a really nice 6 bedroom dorm ) and pretty much flopped down onto my bed and chatted to my room mate Sheree for a little bit.
She was heading out so I had a shower, took out my contact lenses which were drying up on my eyeballs from the flight and then went for a 3 hour nap.

I woke around 6.30pm and dragged myself out of bed to head downstairs at the hostel to their bar area.
I’m glad I did because I met an American girl called Nicole who was really fun. We ate pizza and challenged everyone to games of beer pong. I also played some pool and drunk lots of cider (yay they have Cider in London!)
Overall it was a really fun night. I didn’t even get to sleep until the wee hours of the morning because of all the drinking and meeting new people.

I slept in until about 1pm in the afternoon the next day, I know – my first day in London ever and I’m having a big sleep.
But don’t worry, I did get to experience some London which I’ll write about in my next blog 🙂
Xx

Full Moon Party – Thailand

June 10, 2015May 9, 2016Sarah3 Comments

The Full Moon Party on Koh Phangan is probably the best party I’ve been to so far!

The idea of the party all started awhile back when a group of tourists found that to see the Full Moon at it’s best was in Koh Phanghan – so they arranged a party there on the beach of Haad Ri. Now it’s one of the biggest parties of the world with people from all over the country travelling to party it up! I did exactly that back in March 2013 with my friend Michelle.

We booked our accommodation before we arrived as it gets pretty booked up around Full Moon time on the Island. Don’t ever just turn up and expect to get some accommodation. Pretty much everything is booked out months in advance and the closer it gets to the parties, the more expensive it gets!
There’s a party pretty much every month so if you can arrange your travels around attending it, then be sure to do so!

Buri Beach Resort – Our resort for Full Moon Party

Christmas/New Years – You’ll be unlucky if you even book a couple of months in advance. My partner is going this year (2015) with his mates and they struggled to find some accommodation for New Years even though they started looking in April!
They also hike the prices up to an atrocious amount around New Years. What you’d usually pay for $40 a night at a hotel, you can be expected to pay upwards of $100 NZD at the same hotel. They also have a minimum number of nights you can stay at a hotel/resort/hostel.

How to get there:
To get to the Island, it’s about 30 minutes from Koh Samui by boat.

If you’re coming from Bangkok, you can get a 1 hour plane ride with Thai Airways or Bangkok Airways to Koh Samui and then get a boat from there.
There’s no airport on Koh Phangan so everyone takes the ferry. Round trip tickets cost about 600 Baht (NZD $24) and drop you off at the main pier of Koh Phangan.

During the party the ferries depart Koh Samui every hour over to Haad Rin. It’s useful if you can’t find accommodation on Koh Phangan so decide to stay in Koh Samui instead. We stayed on Koh Phangan but didn’t get back to our hotel until 8.30am in the morning so it was basically just a place to keep our stuff!
I think we stayed on Koh Phangan for about 3 nights. The first night we stayed, there was a ‘pre-full moon party’ which we went to. It’s a bit quieter than the actual Full Moon Party so we just went to the bars along the beach of Haad Rin to familiarize ourselves with everything and drunk a bit of alcohol.

On the actual day of the full moon party, everyone starts drinking in the afternoon (You don’t want to start too early incase you don’t make it!) and then everyone heads over to Haad Rin around 8-9pm. If you’re not staying close to the beach, just take a Tuk Tuk! We met 4 other guys staying at the same hotel as us so they took the tuk tuk with us. No need to book, just walk down the street and there’s bound to be a few!

You can walk around and drink, so be sure to buy some alcohol from your hotel beforehand. (It’s alot safer)
We all bought buckets from our hotel and took them to the party with us. If you don’t know what a bucket is, you’ll sure find out when in Thailand. – Basically a ton of alcohol mixed with juice/soda/energy drinks in a bucket with lots of straws.

They’re everywhere on Haad Rin. You can also buy them on the street and most hotels sell them as well.
If you go to buy a bucket and the place you’re getting it from looks a bit dodgy, don’t buy it!
I’ve heard that a lot of the spirits they sell on the street aren’t the safest to drink. (They buy the Smirnoff bottles but put their own unknown alcohol in it) So just be wary.
Also, if you buy alcohol away from the beach – it ends up being a lot cheaper than at the beach where the party is held. Just like at a festival back home, you pay double the amount when you’re inside.

Me looking really nice and sweaty in my over-sized I ❤ Phangan top

Be prepared also to sweat your ass off. I barely wore anything and I had to tie my hair up because it was just way too hot. The humidity really gets to you so be sure to drink plenty of water even though you’re drinking alcohol. Being hydrated will make you last longer throughout the night.
We all know however, that drinking lots has a massive effect on your bladder. I wasn’t an ocean-pee-er at the beginning of the party but by the end I was.
Michelle and I lined up for the most disgusting toilets on Haad Rin beach and had to pay for them as well!
There was basically just a lady at the front collecting 15 Baht from everyone (60c) and then letting us through to use the bathrooms.
These bathrooms were all blocked up and the floors were disgusting, it was dark, there were insects and the floor boards were lifting up with what I imagine to be other people’s waste. YUCK
Otherwise you can use the bathrooms in all the bars but you still have to pay. Even though they’re sliiiightly nicer.

In the end I just peed in the sea along with hundreds of other people. Defiantly don’t go swimming if you don’t need to. It’s warm for a reason…
UV Tattoos are lots of fun at Full Moon too. I hear you can just go buy some paint from the 7-11 and do it yourself but the guys that paint it on you do some seriously cool stuff so give it a try!
Don’t spend lots of money on it though. You’re going to sweat half of it off during the night.

The dreaded fire jump rope. DON’T DO IT!
You’ll see them all along the beach, people skipping over the jump rope of fire and jumping through hoops of flames. When you’re drunk it looks like a lot of fun and you feel invincible but when you get burnt, the last thing you want to do is go to the hospital and get bandages/antibiotics/creams etc… and be in pain for the rest of your trip. It happened to someone we met and he had to take antibiotics for the rest of his trip so his burns wouldn’t get infected.

What other tips can I give for the full moon party…

Wear Shoes – honestly, there’s so much crap littering the beach you really don’t want to stand on anything. Even if all you have is jandals (Flip-flops), wear them!
Take as little as possible. Don’t take your phone, you’ll most likely loose it and be gutted for the rest of your trip. Take a cheap camera to capture all your memories and some baht for all the drinks you’re going to buy.
Be safe – Have a meeting place (like a certain table outside a bar, or a tree somewhere) if you loose all your friends. Believe me, you’ll make new friends even if you loose yours.

Most importantly, HAVE FUN!
If you don’t travel often Full Moon is a once in a lifetime experience. You’re on a beach at night time with 10,000 other people all there for the same reason. To have an epic night!
Don’t be a dick and start fights/spike peoples drinks. There’s lots of drugs at the Full Moon Party and if you didn’t know, drugs are ILLEAL in Thailand. Undercover cops will try and sell you drugs at the Full Moon Party just so they can arrest you and you can pay upwards of NZD $1500 just for them to let you off.
If you’re still up at dawn, there’s ‘The After Party’ that you can go to, located on the beach-side in the village of Ban Tai. Several road signs indicated the way 🙂

The best time to go to the Full Moon Party is Any time!
From February to October, the temperature is of an average of 32 to 38 degrees, but from July till September it rains quite a bit. (Only for short periods of time though)
The climate is tropical so very humid all year round.

Before or after the Full Moon Party, there’s heaps of other stuff to do on the Koh Samui & Koh Phangan Islands so you can make the most of your trip. Apparently Koh Samui is the new ‘in’ place for tourists. It used to be Phuket which is just FULL of tourists, but now Koh Samui is rumored to be taking over.

I’ll write another post at some stage about the highlights of Koh Samui & Phangan 🙂

Let me know of your experiences of The Full Moon party if you’ve been!