So long 2017...Hello 2018!
- Vincent Perez
- Jan 14, 2018
- 5 min read
Where has the time gone? It seems like just yesterday I was in California, Texas, Nevada, Colombia, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, or even Malaysia. 2017 has come and gone and as I am sitting here reflecting on all of the places that I have been to in 2017, it's all the places that I still haven't been to that keeps me wanting more in 2018! 2017 might have been my favorite year of life. It was filled with so much joy, excitement, adventure, and most importantly, fun! I never wanted 2017 to end. I know it has been a while since I last wrote a piece, so I will do my best to summarize the last 3 or so weeks of my 2017....
December was a crazy, fun, and a very expensive month! I started December off by visiting the ever so popular island of Phi Phi! It was a relaxing time and the views were incredible but my time on the island was ruined by some monotonous individuals that really hampered my mood. I got to visit the famous Maya Bay beach, snorkel in the Pileh Lagoon, see an old viking cave, and watch the sunset out on the Andaman Sea.
The very next weekend I ended up meeting my friend Brogan (who lives in Bangkok) in Pattaya. We spent one night exploring the city (and by city I mean beach blvd and walking street). That's right, we pretty much stayed on one street, but if you have ever been to Pattaya, it's really the only street that matters. Think of it as Las Vegas Blvd but a fraction of the size and subtract the huge buildings and hotels as well and that is walking street! All you need to know is that it is super fun and we had ourselves a fun night. (end scene).
The next weekend, I had a friend come visit me all the way from California. Yes, it's the same friend that I went to South America and Las Vegas with this past summer. I met Aaron at the airport in Bangkok early Friday morning at 3 am. We were picked up by a former foreign exchange student of Aaron's. His name is Benz, well his nickname is Benz because Thai people have ridiculously long names. And well, of course he picked us up in a....2017 Mercedes Benz! Coincidence?! He's a doctor, like a real doctor, a dermatologist to be exact. Super nice and very laid back guy. He showed us around Bangkok, introduced us to his family, and paid for EVERYTHING! It must be a Thai thing to pay for their guests because I see that a lot. Anyways, he booked Aaron a suite at a very nice hotel and since I was visiting for the weekend, I decided to crash there as well. Benz showed Aaron around Bangkok during the day and well, I showed Aaron around Bangkok at night. He got the best of both worlds and we had ourselves a fun time in Bangkok. Aaron got to see the huge shopping malls, night markets, some museums, watch a Muy Thai fight, and of course visited the famous Khao San Road. Benz was even nice enough to take us two hours away to the famous floating market of Damnoen Saduak! It was really cool and something I got to check off the bucket list. That Sunday night I had to go back to my hometown of Rayong because I had work on Christmas day, but I was going to meet up with Aaron again on that Wednesday as we would be flying to our next destination: Surat Thani!
Fast forward to Thursday.....
We arrive in Surat Thani and make our way to the island of Koh Phagnan, known for the famous full moon parties! This is what I dragged Aaron into; this is why he flew thousands of miles across the world! I heard about the full moon party from my friend Ross, who I had met a few months back in Malaysia, and he told me about how epic and wild the parties were. So I researched a bit online about the party and as soon as I watched one video, I thought, "yup, we are going!". So here we are. I'm going to skip the small talk and just get right into it. Friday night (two days before New Years Eve) was the also-so-famous Jungle Party! It is where you hop on a songthaew (Thai taxi) and they take you into the jungle and just drop you off. From there, you just follow the music until you reach the dance floor. This night was probably the most fun that I have ever had in Thailand. We met loads of people and this super cool guy from San Francisco named Daniel. It was a wild and epic night, one night that I will never forget.
Fast Forward to New Years Eve....
The New Years Eve/Full moon party was INSANE! That's about the only word to describe it. 40,000 people all on Haad Rin beach ready to have fun and let loose. The unfortunate part was that I broke my Iphone 6 while I was in Phi Phi and had to settle for an Iphone 5. Aaron has an Iphone 5, which means we took absolutely zero photos on New Years Eve because both our cameras take lousy pictures. So we had to resort by asking random strangers (aka girls) to take our photos and send them to us. That's not creepy, right? Anyways, it worked and we got a few girls to send us photos of ourselves so that we could remember the night, because duh, it's New Years of course we wouldn't remember! So the next morning I wake up and I have this, "Dude, where am I moment?". I get up, gather my thoughts a moment and realize that I had slept at my friend Dan's bungalow. But of course I didn't sleep in a bed! No, no, no. I slept on the cement outside the bungalow. But get this, it wasn't even Dan's bungalow that I slept outside of. I slept outside some random persons bungalow on the ground. Don't know how I ended up there or why for that matter. So I wake up and I can't walk. My foot is bleeding, my elbow is bleeding, my knee is bleeding, and my back is bleeding. Again, no idea what the hell happened to me. My guess is that I got ran over by a motorcycle and fell on the ground because I couldn't even move my foot let alone walk on it. I thought I had broken my foot (I got x-rays on my foot and it turns out it was just severely sprained). I get back to my hostel where everyone is at and they all asked me the same question, "What the hell happened to you?" My answer to everyone was this, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
2018 got off to a rocky start but at least I didn't lose my phone or my wallet, so it was a successful night and a night that I will vaguely remember. The one downfall that I regret was not being able to scuba dive in Ko Tao. It was priority number 1 for Aaron and I but unfortunately for him we weren't able to go. I still have time to scuba dive in Thailand before I head back to the states. That will be priority number 1 for me whichever island I go to next.
That weekend was some of the most fun that I have ever had and I'm glad that I got to do it with one of my childhood friends and end 2017 with a bang! I highly recommend attending at least one full moon party and jungle party if you get the chance to visit Koh Phagnan, it is just an experience in itself. and surprisingly, there is so much more to do on the island than just party, so you get the best of both worlds!
2017, you were great to me and I wish you didn't have to go. But here's to 2018 and best of luck trying to top 2017, you're going to need it.
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