It’s been a while since my last blog entry, the reason for this is I’m just too damn busy! Koh Phangan is world famous for it’s organised parties and this time of year there are a lot!

Just this week there has been the half moon, Shiva moon and moon set parties, tomorrow will be new years eve and then I think two days after that is the full moon party. So you can see, I have a pretty busy social schedule at the moment! And to be honest, if I have been out until sunrise I don’t get much done the next day, so my blog has suffered.

Here is a picture from the moon set party last night, it didn’t come out too well though, the flames actually say moon set party but not so clear in the picture I’m afraid.

Christmas here was very strange, in all the places I have been at Christmas time this place had the least festive feel of anywhere. Indeed, Christmas was just another day really, although I did make one slight concession and had a turkey dinner.

Tomorrow night I’m going to a private new years eve bash being put on by some of the long term residents of the island, rumour has it they are roasting a whole pig, this should be interesting to see!

So merry Christmas and a happy new year to you all!

Well here is my long promised blog entry about the food on the island. If you like Chinese food you can always find something you recognise on a menu, the original inhabitants of the island were mostly Chinese and it shows in the food. But the names are the only thing the dishes have in common with their counterparts found on your local take away menu.

There are also, obviously, strong Thai influences here, so you can find the usual Thai dishes here as well, the curries, spicy salads and tasty soups. And most restaurants serve a range of ‘farang’ food, so you can get a pretty decent English breakfast if that’s your thing.

Here is a picture of one of my favourite dishes from one of my favourite restaurants on the island. It’s just sweet and sour seafood with a plate of fried rice with seafood, but check it out, the presentation is astounding. It tastes delicious as well as looks good and costs £1.30!

A more traditional thing would be a Thai curry, they come in two basic varieties and each have two ways to cook them, you can have green or red curry and it can either be done in a bowl like soup or it can be fried so it looks something more like the curries you see down at your local curry house. Green curry shown below (not fried).

Before I came here I thought Thai food was going to be spicy, and to some degree it is, although I have never asked to have my food made with less chilli like a lot of the westerners do. I can only presume they tame the dishes down when they see a non-Thai person order, as I know I can’t eat the hottest food myself.

In summary, the food here is delicious, everything is cooked fresh when you order, the seafood is superb as most of the small restaurants in my area are owned by the families of fishermen, so it’s from boat to table if you eat at the right time of day. It’s also very cheap, on average a dish will cost around 60 Baht, that’s about 80 pence, some things like rice and noodles are much cheaper.

Another good way to eat is from one of the night markets and the numerous food stalls that you can find there. I’ll do a proper blog about that at some time.