January 7th, 2014 | Uncategorized
Being halfway around the world already, I figured I might as well travel a little bit further for a unique christmas break vacation. One of my best friends from childhood, Josh, is spending the winter working on Koh Phangan, an island off mainland Thailand. He’s spent the last few years working in China and, having never made it out for a visit, I thought this would be a great opportunity to do so.
While getting there was less than enjoyable (8 hour flight from Dublin to Abu Dhabi, a 14 hour layover, followed by another 6 hour flight to Bangkok) the break couldn’t have gone any better. Spent time with old friends from Toronto, met some of Josh’s friends who were also visiting, and met some cool random people through my travels around the country. It was my first time really traveling alone and it was definitely a learning experience.. but almost everyone I met along the way were great.
New Years in Koh Phangan was an experience as well. The island’s population hovers around 12,000 for most of the year… but during the high season for tourists it gets jacked up closer to 40,000+. We heard that, conservatively, there were 30,000 people on the beach for the island’s big NYE event. Needless to say it was an interesting night. Most importantly though, it was amazing to spend the night with a great group of friends.
After a long, lonnnnng return trip, I got back to the UUJ campus early yesterday morning, dead tired but satisfied with a great trip. Now it’s time to get back into the swing of things up here. Time to finish up the semester strong during this exam period and move on to second semester. I’m sure the start of 2014 will be just as great as the end of 2013 was.
