Happy New Year Kho Pang Ghang style

Being one of the last refuges for the ageing hippy, Kho Pang Ghang on New Years Eve ended up being very interesting for the quiet sociological observer. We decided to give Hadrin, sight of the full moon party, a wide berth and stayed in our quiet little village of Tong Nai Pan. The Doors and Bob Marley have been playing on loop here for the last 20 years, and the most popular restaurants have names like Rasta Bar, Jungle Bar or Mr handsome sandwiches. ( the Latter being the most delicious burgers everyone on the Island has ever eaten). This village is in a serious time warp, and some of the tourists here really should be studied. There are elderly Irish gangster types complete with pegasus tattoos and Thai girlfriends, the usual array of shaved head English hooligans, numerous impressionable types in Thai dye T shirts and purple pants but winner of the biggest weirdo award went to an almost fifty something American hippy who has been living in Pang Ghang man for 20 years and apparently used to be the Sound engineer for the Grateful Dead. That of course makes him a dead head or complete freak. In case you're unaware of the dead heads they follow the grateful dead around various desert locations in the States where thousands of people take lots of drugs and dance Native American style. In fact none of us are actually sure if the dead have ever actually released an album. None come to mind. My new friend also came with his two teenage sons, each of which seem to have a worrying dope habit. We had a lots of interesting conversations about "peace" brothers, and also the end of the world which if you havent heard is happenning in 2012. So in the words of my new hippy friends, lets party hard man only 6 years to go. Happy 2006 everyone