Welcome to our Newsletter...
You'll find here some information about events that will take place this year on Koh Phangan and Thailand

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How Lucky you are all you that are on Summer Holiday in Koh Phangan, for August !

First of all we have a stunning weather for the season, brand blue sky, with a hot sun and enough water everywhere around the island. A real Tourist Paradise !!! And, as if it was not enough to make you spend nice holidays, lots of parties are taking place around.
A nice "low season"... After the Half Moon party that did take place on the 9th, you will have the Jungle Experience in Bantai and some Original beach party in Haad Rin, both on the 13th. And the 14th, the Phangan Live Music Festival will take place in bantai, at Holiday Resort Bungalow, just at the exit of Thong Sala. It starts at 08:00pm with some Rock Bands from Koh Samui, playin classic Rocks and Heavy Rocks, and then at around 11:00pm JOB2DO a famous (the most famous) Thai Reggae Band, playing their own songs as well as some mix of Rock and Even Psy-trance (with an amazing remix of the "Outer Space" of Skazi !!!). Afterward, the DJs from the Harmony Team who play at the Half moon Party, will come to mix ’til early in the morning.
Come on, all those who will be there are sure to spend a VERY nice evening, with good LIVE music played by GOOD musicians !! Hope you will be many there, as you can be sure will be there Too !!!
And two days after, on the 16th, it will be the Full Moon Party.... And it seems it will be a HuUuge one, according to the crowd on the island at5 the moment... Some nice souvenirs to bring back home !

While many big trade names like Tesco-Lotus, Makro or Big C have centers in Samui, and since a long time for some of them, Koh Phangan residents were dependent on small supermarkets and wholesale shops which did charge much higher prices than in Koh Samui, as they did not have any real competition. So, this 4th of july will remain in the residents minds as the "independance day" in Koh Phangan, as this was the day of the opening of the Tesco-Lotus in Thong Sala.
And it is already the new trendy place, like it was when they opened the first in Samui. This is a mid-sized supermarket, compared to the one in Chaweng, but it offers many products including fresh ones, fruits and vegetables, but also meat and seafood at very competitive prices. Two days, only, after the opening, many stalls were empty as they ran out of stock ! No need to tell you that the shops in the market and, moreover, the small supermarket owners who did it their rules before, will check a big change on the sales figures...
And, of course, as always when there is something new, there are pros (financially speaking, like all the restaurant owners and most of the residents) and cons (like some small shops and even some tourists) saying that it is a brick more in the edification of a Koh Phangan more and more similar to Samui and loosing its own identity, but, indeed, they do not know Phangan or are insincere... Each of both island has its own customers with its own tourist appeal, and they will remain different. Even if it is true that globalization is running and nothing can stop it...

After a previous total review and relooking of the web site in September 2006 (we were already 4 years old at that time), we, of course, continued to regularly update the datas and information of this web site, with an extra full review at least twice a year, like the last one in December 2007. But it was time to totally refresh your beloved site once again.
So you now have a full trendy new SamuiPhanganInfo web site to serve you !! A modern new look and some new options as well, like our internal search engine, to help you to find what you are searching for as fast and as acurately as possible.
Apart from the nice new looking of the site, all our pages have also been refreshed from the inside, of course, with all new and up to date information, reviewed general information pages, with new topics and with loads of outbound links to help you explore the topic you like, you will find also tens and tens of new photos, new tricks and much more. The world is moving and Koh Phangan and Koh Samui too, so we also added new good restaurants and Bars addresses, and suppressed dead or gone bad addresses. All the party section has also been reviewed to suppres the no more existing party and to add the newcomers. We also added new pages for nature lovers, to help you to learn more about the amazing tropical plants and flowers we are surrounded by in the archipelago...
Well, We could enumerate all, but we leave you the surprise to visit our pages and be enchanted by them... We wish you a very good travel within the pages of our web site, enjoy, prepare your trip to join us here and see it for real (again, and again...) !

After the 20th anniversary of the Full Moon Party in Koh Phangan, last june 2007, a new special event is coming for the next full moon night. This month, for the Full Moon Party that will take place on the 20th of May (the 19th, actualk full moon day, is a Bouddha day, public holiday in Thailand, the party is postponed until the next day), a special event is brought to you. All the "soï Zoom Bar" (narrfow street behind the Zoom Bar wich is on the beach) will dance on live sessions of international DJs, including the famous Graham Gold ! A kind of Sub-party inside the Full Mon Party, as it even has its own name: the Block Party !! The atmosphere is already announced as Techno-House and Progressive-House, with certainly a pinch of Trance at the end of the night. The event is jointly organized by three bars of the "Soï Zoom Bar", the Moonlight Bar, The Lounge and the Joy Bar. Even if it is the beginning of he low season, we hope you will be many to be able to enjoy it, as if it is a success, we can guess that such events will happen again more often around here, for the happiness of all of us !

A total update of the site was uploaded on-line in december 2007 (like all our bi-annual reactualisation), but, unfortunately, due to some technical problems, first with our Hosting provider, then with our own database, these last three months some of the on-line pages of this site have been replaced by absolutely obsolet pages, making this update not really stand up...
We are definetely sorry about these mistakes and we deeply apologize for any inconvenience.
As soon as we knew it, some draconian mesures have been taken, in order to, on the first hand, correctly fix the base and the site as quick as possible and, on the other hand, insure that this kind of event will never ever happen again in the future. We apologize again and keep hoping that this will not affect in anyway the trust that you are hundreds every day to grant us...

Once again, it is time to get your water guns and other buckets for the Thai New Year, Songkran !
Sawadi Pee Mai (happy new year in Thai language) !!
Well, this year was a great one, as no rain came to disturb the festivities (last year was horrific, too much water from the skies...). The Parties were friendly everywhere in Phangan. There was even a Ban Sabai after-Party, and there again, it was very friendly and nicely done. Everybody did have fun and brought back nice memories of it !
For those in Bangkok or in the north, it will continue for 2 to 3 days more... Good luck... You will remain wet for a while...

And, years after years, it is time to party again, as many people on Koh Phangan have chinese ancestors, like everywhere in Thailand, the Chinese New Year is very much celebrated all over the country. Chinese months are reckoned by the lunar calendar, with each month beginning on the darkest day (the black moon). New Year festivities traditionally start on the first day of the month and continue until the fifteenth, when the moon is brightest. This year, on the 7th of february, we will enter in the year 4706, the year of the rat, but why animals are that important in the chinese astrology ? Let´s try to answer.
Legend has it that in ancient times, Buddha asked all the animals to meet him on Chinese New Year. Twelve came, and Buddha named a year after each one. He announced that the people born in each animal's year would have some of that animal's personality. Those born in rat years tend to be leaders, pioneers, and conquerors. They are charming, passionate, charismatic, practical and hardworking. Gwyneth Paltrow, Ben Affleck, Samuel L. Jackson, William Shakespeare, and Mozart were all born in the year of the rat.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, we know, once again ! It happens every year at the same time...
But anyway, we wish you an Happy New Year 2008 !!!
This year, as always, the beach of Haad Rin was crowded and loads of people from all over the world did party ´til death to celebrate this new year rising. After the success of the Breakbeach Party last week, people were really on the move to party and it was fun ! The cocohut of Leela Beach where the party took place did announce that they will organize one (of the same name... but same quality ?) every month 2 days before the full moon, that´s good news for this beginning of the year.
But let´s forget the parties, for once, and focus on the new year itself. Even if the Thai new year is still celebrated on the 13th of April, on Songkran Day, the Thai people massively celebrate the farang New Year (farang means foreigners, for those of you who still don´t know), it is time to make presents to each other, having their christmas box rather for the New Year than the 25th of December, as, of course, they are buddhist and the birth of the Christ means nothing to them...
And for the Monks also it is a special celebration as well and everywhere in Thailand, hundreds of local people go out on the streets in order to make merit. This is the Thai way of welcoming in the new year. While many people will still be on hangover from the New Year's party, devoted Buddhists make merit by presenting food and flowers to the monks.