Signs that you’re a true Phanganist (and may have been here too long)

English becomes Tinglish
Native english or not, the English that you know will become very simple. Koh Phangan’s residents are obviously predominantly Thai, most speak pretty good English but it will be more simple than you’re used to. Plus the added fact that the expat community is made up of people from all over the world, speaking varying levels of English.

Linda Jasmine says “my english skills just dropped to basic sentences like: no have, maybe later, already have, kaa, pay money now, but why like this....”

You may even pick up other language traits like Phanganist Emma picking up Sharon's Israeli/English ‘Photo’s come good’ rather than ‘look good’ or ‘erhm’ before every sentence.

Driving with one hand
You’re used to your semi automatic now, it has its quirks but you feel like it is actually part of you. As long as it is relatively quiet on the roads you can quite happily drive whilst smoking a cigarette, talk briefly on the phone but most commonly, use your free hand to wave at friends who drive past. Some days there are so many people you know driving about that you are waving every two minutes. Not a bad thing though eh?!
(Driving constantly with one hand is definitely not recommended)

Swapping flip flops
You know the story, you get to a party or a bar, take off your flip flops outside, dance, chat and have fun for hours. Then it is time to go home but alas, the sea of flip flops has grown since you got there and now it is dark!

You do your best to find your exact, plain, black flip flops whilst slightly inebriated and pull out a pair that you are sure are yours. The next morning however, you notice that these are two sizes too big and are in fact dark brown. Whoops!

Work for Jungle Experience
Jungle Experience is a great party, it’s wild, it’s crazy and it is also a great place to work with lovely people. Whether it is behind the bar making buckets for the party goers on the night, helping with maintenance through the month, making costumes and dancing on stage to promoting and photography, most KP locals will find themselves working for Jungle at some point.

Never Walking
Back in your respective town or city you would just walk the ten or twenty minutes to get tea bags, coffee, toilet roll or some beers from your local shop. Here on Phangan though we are so used to driving our scooters that even something a five minute walk away most people (be honest with yourselves!) will drive to.

Giving up on underwear
Ok so we may not give up on underwear completely but we are sure that a lot of people out there have the same problem. You’re sure you arrived with a plentiful supply of knickers but now after a year you are down to three pairs. Unfortunately, especially for the ladies, good underwear is hard to find here but on the other side, most can live in a bikini.

Being responsible for about ten dogs
You may not own ten dogs exactly but a lot of true Phanganist’s will have a sort of patch that they keep an eye on (although we do know many people with tons of dogs!!!).

Tourists to the full moon party may feel really sorry for the 7/11 dogs in Baan Tai opposite Fisherman Restaurant but little do they know that when these dogs aren’t there trying to get the remains of that cheese toastie, they are next door, asleep on the floor of Baan Tai Backpackers being fed and loved by the western owners.

You don’t choose the dogs you take care of necessarily, they just come and choose you!

Reaching for the bum gun
It all makes sense now doesn’t it?!! What has the western part of the world been doing all this time with toilet paper?

The bum gun just makes sense, it cleans your bum after a poo.

The only downside is that it leaves you wet so most people we know still have toilet paper to dry but use considerably less. When visiting your home country you find yourself disgusted that these people clean themselves with just paper. Ha-ha.

Wearing Keys as accessories
After a few days, weeks or months you realise, if it has happened to you or not, that losing your keys to your house or bike is a common thing. They’re so small and most of us don’t have bags on us half the time (bikes have compartments you see!) so many people make a wise decision to attach their keys to something that can attach to themselves.

Whether it be a piece of string to go around your neck or some fancy trouser attachment contraption, you can be safe in the knowledge that there is less chance that your precious keys will be stolen or lost.

Gecko’s are your friends
When you first arrive in Thailand and see the small common house geckos on every building and inside many rooms you will be fascinated. A lot of people don't see lizards where they are from.

After a while though these geckos become the norm, you can get loads of them on your balcony ceiling at night, you may even start to think of them as lucky like the thais do.

When it comes to the bigger tokay gecko, these take a bit more getting used to but you will find that each house has one that it also calls home.

You get used to it because you know it will move out of the bathroom window once you have gone in to shower and you may even give it a name.

We call ours ‘Jimmy’ he is usually behind the oven.

7/11 Religion
You’ve driven the one minute down the road to 7/11 for the third time that day, you get there but you have forgotten what you needed. But hey, you’re there now so let’s have a look around.

You walk straight to the fridge and grab a beer, then oh! You really, really need some batteries and a new pair of nail clippers, phew! Thank goodness you remembered whilst you were here. So, mission accomplished you drive home.

Two hours later you realise your big water bottles are pretty much empty and won’t be refilled until tomorrow, oh so that was what you went for. Best take another trip to ye old faithful!