Think of the island of Ko Phangan in the south eastern reaches of Thailand and you will no doubt conjure up images of young people, copious amounts of alcohol and wild beach front parties. That, however, does not tell the whole story of this small patch of earth set among emerald waters just off the coast. There is still hope for those of you longing for that little corner of paradise that wont break the bank and have you bringing your return flight to reality prematurely forward. The kind of place you see on postcards, unspoilt and away from the crowds. Increasingly rare as they are, they do remain if your willing to look hard enough. And what’s more, somehow, we ended up at one of them.

Through the TAT (tourist association of Thailand) office in Bangkok, we had managed to book some accommodation here at extremely short notice. The place was officially called “Holiday Beach Resort II”, or, as the locals know it, “Bang Namkem”.

Not so much a resort, but more a small cluster of clean and tidy, well constructed bungalows situated on a private sandy beach, lined with tall, overhanging palm trees and dense vegetation. It was one of those increasingly rare beaches that had managed to retain its natural beauty amid an age of constant development.

Between the palm trees hung thick, cream coloured cotton hammocks where you could happily find yourself losing days on end reading in the cool shade of the green palm leaves above. The only sound to be heard was the gentle lapping of the sea and the sky seemed to envelope you in a stunning deep blue that went on forever.

Then there was the owner. Somewhat eccentric and possessing a nasty habit of flaunting his impressive man boobs to anyone unfortunate enough to glance in his direction, he was often to be found sporting wire rim glasses, jeans a few sizes too big for him and odd flip-flops. He also spoke very little English, which, coupled with our lack of Thai, also made for one or two frustrating moments.

“Could we book a scooter for tomorrow?” We enquired on our second day.

Nod of the head indicating that it would not be a problem, quickly followed by a phone call to the rental office in town for confirmation.

“What time do we collect the bike?”

“Ten”.

[10:00 the following morning]

No sign of scooter.

“What time will our bike be here?” We double checked.

Phone call to the rental office for re-confirmation.

“Eleven”. Came the response.

“Do you know what time we will need to bring it back?”

Yet another phone call to the office.

“Sorry, no bike” came the flat declaration through the beaming smile of the man with the moobs.

“Pardon?”

Nod of the head and more smiling. “All gone”.

Curious that. And here I was, under the impression that we had booked the previous evening. The word ‘booked’, implying an agreement to supply said bike. A verbal contract if you will. That agreement had been re-affirmed around thirty seconds earlier and yet, here we are. No bike. “All gone”, apparently.

Wishing to remain calm, I have only one thing to say:

HOW THE HELL CAN THEY ALL BE GONE WHEN WE BOOKED YESTERDAY AND RE-CONFIRMED THIRTY SECONDS AGO!?!?

These small details apart though, we felt extremely fortunate to have found ourselves in such a beautiful setting, if only for a few days, and it was one that we set about making the absolute most of, doing little more than swaying gently in the hammocks, with a book in one hand and a drink in the other. Its only a shame that time does not stand still at moments like these when the exact meaning of the word ‘paradise’ becomes truly apparent.

We were here for five nights in total. The fourth of which was new years eve.

By a strange coincidence, new years eve 2009 also just so happened to be a full moon, and that meant just one thing for the inhabitants (temporary or otherwise) of Ko Phangan:

Full Moon Party.

After an extortionate buffet dinner at the hotel accompanied with a Thai girl attempting - and failing terribly - to mime Celine Dion’s ‘My Heart Will Go On’, complete with exaggerated facial expressions and hand gestures, we climbed into the back of an open back pickup truck and set off on the twenty minute drive along the treacherously winding road that snaked up the hill towards Hat Rin.

What we found as we arrived at the beach front a little after 22:00 was a mildly organised chaos. Mildly organised, but deteriorating rapidly with each passing whiskey bucket consumed by the thousands of people partying up and down the moonlit sand, set against the jet black backdrop of the evening sea.

Several had obviously started their celebrations a little prematurely and, judging by their haggard appearance, would not be seeing in this particular new year. One of which, was the slightly built young man being carried off the beach - leg ‘n’ a wing style - as we arrived. Eyes firmly rolled into the back of his head, jaw agape and body as limp as a wet lettuce leaf.

To our left was ‘mushroom mountain’, named due to its fame for producing the shakes of the not so legal variety, and to our right was bar after bar, each playing a different genre of music, from trance to R’n’B, all pouring out of the huge sound systems facing the beach and the heaving mass of revellers forming a human carpet upon it. The sea had become a giant urinal with lines of drunken backpackers wading out to the shallows before relieving themselves. There were flip-flops floating along in the water, obviously lost during these calls of nature.

I couldn’t help picturing the poor unsuspecting children that would be splashing around in that water the following day. Lets hope they keep their mouths closed.

On the whole though, despite the flow of alcohol (and possibly other intoxicating substances) and the huge number of people, local and foreign, the mood was light hearted. One of celebration. A good time was being had by all.

To summarise, the fabled full moon party did manage to live up to its huge reputation, but Ko Phangan the island, despite the generally held belief among backpackers, is so much more than just a beach party. With each new development that springs up that declaration is growing increasingly hollow but, for now at least, if your one of those looking for a quiet, picturesque beach to relax away a few days then why not give this place a look?
And if you can handle the sight of a moob or two in the morning, try Bang Namkem. I’m sure it wont disappoint.

On the morning of 2/1/10, we climbed aboard one of the ferries bobbing in the murky waters of the marina and headed back towards the mainland and ultimately, the picturesque Kao Sok national park situated a few hours inland as we continued our search for the natural beauty of Thailand…