With staying in such a nice place, I nearly forgot to mention the rest of our journey over to this island. So, after the packed out minibus, we were on our boiling hot coach which was easily the most uncomfortable journey so far. We stopped once where we were all bursting for the toilet, but were alarmed to find only crouching toilets! That was no fun! Not wanting to drink much more, we got back on the hot coach, until after about two hours our bags were took off the coach so we had to get off too! We were left at a little shop for two hours with no idea what was going on! We were told the journey was meant to take ages but we spent most of it in the middle of nowhere with like a hundred other confused people. The owners kept taking groups of three or four into a little office and when one guy went in, a few minutes later he was shoved out by the man owner. The whole of the owners family then appeared and circled the man shouting at him and shoving in and out of the office, then were taking photos of him and filming him! Next the police turned up but nothing happened! So a lot of drama over nothing in the end! I think it may have been a fix though, as when it was our turn to go in the office to be sold a stupidly expensive transfer to the hotel when we got off the boat, we were totally ripped off but were too scared to decline it! Later another girl insisted our bags were going to get slashed on the boat and we'd definitely get robbed. But then she said she had been twice before, so i thought if it was that bad then why was she still coming! About an hour after this another two buses turned up to take us to the port which was about another hour away. This bus was much nicer!
When we got to the boat it already looked really full and everyone's bags were piled up really high on the back of the boat. There was hardly anywhere to stand and we ended up on the side of the boat on a ledge that couldn't have even been a meter wide where the railing was really high! So we sat down and clung onto our bags and didn't move! After just under two hours we thought we had arrived but it was the wrong island! So after a quick stop to let people off at Koh Samui, we carried on to Koh Phangan. By this time it was pitch black. They slid all the bags onto the port side, then it was a big scramble to find your bag but it was too dark so everyone was fishing out torches and phone lights to try and see!

Once we got our bags we had a quick transfer over to the hotel which is lovely.

The next day was quite rainy so we headed over to Haad Rin where the full moon party is and went shopping and booked our train to Chiang Mai. The next day we visited a local Chinese temple which was nice although a little run down, but we did get our fortunes while we were there.

That night was the full moon party. The hotel put on a free BBQ on their beach and we had a few cocktails and drinks. We got our UV paint on and headed over to the party about 12. The party was busy with loads going on, but the tide was quite far in apparently so gave space on the beach. Me and Ruth managed to lose Sally and Jade and some of the rest of our group, so we looked for ages before we found some other members of our group from the hostel so decided to stick with them. We got the last car the hotel put on back to the hotel and arrived home around 7.45am. We popped round to check the girls were home, which they were so headed fo bed! The rest of the day we felt a little worse for wear, so had a big chill out day. I think Ruth, Jade and me slept for most of it! The hotel put on a home made carvery which was exactly ahat we needed! Plus we still cant get the paint off totally! I must have done something to my knee at the party as it's so painful! I'll admit I'm not totally sure but I think I may have twisted it flying off some water slide!

Tomorrow we're taking the boat back to the mainland, then an overnight train to Bangkok, then a day train up to Chiang Mai in the north of Thailand. I think between leaving the hotel here and arriving in Chiang Mai, it takes about 30 hours so that should be fun(!)

Amy x