So we have had to endure another manic journay - sorry they are probably getting a bit boring now! This one entailed us leaving Hat Ton-Sai on the West Coast of Thailand and getting a longtail boat to Ao-Ngan which only took about 10 minutes. From there we were picked up by a taxi (a pick up truck with two bench seats in the back!) and driven for about abother 10 minutes to a travel office just outside of Krabi, where we had to wait for 1.5 hours!! From there we travelled for 2 hours squashed in a minivan to Surat Thani on the East Coast of Thailand and were dropped off in another travel office where we had to wait another 1.5 hours!! We were then taken by a guy to the port to catch our 11pm night ferry across to Koh Pha-Ngan, but we were there by 8.30pm so we had to wait another 2.5 hours for the ferry to depart!

The Night Ferry was crazy! As you climb up to the passenger part there are two rows of mattresses on the floor for us to sleep on, luckily it was nowhere near full otherwise we would have been having to get very cozy with the people next to us! It was quite a rough crossing but we managed to sleep and we arrived in the Thong Sala pier on Koh Pha-Ngan at 6am on Thursday morning. We found a hostel and slept for the rest of the morning. The rest of the day we headed out to explore Haad Rin.

Haad Rin is quite a hectic little town, full of shops, bars and restaurants and totally set up for partying and particuarly the famous Full Moon Party. It is actually quite quiet here at the moment because Full Moon was 2 weeks ago and it is coming to the end of the high season so it is not as crazy as it could be! We are staying on Haad Rin Nai which is also known as the Sunset Beach as it is on the West side of peninsula. This side is a bit more chilled out and the beach a lot cleaner. The other side is called Haad Rin Nok or Sunrise Beach on the East side. This is where the Full Moon Party is held and is lined with bars that are open at night hence the beach is really dirty and litter strewn!

Although we are not here for Full Moon, we have lucked out in that we arrived for The Black Moon Party, apparently the third best party on the island after Full Moon and Half Moon, seeming as we havn't been to either of them we are not going to know any different! It was pretty expensive to get in but we had a great night dancing away on the beach all night and most of the morning with a good group of people and after a few too many Sam-Sung, Red Bull and Coke Buckets!! We crawled back into bed at some point Friday morning and slept for most of the day!

As it happens though we did not miss anything as Friday the rain came and did not stop for two days! This was heavy rain too that meant you could not really venture out in it else you were soaked in seconds. We reckon the island had its average monthly rainfall in a bout an hour! So there went my days of sun baking on the beach and lazing by the pool! Luckily we are staying in a really nice hostel with a good bar, restaurant, etc so we spent our time sleeping, eating, drinking, watching movies and friends episodes (which they show in every restaurant here very loudly!) We also had a few Thai massages which are so nice and relaxing, I have developed a bit of an addiction too them, Andrew is not so bothered (although that might be because the girl who gave him his massage said he was like an old man - inflexible but had very big muscles!!)

Today is our last day in Koh Pha-Ngan and we had some sun so I finally got to do a bit of sun baking by the pool - bliss! We have not really done much here due to a combination of being lazy and the bad weather but it has been a nice change to recooperate before we hit the travelling again hard and that starts tomorrow when we get the overnight train to Bangkok for some serious shopping (and visa applications - boo!).

Hope all is well at home, it is crazy to think that we are now 3/4 of the way through our travels, but still plenty to see and do in the last 3 months!

Lots of Love and Kisses

Sarah and Andrew xxx