Our last two days in Ko Samui were very wet and windy! and since moving to Koh Phangan 3 days ago nothing has changed! it seems Thailand (and apparently the rest of south east asia) has decided to bless all the tourists with non stop storms! for the last 5 days we have seen nothing but rain, lightning and plenty of cloud! i think the sun escaped to england... i have been told this morning that the storms are here to stay for another month! so we have decided that we are moving up north to Chang mai stopping at a few towns on the way then next stop will be Laos. we figuered we'd rather be doing city tours in the rain as opposed to sitting on the beaches of thailand. Nevertheless the rain hasnt stopped us having fun. all the english guests in our resort have spent their days in the pool despite the thunder and lightening... much to the amusement of all the other guests.

We were worried that the Full Moon party wouldnt go ahead last night and to be honest at one point i wasnt too keen on going in such a bad storm, but ive braved Global Gathering in the rain so standing on a beach soaking wet couldnt be too hard! as it goes, we had a great time, EVERYBODY was drenched, no time for hair and make-up, we were literally dripping. the beach was still packed at 7 this morning when ben and i left but i heard that it wasnt half as busy as it has been in previous months obviously due to it being low season but primarily down to the weather! but after hearing about previous full moon parties we all agreed that this made the night better as no one had to push past to get to the different bars, there were no queues for drinks and you could go to the toilet when u pleased without having to wait behind ten other girls! yippee. their were vodka and whiskey buckets galore, lots of fire and lighting displays, u.v paint everywhere and a storm to give it that extra edge! i would definitely have prefered to go to full moon when the weather was nice but now that we are going to be coming back to Thailand in a months time there's a chance we'll be able to go to another party so fingers crossed the sun will come out for that one! we are suffering today but we've heard theres a party in a cave in 2 days time so we said we may pay it a visit as it sounds too good to miss! i might have to stick to water though!

For the last few days since arriving in Koh Phangan we've spent alot of our time with some other english guests, some Aussie guys, 4 swedish girls and a lovely canadian couple. We all met at our hotel's swimming pool party on the night we arrived, great timing! everybody is lovely, if not a little crazy, and the english girls and boys were buying us vodka buckets last night cos they've been travelling before and know how hard it is to drink on a budget so we've been very spoilt! We went shopping in Had rinn yesterday... in the rain, have spent alot of time playing volleyball in the pool... in the rain, reading our books... in the rain and simply relaxing... in the rain! we are planning on renting a moped out tomorrow and visiting one of the island's waterfalls which is also one of the best view points to see over the island so im looking forward to that and no doubt it will be raining so il be wearing my waterproofs! Koh Phangan looks alot like Ko Samui but alot less built up, so people tend to prefer Koh Phangan as there is supposedly less tourists! Our beach is one of the longest on the island but not many people go on it as the sand is covered in broken pieces of coral and the sea is no more than knee deep unless you go out further than 300 metres, but the views are amazing even in this bad weather. We visited Had rinn beach yesterday in the day and it was full of people sunbathing (minus the sun) and im glad we are in Ban Tai as i tend to like quieter beaches anyway.

Our room/beach hut is a little on the shabby side, u literally cant jump about too much or even stand in the middle bit for too long for fear the floor (which consists of thin wood) will fall through, the bed is literally a few planks of wood so u can see the ground through them and there are ants everywhere! oh and after speaking to other guests who have nice hotel rooms we've discovered that we should infact have bed sheets and more than one blanket that barely covers ben let alone me! so we may ask the hotel for some sheets later but then again we've gone this far without them so i dont really see the point! I'm still sleeping in my velour tracksuit at night to keep the mozzies at bay- it is working but i have to say it is a little hot!

The one thing ive noticed about Thailand or more how people describe it is that it is said to be one of the most beautiful places on earth and in terms of landscape it really is but what people fail to mention in their blogs and postcards is that within that beautiful landscape there is extreme poverty oddly found on the doorstep of very plush hotels and resorts. I am finding this a little hard to accept as you feel incredibly guilty walking from our resort and literally 20 metres away you are confronted with 3 incredibly poor huts made from various pieces of metal and wood that look barely big enough to house one person let alone an entire family. It seems that children in Thailand have an incredibly different upbringing to back home, it is common to see babies, toddlers and children of all ages at work with their mums or dads, be it in the kitchens, taxis or internet shops, playing in the dirt and hanging around situations that you wouldnt dream of letting kids back home get in. But everyone seems happy with their situation, this may be a front ofcourse but on the face of it nobody seems to feel sad for themselves, Thailand seems to prove that money isnt the be all and end all of happiness.

And another common thing for Thai resorts is that you have to have at least 3 dogs and a couple of cats! so staying away from animals is a little hard! a cat and her kitten seem to have found home on the doorstep of our hut and we cant seem to get rid of them!

I feel like I am getting used to Thai culture but the language barrier is still hard and despite my efforts i can still only say hello, goodbye and thankyou! So moving on to Cambodia is only going to confuse me that little bit more but hey thats the travelling life!

I will upload more pics when i can and keep you updated with our travels when we have decided where our next destination is!

Hayley.xxx