Knowing that in a few days we'd be experiencing the our first and maybe only full moon party, we decided that Koh Samui; and island just south of Koh Phangan where the full moon parties are held, would be a time to relax on a beach and catch up with our two new companions Jack and Adam, who just arrived from New Zealand doing their kiwi experience. We stayed in a town called Chawang, which, for the Thai islands was a relatively built up area, with chances to do all sorts of water sports. We found a newly refurbished hotel that had twin beds, TV, bathroom, a mini fridge and air con, for 6 pounds each a night. Seeing as Jack and Adam, whilst being in New Zealand had been staying in dorm rooms for 12 to 15 pounds a night, they were pretty happy with the situation. Koh Samui had more of a family holiday vibe than backpacker's vibe, but that would change over the next few weeks.

On the 3rd of May we got our boat from Koh Samui to Koh Phangan. We stayed in Haad Rin, were the beach party is held. To give you some background on the full moon parties, from what i heard the full moon party was started by backpackers, who decided the sunrise beach of Haad Rin was the perfect beach to moon, and through word of mouth it evolved into a beach party of up 20000 to 30000 travelers. We met up with a couple of welsh boys I met in Laos, who fortunately were staying in the same place as us, and joined a group of 20 to 30 people, who had just accumulated in some way, who we'd be with from Koh Phangan, to Koh Tao, where eventually we went our separate ways. On the full moon night, the custom is to dress is UV clothes, and paint yourself, but normally each other, with UV paint, then you go to the beach and party till sunrise. The morning after the full moon party to my annoyance, I realised I never once looked up at the moon...

The next stop after Koh Phangan was Koh Tao. This is I believe the cheapest place in the world to do you PADI open water diving course, so Hannah, Adam and I did this (Jack already being a rescue diver, 2 levels up from open water). Koh Tao is a very small island, with only one real settlement; Sairee. There is one main path stretching the beach, and the place is full of dive companies. We arrived on the 9th, and despite thinking Koh Tao would be a chill out time after full moon, we got roped in to do the Koh Tao pub crawl. It was great fun, and part of it was seeing a cabaret show performed by ladyboys. Anyway at the end of the show, they ask for volunteers to dress up as ladies and do there own performance, so the finale was watching drunk men in wigs trying to dance erotically on stage... wow.

Moving on to why we were really their, diving. The first day of the dive course is just classroom work, where you have to read and write and do quizzes, (I hadn't written in a while and it was quite difficult!) I say classroom work, we actually sat on huge beanbags in a bar on the beach, drinking smoothies, and fitting in some work in-between. Then we got homework to do (b******s), which we did, and then took our first lesson in the pool. In this you do basic skills such as clearing your mask of water, using you buddies alternate air source and other stuff like that. The third and final day of the courses were sea dives around the reefs of Koh Tao.

The evening after the open water course I went on a fishing trip with two welsh guys; Ben and Matt, and two Canadian guys; Taylor and Eddie. The boat we were using was quite small, but big enough for 5 guys and two Thais as well. On the way to the fishing site the water was quite choppy, and the thought of being on the boat for 4 or 5 hours was not a good one. Luckily as we made our way round the headland the water evened out and eventually there was nothing but flat open water. We put some music on, had some beers and cast our lines. We didn't catch much: a couple of little groupers and a barracuda, but the day was fantastic and peaceful and easy, and to top it off we got to eat the fish we caught.

The open water course only allows you to go down to 18 meters, and do go deeper you have to do you advance, so I forked out for that, and did the two day course. We did a wreck dive of an old Thai warship: The HTMS Sattakut, a navigation dive, where we got lost, a deep dive where we had to check for nitrogen narcosis symptoms (like being drunk underwater apparently), and finally a night dive. Apparently at night all the sea life comes out, but we had no such luck on this, not seeing the sea turtles or barracudas hunting that we were promised, but it was still the sensation of not being able to see anything apart from in the line of the torch was rather cool, and we did see some Blue Spotted Rays and some crabs.

On the 17th we were heading to Phi Phi, getting a night boat from Koh Tao to Surat Thani, and bus from Surat Thani to Krabi, and then a boat from Krabi to Phi Phi. The night boat was just rows of single mattresses sharing one between two, but I managed to sleep the whole journey.

Jack, Adam and I are currently in Ho Chi Minh city, and have met up with Eva again. Sorry for the delayed blog, but south Thailand was very expensive and I take a very long time to write these blogs. Thank you.