Hello from Pha-ngan!! Well, actually we're not in Pha-ngan anymore, we're in Phi Phi on the west coast but doing the Pha-ngan entry now because I was A) too lazy and B) we had too much partying to do and way too many Buckets to drink!! (Buckets, if you don't already know, are a bucket (duh!)half filled with some kind of alcoholic substance and then (if you're lucky) the other half is filled with soft drinks and ice) And let me tell you, they are lethal!!!!-but the best thing in the world all the same, and dirt cheap!! So, what we did in Pha-ngan... Well, if you've read the other two entries then you can probably guess - yup, that's right we lounged on the beach for three days, oh what a hard life!! And by reading the above you can probably guess what we did in the evening!! We landed at the port on Sat (1st) and wandered wide eyed down the road searching for a taxi or some 'nice' looking people to help, all the while trying our best to ignore the constant war cry of "Taxi? Taxi? Where you go?" - it instantly gets very annoying and we were especially sick of it having had it everywhere we've been so far...(Tor does her hard ass b**** piece at this point and frightens them all away with 'scarey face' - i'm telling you, it's a bit like being with The Hulk - you wouldn't wanna see her when she's mad...!) So, we got lucky and some 'nice' people (aka Fran and Alice) spotted us bumbling around like zombie tortoises (Backpacks turn you into tortoises by the way, not just because you're wandering around with the better part of your home on your back but you kinda adopt a hunch back Neanderthal walk too that makes you trudge extremely slowly)...anyway, Fran and Alice shared a taxi with us to Hat Rin which is where we stayed and which is kinda 'the' place to go in Pha-ngan. Once we arrived they showed us where to go (as they had been there previously) and sent us on our way. After trapesing along the beach with our rucksacks (no easy feat on sand) we found a lovely little hideaway hut on the beach at a very reasonable price. After napping (we've resorted back to toddler days), internet and eating we sat and watched the England match cocktails in hand, and boy! did we need them during that match..little bit tense and very disappointing..naturally we had to drown our sorrows... After that, off we went to the Cactus bar on the beach to drown our sorrows even more....(beach bars are so cool, they have mats on the beach with little tables and candles on them -very romantic! Tor and I have actually said a fair few times that had we been romantically involved it would've been perfect but we're not...and it was brilliant all the same). Whilst sitting at our candle lit bucket for two...who should we spot but Adam and Guy from the night train! We then spent the rest of the night dancing and drinking with them. Sunday was spent on the beach again and then off to the Cactus bar once again for more buckets! So, weird when you go to buy them...there are at least a dozen stalls all in a line and everyone hangs over the front shouting to get your attention (and money)...having chosen our bucket we were then left with the phrase 'See you next bucket...!' ringing in our ears as we walked away. That night we met a a guy called Toby and spent most of the evening with him, his friend Eamon and the rest of his group...until a little incident with a Thai guy that prompted us to head home with Eamon as our escort. Needless to say we didnt make it home and spent the next two/three hours sat further down the beach talking with Eamon and our new Dutch friends, Vincent and Andert - they were lovely. We got to bed 8am that morning!!! We woke on Monday at 12pm, having had four hours sleep and headed for....the beach!! Usual day of lying on the sand and playing in the sea, and in the evening the Dutchies (as they fondly became known) picked us up from our hut and we went to the bar....few buckets later and we were off to the Half Moon Party. Pha-ngan is known for it's half moon/Full moon, every other moon you can think of parties and we just 'happened' to be there when it was the Half Moon one. It was amazing, dodgy ride to get there but when we did it was soooo cool...it was in the middle of the forest/jungle and it was neon galour!! House music and lots of jumping up and down too. We spent the night there and headed back at about 6am Tues morn...getting to bed at 7! On Tues we got up at 1, packed our stuff (for, alas, we had reached the end of our stay in Ko Pha-ngan) and headed to the beach one last time...and really spent the whole day wasting time till our taxi in the evening to take us to our night boat. I was a little sad to leave as it felt as though it just wasn't time to go...although i'm sure i'll feel like that with most places! We boarded the night boat at 10pm and set sail for Surat Thani where our bus to Krabi was awaiting our arrival. From Krabi port we caught another boat to Phi Phi Island and landed at 12pm today (Wed). 15 hour journey all in all, though it certainly didn't feel like that having slept the majority of the way! So, now we're in Phi Phi and who knows what our days on the island hold but you will soon find out so stay tuned and don't go a changing.... xxx p.s have added few more photos's to the Pha-ngan folder xx