Arrived in Koh Phangan at 6 this morning after 36 hours in transport to get here! saved on 2 nights accommodation since one overnight train followed by an overnight ferry and buses inbetween! phew! Im proud of myself for living to tell the tale! ha. We found a hotel- well...a bungalow hut thing right on the beach- will post pics soon for 2 pounds each a night. bargain. We got a taxi to the near town and spent an hour or two on the beach. Koh Phangan is a little island to the south of thailand mainland. It is famous for the Full- Moon parties where thousands of travellers descend for a HUGE party. We couldnt fit in the full moon party in our time schedule so have come for the half moon- which is just the same but perhaps not quite as big! I will let you all know what its like tomorrow! i need to get my party shoes on! Update: After ariting the last installment i headed home in a taxi, and between paying for the taxi and walking 20 metres to our pad- i lost my wallet! full disaster as my debit card is my means of payment/cash for everything! great. Esp in thailand too- the change of finding it is slim to none! SO, we got changed and headed back into town where i asked at the rank if it had been handed in. About 20 taxi people stoof round and talked for 10 mins before telling me the driver is at home- so come back the following afternoon to ask him. great. so cancelled my card and had a well needed gin and tonic! so so so so annoyed with myself! it makes everything difficult now- have to transfer into mc's bank and constantly keep track! I tried to forget about it and headed to the party! The party was really good- however not half as busy as expected! We had drinks first in hadrin where we expected a 'party' atmosphere to be going on- but real quiet! we headed up there at midnight ish and got in. It was sort of in the forest and ther was a huge dancefloor with lots of bars and balconies. Day-glow everywhere! You drink out of buckets- very strange! Had far too much redbull! ha. It was absolutely mental- mc saw her her housemate from first year at uni! he's called paul- and he literally tapped her on the shoulder! he was on a holiday after finishing his degree! so strange. We spent the night pretty much with him and his friends getting in at 5,6 in the morning! yikes. Obviously i woke up with the worst hangover in the world! so annoying as wanted to see more of the island and really wasnt fit to do anything! ha. So we all went and chilled by a waterfall which was lovely. Didnt make it to the taxi place again til late afternoon. They told me he had my wallet! woo hoo! (but annoyed i cancelled my card now) and had to go back in morning to catch the man before he started his shift at 7.30! how annoying- why they couldnt leave it at the office i dont know! they selectively understand english! Watched the germany game then went home- couldnt hack the pace to stay up til 2 in morning for england game- plus had to be up dead early to collect wallet. Got up and into town for 7.30, and i was told to go back at 8.15! went to get a cuppa and went back for 8.15- of course the driver had been and gone! i was beyond mad at this point and ready to just leave my wallet! we were leaving today at 12 so didnt have time to be going back and forth! They sent me to another town half an hour down the road (poor maz was driving the scooter too- i was on the back)to where the taxi driver was supposed to be. Of course he want there! aaaarrrgggghhhhhhhhh. I told the woman there the story and said i ould be back at 12 as leaving by ferry form that town and told her to get it off the bloody guy. Believe it or no- she had got it!!!!! Plus my sunglasses i didnt even know i had lost! even money still there! phew long story i know but what a goose chase hey! Got a ferry and a bus over back to surathani where the next fiasco happened! We were picked up by the bus which was an overnighter to take us to bangkok. W had a few picks ups along the way- some of whom had no seat so had to sit in the isle! they were only going to the train station though so only an hour on the floor! About 30 mins into the journey we saw loads of smoke pumping out of the bus and a really bad burning smell! one of the guys on the bus went down to tell the driver as we were worried about our bags underneath incase we were on fire! He just continued driving. great. Then smoke started billowing up the stairs- by this point we were shouting the driver to pull over. He sent a guy up the bus to have a look- we had to actually point out the smoke to them! he eventually stopped at the train station where we were dropping some people off. we got off the bus to have a look and the driver opened up the engine and poured a bucket of cold water on the radiator! not a good sign i thought! anyway- the bus wouldnt actually start after this so we were all stood there wondering what to do! Then came a million stories from the other travellers about how they had had loads of stuff stolen by a guy who got in through the luggage part downstairs and crawled around like a snake geting peoples purses! and one girl said her bus on the way there had broken down and they had to get out and push it!!!!! golly! so...I hot footed it to ask about the overnight train and it was a tenner each- so for pure piece of mind we got the train as we thought even if they do get it working- it may break down again in the middle of nowhere! ha. off to Bangkok...see bagkok diary next