After a journey that lasted 18hours we arrived on the much awaited island. On the boat over we had agreed to go to see one of the hostels run by a guy on the boat. After seeing it however we decided the area looked dead and the beach was mediocre (for thai beaches) so we decided on plan B to hit Haad Rin - the main packers area. First we had to walk to the main road to try and hail a passing "taxi" - a van with room in the back to carry 8 people. Much to our delight a guy working in a shop offered to take to Haad Rin for a small fee so in we hopped. The location of our accomodation was ideal, we were on a beautiful and quite beach that never had more than 20 people on it at a time. We were also only 10mins walk from the main resort (including a steep hill) - easy walking distance to and from beach parties. The first night we hit the beach party where free drinks were being distributed at set times and the music was pumping onto the beach (although when we arrived we were the only ones drinking on the beach, people don't tend to start drinking until later here) by 12 the dancing shoes were on as we bumped into people we had met on our travels. The journey back along the beach was treacharous as i ducked to go under a branch but not far enough fortunately my friend alcohol reduced the effects of the bang until the following morning when i reached for my sore head and felt the dried blood reminding me of the incident. The following nights followed with much of the same activities - drinking copius amounts of alcohol and dancing until we had worked off the calories of the alcohol. During my third day on the main beach (Ben didn't have the energy to make the pilgrimage during that day) i met a group of Israeli's who invited us to join them in the evening festivities after which we ended up meeting, eating and drinking with them every day. All my hard thought plans of diving and doing a boat trip were washed away with the flowing alcohol and replaced with lying on the beach during the day instead - i'm officially no longer the milky bar kid (I must admit I stayed in one night, Ben stayed in two nights). It was a shame to leave Kho Pha Ngan as we had made some great friends (Iftach, Meital and Hila) who i'm sure we'll bump into them in the future! Now it is time to head to Kho Sak national park.