We had a long journey ahead of us on the 28th March. We crossed from Ko Lanta on the west coast of Thailand to Ko Phangan on the east coast. We had to catch a number of buses and boats and it took most of the day! Rich and me tried to do our usual tanning session on the top deck of the boat but didn't have much luck because the tide was so high, the waves kept coming over the top of the boat and soaking everyone! We gave up in the end and stood up inside. That didn't help though really as the boat was rocking about so much it made us feel sick!!
We were so excited to be going to Ko Phangan as we were meeting Cat and Merle from the beginning of our trip, and Jodie who we met in Vietnam, and also Richard's brother was coming out to meet us. It was so nice to see everyone!! Merle had had some bad luck on her journey down to the island. The crew from one of her buses had rifled through her bag and stolen her credit card and had managed to take money out of it.
We all had dinner together, our accommodation was right on the beach again so we had a bbq on the beach! We really were spoilt on the Thai islands! The first night there we head out to a party in the middle of the jungle. It was quite cool, and very bizarre at the same time!! There were dogs running around the place and it really was right in the jungle! It was like an outdoor nightclub. We managed to stay there until about 5am which pretty much set the standard of our time in Ko Phangan!!
We chilled out on our second day there and sunbathed by the pool. It really did feel like being on holiday the whole time we were there! We also went to Haad Rin to see the beach where the full moon party would be held. There was a party atmosphere there already! There were fire dancers and massive skipping ropes of fire with people jumping in and skipping on. There were about a hundred little makeshift bars along the side of the beach trying to get you to their stall in any way they could! We promised to go back to 'Nicky's bar' for the full moon!!
We went to the full moon party on the 30th. I felt like I was waiting for the party all day as we'd been looking forward to it for so long and it was the whole reason why we were in Ko Phangan! Our first job was to cover ourselves in glow paint!! The beach is covered with UV lighting so it was the perfect excuse to coat ourselves in paint! We caught a tuktuk to the beach across the hilliest roads I've ever seen!
The atmosphere at the party was electric! Everyone was in such a good moo9d and there was such a party spirit! We drank and danced the night away! (Beth drank a little too much of the night away and had to go home at around 3am!!) Rich, John, Jodie and me stayed until around 7am! It was the weirdest thing partying in the dark and then the sun coming up over the beach!! John was a pretty funny sight as well! He was shirtless with a baseball cap on back to front, glow paint down his chest, a medallion round his neck and odd flipflops (neither of which were his!!). It was a very funny night!!
John and me wanted to go onto the after party but we went back to the hotel instead. There was an hilarious drunk French guy back at the hotel who kept drinking all day and entertaining everyone by falling over and doing back flips into the pool! I don't even think he was staying at the hotel!!