Wow what an insane few days.

We arrived on Ko Phangan mid afternoon and started our customary search for somewhere to live. Unfortunately an hour later and we were still no better off although probably somewhat fitter having dragged our heavy packs up and down hills in 30degree heat! Eventually some said they had space and offered us a lift to the hostel. A terrifying moped ride ensued scaling ridiculously steep and bumpy roads with all our bags! Once we arrived we immediately knew it was worth it as we had a private beach facing the sunset, we did have to duct tape over some holes in the wall though! After settling in and taking a little dip in the sea we decided to check out Hat Rin, the main centre. We had some dinner and then I bumped into a Deloitte Scholar on the way to the beach. Then the partying began and didnt really stop for 4 days! By the time we had finished and came to go to bed early we realised we had given ourselves jetlag by living on english time for 4 days!

On the first night we just wandered around and soaked up the atmostphere of it all. Including watching the most incredible fire spinner I have ever seen in my life. It was essentially like watching a glowing ring spinning around his body and even through his legs he was so fast and at one point he threw it up in the air and caught it behind his back and through his legs!

On the second night we met up with some school friends of Rory's so we hang out with them for most of the night but also bumped into some people we met in Singapore. While we were sitting with the 4 girls ( Rorys school chums) they started spinning this giant flaming skipping rope encouraging people to try it. Rory and I duely stepped up and decided to do it holding hands. Bad idea. More or less the first skip we were wiped out the flaming rope smashing into my shins bouncing off into rory's ankle. We were fine really though just a little singed! Then the night came dangerously close to ending early as Rory and I set off home. However we met a girl on the way who was completely lost and bleeding having jumped out of a tuk tuk(essentially a truck) so being kind hearted chivalrous Brits we came to the rescue and walked her back to her hostel and then back to the beach to meet her friends. At this point my night had its second close shave as I set off home along the beach a second time on my way home. This time I was jumped out at by Rory's school friends and ended up hanging out with them until dawn. At which time I realised I had the key and was dreading the wrath of Rory! Fortunately for me out Dutch neighbours had let him break in through their bathroom and I found him sound asleep in bed.

As per usual nothing really happened in the day as we weren't awake for most of it. In the afternoon we just relaxed on the beach and sunbathed. Then in the evening we met up with the girls and found that the beach was closed due to some sort of Thai holiday! Fortunately one of the hotels was hosting a pool party so we headed over to that. It was a pretty standard night from then on apart from rory pulled me into the pool wearing all my clothes so I was pretty soggy all night!

We were actually up reasonably bright and early in the morning as the girls were hiring a jeep to drive to a beach on the other side of the island. I drew the short straw and ended up in the boot all the way there! The beach we arrived at was probably the nicest we have been to in South East Asia, though not as nice as Lopez Mendez in Brazil. So we sat under a tree and relaxed and chatted and stuff all afternoon. It was starting to drizzle on the way back so I squeezed into the back seat of the jeep with the others which was more than a little cosy! Charlie drove us right back to our front door in the jeep which was more than a little hair raising given the gradient and quality of the road!

In the evening we went over to the girls for a pre-fullmoon party glow painting party. Basically covering eachother and their appartment with glow paint, which was really fun. I have put up a couple of photos of this on the blog with more to follow. Then we headed over to the legendary fullmoon party - estimates for numbers ranged between 15-25000 people all partying on the beach. It was crazy there were so many people it was ridiculous. The firespinners were out, there were fireworks and even people carrying around lizards for you to hold. We partied until 730am or so and then it was time to go home!

In the morning I had a really nasty fall. I was climbing the stairs to our room and hit my head on the roof at the top as I had already done one to many times. However this time I lost my balance and slipped and fell backwards around 10ft onto the beach below. Fortunately for me my only injury was to bite 4 chunks out of the side of my tongue, though it could so easily have been a lot worse.

That evening we went to have dinner with the girls for the last time and to swap full moon stories too! We had a nice evening although it was strictly soup only for me. We went to pick up our stuff from their appartment and said our goodbyes and then there was just the two of us once again!

We decided to stay one more day in order to organise ourselves and get over to Ko Tao at a more leisurely pace.