Koh Phangan, an island not far north of Koh Samui was our next stop. We stayed in Had Salad on the North of the island. The resort was really nice, on the beach with a fresh water pool and HOT shower!!

We had a few days on the beach, very long and pretty quiet, and by the pool. Along the beach were several resorts and just behind were a few shops, cheaper restaurants and bars. Our favourite restaurant was called JayJays, the staff were all lovely and the food was fab...Si also appreciated the soft seats as he's been missing his sofa.

A few days before the big full moon party we ventured to Haad Rin to check it out. The south was much busier with endless beach bars and shops. The beach itself was slightly larger than ours in the north and very very busy. Most people tend to stay in the south for the parties but we'd heard horror stories of theifs so we stayed away from the mayhem. We chilled out on mellow mountain, a beach bar up on the rocks overlooking the beach, until sunset. We then headed to the bars and the endless beach stands selling buckets. The buckets, which consisted of a can of sprite, a bottle of mega strong redbull and a bottle of Samsong which is a dark rum, were only four pounds :). We randomly started chatting to a guy called Paul after all being scared by a Thai man shoving his iguana in our faces. We joined Paul who had met several Irish girls and a group of lads and played a few drinking games. Some young Thai girls walking the beach were challenging tourists to connect four, some of the lads played...infact it took 6 brits versus the one Thai and they still lost their money!!!The beach bars had put on a fire show, some children as young as ten were throwing the fire sticks about! Later on they got out a huge fire skipping rope. We had heard about people burning their necks etc so we stayed well away. Around one am we headed to the Coral pool party. There was a floating dancefloor in the sea, people dancing in the sea and in the pool. Si began to feel the alcohol on the way home. After he walked barefoot and cut his foot up on sharp rocks he fell on a marble floor - straight on his bum! Shouldnt laugh - but I did. He told the taxi driver we would only py 100B for the taxi, yet Id just knocked the price down from 450 to 200B. Was an entertaining taxi ride!!

We returned to Haad Rin two days later for the Full Moon Party madness.We bought some UV paints and started covering ourselves. Si met up with his friend Helen from home and her friend Katy. The party is held on the beach, there was only around 12,000 people but in high season theres about 30,000 and theres barely any room to move. The bars put out benches, raised dance stages and rugs for everyone to party on. By ten oclock we were witnessing people wasted and being escorted to the desinated passing out areas. The moon looked amazing!!! The night was so clear and there was a massive ring of light around the moon, this later went and the light behind the moon had a kind of rainbow look about it (and yes this was how it looked and not alcohol induced hallucinations!) People were lighting lanterns so there were also several large orange glows in the distant night sky. The buckets went straight to my head, even though the previous night I was completely fine. I was stubbornly splashing around in the sea getting drenched! I'd completely fell asleep on the way home and had the taxi man and Simon both poking me to wake me up.

We made a third trip to Haad Rin the following night. The shops were all showing videos of the previous nights antics and every so often you'd capture a moment of someone doing something really embarrassing! Very funny! The place was like a ghost town incomparrison to the previous night so we decided to head back up north. We spotted a pick up truck from our hotel and hopped in the back. The fresh air was miles better than air-con! The roads were very steep and some potholes made the journey very uncomfortable but was fun. We spent the night drinking a bucket on the beach as it was so quiet and calm.

The following day we went on an elephant trek. We fed the baby elephant bananas and watched it bow and make a random screech (which apparently meant thankyou). We sat on the chair strapped to the elephants back, it felt extremely unsafe, especially when going up and down hills. We were both able to sit on the neck of the elephant. Her skin was tough and dry and her hair was like wire. Felt a bit weird when she walked as you could feel the bones. The guide picked fruits off trees for us to try. I was a bit hesistant but they thankfully all tasted fine. One had a massive stone - barely any fruit and the other looked like a plum but resembled garlic cloves once opened up. On our return to the hotel, the driver offered to take us to the nearby waterfall. I was mega-happy until we got there and there was no water! Instead we trekked over the steep rough dirt track to the view point. We arrived sweaty but was worth the hike.