We arrived in Koh Pha-Ngan on Sunday, a smaller island just above Koh Samui. we came across on the ferry and got picked up by Tom who owns our 'hotel' which we'd prebooked. getting to the hotel was on par with the land rover 4x4 experience, this is no exaggeration! however the view from the top was stunning, dramatically compensating the standard of accommodation!! Tom led us to our room, would have been nice if he'd offered to help us down the treacherous steps which by the end of our stay proved to be quite a workout! when I say room, I mean garden shed perching on the edge of a cliff (very much like the smiths treehouse!), see pictures for detail!
We decided to go and explore the town, Tom told us a short cut through another resort, he failed to warn us that it resembled a crack den... I don't think I'm paying Tom much credit here, he was actually very nice! a Norwegian chap with a 35yr old soon back in Norway but now married to a Thai lady whom he has a 5 year old daughter with, Oonagh. and a dog named moonbeam.
We stayed here for 5 nights and spent most of our time on the beach or at our room in the hammock. we treated this like our holiday rather than a travelling bit! Like all the other tourists on the island we'd gone there for the full moon party which was on the Tuesday night. it's basically a massive beach party with loads of djs, paint and buckets (drinks in a bucket!) The party was awesome, everyone was in good spirit and very sociable. in the early hours of the morning people were either drinking copious amounts of water, or utterly off their faces and wee-ing in the sea. surprisingly amusing to watch the women walk in looking shifty and checking no-ones watching, squatting down then wafting the water away from them before returning to the beach. lovely!! I'd put 100baht in my shoe for emergency food for the journey home, I enjoyed feeling secretly rich all evening, cheap thrills! we got some water and noodles and set off for the journey home through the crack den. when we got back to our garden shed grace screamed after she spotted a snake on the shelf by our bed. I tried to be brave and sweep it away but decided screaming was a much more rational option...especially after spotting a second one!!! we should probably admit at this point that they were the size of worms but very long, but still, they were snakes! the screaming seemed to do the trick though and we took shelter under the mozzy net. from then on I was assigned to snake patrol each time we returned from a trip out.
As if snake gate wasn't enough, the following night we had gale force wind, we were quite sure our shed was going to be blown to shreds off the cliff edge. turns out we were both lying there sure that Tom was going to come and fetch us and insist we slept in the house because it was so dangerous. apparently that was nothing though...glad to be leaving!!
Also staying at our resort were 3 German guys who were lovely and friendly, and very good at English!
rhea and dan are both from England but have spent the last year or so in oz and are now on their way home. Dan somehow got renamed Jeremy by one of the Germans but no-one corrected him incase we were actually the ones that had misheard him. turns out not! he returned from the party (hes not sure how) with no phone or key and a new odd pair of shoes! think hes planning on coming back for the next party so he actually remembers it!
Jamie and Andy were on holiday from Australia. Andy is quite possibly the gayest person I've ever met and was certainly making the most of his holiday! he had mentioned meeting someone on the beach that he'd met through grinder, the following evening some random foreigner made the trek up to our resort in search of him. this happened on 2 more occasions, one of which turned out to be a lady boy!

anyway we've had a fab time on the island but are extremely excited to be heading up north! we managed to secure ourselves on a ticket back for 950 baht! which is roughly £20! this includes a taxi from our garden shed to the ferry port, 3 hour ferry back to the main land, 70 km transfer to Surat Thani and a 10 hour overnight bus back to the highlights of Khaosan road, Bangkok! bargain!