We got up early for our departure to Koh Phangan, but unfortunately the receptionist didn't and our goods were locked in the safety deposit box. Panicking that we would miss our bus we started knocking on doors in the hope that she lived in the guest house. The guests were a bit disgruntled! While Lyndsay was in the street praying the bus wouldn't leave without us Inspector Hunter tried a few more doorknobs and came across a thai lady's flat. She was in her dressing gown and shower cap and a bit surprised to see Lynnith. Paid off though as she had the key we required. Typical thai style the bus was half an hour late anyway. When we say bus we mean shoebox on wheels. 9 of us packed in like sardines for 4 hours on the rollercoaster the thai's refer to as roads. An hour and a half wait in what can only be described as a prison cell followed. We were pleased when the luxury coach pulled up to take us to the pier, however James Bond would have been impressed with the way this thing took corners!!! We didn't know you could travel on 2 wheels for over an hour. Everyone on the bus had been stitched up with the boat tickets and we all had to pay more money if we wanted to leave straight away on the express boat. Needless to say after our road traumas we paid up and were happy to get on our new preferred mode of transport - THE BOAT! Boat journey was uneventful. Caught a jeep taxi to Haad Rin. Whaaaaaa........ Hanging out the back of an open sided and open backed jeep climbing up and down 180 degree hills at 700mph should have been expected really, why were we surprised?!?! The thought of finding accommodation, humphing our backpacks around after 10 hours of hair raising travel was not appealing but we set off trudingly along with everyone else. Imagine our surprise when the first set of bungalows we visited had an air-con bungalow right on the beach! A bit pricey but so central we thought we would take it. We were a bit disappointed when we opened the bungalow door and were greeted with decor from the 1970's (not style but age!), illuminous tartan wooly blankets, and a sandpit in the bathroom. Sitting on the bed we realised we'd be as well lying on a wooden plank with a log for a pillow. Luckily we'd only paid for 1 night and were confident we'd find somewhere better that evening. Clearly every other traveller had the same idea and you couldn't sell your granny to get a room. Apart from the decor we were feeling fortunate that we'd actually managed to get accommodation in Haad Rin and in such a good location. Hmmm........ Roll on 9:30pm, we're both tucked up in bed with our books planning a restful evening when what we thought was a chill-out bar / restaurant on our doorstep turned into a full-on hardcore drum & bass rave. We could actually feel the music vibrating through our chest. This continued till 5:30am and needless to say we only managed a few hours sleep. Matching our moods the next day the sun did not put in an appearance. Spent the day eating and watching videos in a bar and decided to get thoroughly smashed that night. Lets face it it was the only way we were sleeping through the noise. We got a tad excited when we came across the Outback Bar and the Warmup Bar "NOT EVERYONE UNDERSTANDS HOUSE MUSIC, ITS A SPIRITUAL THING, ITS A SOUL THING......" Yes, we found some bars with proper music and DJ's. After downing a bucket and several vodkas, dancing and singing our hearts out we made our way to the bars / clubs set on the beach. Cactus bar was the busiest but reminiscent of Koh Phi Phi the hot boys were barely past puberty and with attitude problems. Spent a lot of the evening chatting to a couple of irish guys and getting more and more pissed. Lyndsay was in good form, Lynne however was tired and emotional and getting narked with the amount of t*** trying to imitate our accent. Staggered home around 4am feeling no pain. Xmas Eve - Complete Wash Out. Spent a massively hungover day trying to get some sun, trying to keep food down, and trying to be excited about Xmas. Eventually the excesses of the night before caught up on Lyndsay and she had to make a mad dash from the bar back to the bungalow. Lynne was not impressed, she was watching a Jude Law film and had to leave early!!! By the time 4am in the morning elapsed and we were still awake to the sounds of banging drum & bass there was about to be a gory murder to the DJ / MC. If we heard one more chant of "get your f***ing hands in the air its xmas f***ing eve" or "wait for the bass line" he was gonna get a swift kick in his bass line! It was so bad that we spent all of Xmas morning trailing Haad Rin again looking for somewhere else to stay. We finally came across cell block H, stone walls and floor, bars on windows, no bathroom BUT peace and quiet. We snapped it up gleefully and decided we'd use it to sleep in and keep the drum & bass shed for showering and bathroom trips from the beach. We cheered up after some breakfast and exchanging presents. We now own half a backpack each of accessories! Spent Xmas day on the beach - sunbathing, playing in the waves and "people watching". Xmas turkey dinner was booked for 5pm in the Outback bar. We didn't quite know what to expect but there was lots of smiles and hand clapping when we were greeted with the sight of lots of travellers and the sounds of pumping house tunes. What a way to eat Xmas dinner. We had a big slavering dog on our shoulder, its name was Andy, he was from London and became our new best friend for the next 3 days!!!! It was great to speak to someone who was over 25 with a sense of humour, an appreciation of house music and who was impressed with our madness. We spent several hours drinking wine, dancing and doing catwalk struts around the bar. We taught Andy how to catwalk too! We were in the bar till 10:30pm when we remembered we had to make some phonecalls home (sorry about the drunken chat) and then we moved onto the beach bars again. Only this time we went with the preferred option of the big boom bar and more house music. Several buckets were consumed, an australian called Carl was befriended and much dancing was had. Oh Hilarity Hilarita! More than made up for our disaster of a Xmas Eve. Boxing Day was spent on the beach with Andy. The poor man was grilled and interrogated on male points of views all day! Don't think he'd quite met a couple of nutters like us before. Bless him he took it well. So, in other words while you all thought we'd been swept away on a tidal wave we were chilling unoblivious to your trauma! We only found out about the disaster when we returned to the bungalow and switched our mobile phones on. Panicking hysterically we ran for cover in the backpackers information centre where we were reassured that it was the other side of the country and a different sea that had been affected. We had only been there 3 days before and were slightly shell shocked that these places had now been wiped out. As they say timing is everything and we had a full moon party to prepare for........ After a few hours kip and a few hours beautifying ourselves we hit the beach at midnight, buckets in tow! Whal, whal, whal. The beach was rocking with around 5000 party goers and some amazing tunes. Applauso for the DJ in big boom bar, applauso for him. We met Andy and his mates Matt, Claire and her sister and crazy boyfriend and spent the next 8 hours drinking and dancing our asses off on the beach. Complete carnage everywhere! We went for a stroll around 6:30am when they were lighting the full moon party fire sign and came across a few states / sights. People face down in the sand and couples fornicating in the sea, it was wicked! By 7am it was like someone had flicked a switch and it was daylight all of a sudden. You could really see the tragic state of some revellers by that point. We were the exception and were still looking glamorous. All evening we had been approached by men with cameras and video recorders wanting to take our photos. Fabulous darlin' fabulous! We fell into a coma around 8am and didn't really surface until late afternoon and even then it was just to pack, check our emails and eat some comfort food. It felt like we'd been in Koh Phangan forever! We'd had a great time and were sad to leave but couldn't wait to get to our pre-booked luxury apartment with swimming pool in Koh Samui. Andy came to see us off at the boat, he was a true gentleman and carried our backpacks. We felt sad to leave him distraught on the pier. He was a shadow of his former self! (he knows we're joking.......) A GREAT TIME WAS HAD BY ALL. A VERY MERRY XMAS.