Railey is a peninsular in the south of Thailand, that turns into an island when the tide covers the connecting rock path that join its to the mainland. Having approached it by boat from Ko Phi Phi we landed on the mangrove side of the island. Which meant that jumping out of the boat our feet landed in muddy swamp water!

With the rain pouring we took the advice of a guy we chatted to on the boat and checked in to a nearby resort, but that only lasted one night as it was a dark place a bit from the eateries and bars. Having moved to a better place the next morning we searched for the good beach, a long story short it took hours, but turned out we had gone round in circles and missed the short route.

Walking round had given us chance to see there was nothing to keep us here any longer than the nights stay we had just paid for. So that decided the three of us set to booking a place at our final island stop as it was expected to be busy and followed that on with boat and bus booking.

Twenty four hours later we had arrived on the much bigger island of Ko Phangan, it turned out the accommodation was cheaper than we expected but on a cliff edge with a balcony overlooking the sea! So without hesitation it was bags down and out for a look, not one of us could believe our luck after a short walk to the beach with gorgeous views and a beach lined unobtrusively with restaurants.

For our first couple of days we had no inclination to anything other than eat, sleep, swim and sunbath either at the pool or on the beach.

We had it easy in terms of eating with a restaurant next door to the accommodation offering meal deals on local foods and shakes to send your taste buds wild! However we decided one night to go adventurous and eat at a beach restaurant where you chose your seafood off of ice before it is barbecued. Sadly this did not live up to expectations for its price and a retreat to the meal deal place was the order of future meals.

The island is pretty big and transport around it is some what expensive, but with the roads having little traffic at any one time we decided scooters would be our best bet. This selection was with care and a slow start while everyone got used to the roads and bikes, not like the usual brand of stupidly intoxicated tourists on scooters sure to come unstuck!

Over the course of an afternoon and next morning we covered a lot of ground taking in some nice views and even climbing the odd palm tree! (you’ll see what we mean). Our main visit though was to a town called Haad Rin to survey the layout, as the next night we would be right there on the beach for the famous “Full Moon Party”, a major event attracting around 30,000 people a time.

While in Haad Rin we had bought some fluorescent paint and on the day of the party set to painting some funky designs on each other, we turned out to be quite the artistic types too. Carina and Alicia donning the flower power while David made use of his tattoo and Buddha style DJ dude.

A strange set of happenings had led to us finding a company doing a return ticket for transport to and from the party as it was about an hour from where we were staying and yes staying that far away was on purpose, in order to avoid the room break ins and flea pit hostels.

Once wrist tagged and into the event we set to work on finding drinks, a different task to what you would expect as all drinks come in buckets!! Yes buckets, the type you would build a sandcastle with. You chose your spirit which happens to be the whole bottle, followed by your mixer, add ice and some straws and the jobs a good one.

With powerful bucket of loopy juice, painted bodies and neon lights the cameras were clicking and flashing like new toys. The result of our handy work was pretty impressive even if we say so ourselves and we were making the most of it. Wondering around the beach it was easy entertainment between the music and the uncountable amount of people laid in messy states on the beach and even in the sea! Lets say you wouldn’t want to lay on that beach or swim in the sea the day after this one.

While away from the beach finding the proper toilets we stumbled across some orphaned paints and brush, so set to work once again jazzing ourselves up that bit more! Surprisingly this turned out well considering the strength of the fuel we were sucking out of the beach buckets, so back to the lights we went for more photographic evidence for the next day.

Once back sat on the beach and talking among ourselves we had lost track of time and before we knew it we had partied ourselves into the early hours, a rude surprise came when some how we ended up sucking a mixture of our drinks and sand through our straws! At this point we decided it was time to leave while we were still happy.

Our return ticket ensured we didn’t have to bargain a price to get back and there was a pickup taxi waiting for anyone ready to leave. What seemed a much wobblier ride back landed us at our much needed beds around 04:00 am leaving only the sod of a job to get the paint off before sleep time.

Check out time the next day was 10am as we had chosen to leave the island while most would still be unconscious! At midday just before our taxi came to get us to the ferry another taxi pulled up, out of the back stumbled a shoeless very drunk guy on his own, covered from head to foot in paint that could have been put on by a child! After looking at us confused as we laughed at him, he swayed off down the hill looking for his room and most likely in a few hours his friends, wallet and memory!!