We here and ready for the legendary Full Moon Party! Wooooooooooohoooooooooo!!!

We arrived at around midday after an overnight bus from Bangkok to Chumpon, and then a ferry to the island. We thought it'd be really difficult to find accommodation and stupidly expensive what with the Full Moon Party being only 2 nights away but we were so lucky - as soon as we got out of the taxi at Haad Rin we found a woman who took Rich on her motorbike to see a bungalow at a place called Cozy Inn whilst I waited with the bags. It was gorgeous, set in a backdrop of forest covered mountains and only 5 mins from the party beach... and only 700 Bhat (about £14). It's more than we'd normally pay but cheap for where we are and when! So we took it! We were starvin Marivin so went straight to the 7Eleven around the corner and bought crisps, bread and sausage ham and just sat on a curb munching away... scrummy!

We were both surprised at how gorgeous Koh PhaNgan is, even Haad Rin - we assumed it would be a bit scruffy being a party place (you know how us Westerners like to ruin everything!) but it's absolutley stunning. Haad Rin is split into two beaches only 5 mins apart - one on the West known as Sunset Beach and one on the East known as Sunrise Beach... this is the Full Moon Party Beach! Sunset beach was so quiet - there was nobody on the beach at all! We came across a place called Coral Bungalows which we'd read about in the LP - it has infamous pool parties and the last one before the FMP was being held that night, so that was our first night sorted! You could use the pool for free in the day too so we stayed there for a bit before walking back down the beach and up through to the streets for a most round the shops. On our way we asked at a couple of places how much their accommodtion was and found some bungalows for 400 Bhat which were fully booked but the owner told us to check in the morning because people might check out.

After showering and grabbing a falaffel pita we were off to the Coral Pool party - they put on a free taxi (called sawgantheaw's which are basically pick-up trucks with benches in the back!) so we jumped on one and couldn't believe it when we saw kids driving it!!! We asked one of the kids how old the driver was an they said 19 but we reckoned about 12! Thailand!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was only a 2 min drive to the party which was heaving! There were only a few in the pool at first but by the end of the night you couldn't see the water for people! We were knackered though after our overnight journey and just had a couple of drinks, people watched and left (we're getting old!).

The following morning (after successfully bagging one of the cheaper bungalows we'd found the day before) we went to Sunrise beach which was even nicer than Sunset Beach! Surrounded by mountains covered in greenary (aka mushroom mountain!), pure white sand and crystal clear sea. It was absolutley packed and loads going on - football tournaments, volleyball nets and music playing from the bars... obviously THE party beach!!!! We spent the day there lazing, had a little picnic of crisps, bread and sausage ham from 7Eleven again (mmmm!), and basically did nothing... bliss! After having staisfactorily bronzed ourselves we just wandered around the shops again (looking for something cheap to wear for the FMP as we'd heard the illuminous body paint you wear stains!). Man U vs Aston Villa was on that night so we had a quiet night watching that in a bar (Rich was happy!) - nothing too heavy cuz tomorrow is the big night, eeeeeeeh!

We'd arranged to meet one of my friends from Leicester and his girlfriend (Liam Quinn and Harriet Nichols) in Koh PhaNgan - they've been travelling the world in the opposite direction to us but were also gonna be in Koh PhaNgan for the FMP! They emailed us to let us know they were staying on Leela Beach which was just down from Sunset Beach so the following day we took a stroll there and found them! It was so nice to see familiar faces from home! I'd never met Harriet before and Rich hadn't met either off them but we all got on instantly! We stayed on the beach for a bit before grabbing some lunch together, then it was off for a nap in prep for the party! We met back up later for some Thai grub to line out guts before purcahsing 4 buckets which each contained a whole bottle of local whisky, M150 (the Thai version of Red Bull), and sprite! Then we started to decorate ourselves with some body paint we purchased earlier! It was so much fun, we spent hours doing it and had to remind ourselves that we had the party to go to! Me and Harriet bought cheap FMP vests from a sale rail (think they were 'out of season'!) which we customised using the body paints! We arrived at the beach at about midnight and it was heaving! There were so many people! There were neon lights put up on scaffolding, slides from above the bars onto the beach, EVERYONE was glowing with neon body paint! People were weeing in the sea... even girls were actually squating in view of the whole beach! Vile! Other than that though it wasn't nearly as rowdy as we've seen on television, it was just a normal party but on the beach. The crowd seemed younger than us in general (which we'd expected) but it was a really good, fun atmosphere. After a few more buckets we were hammered! The night flew by so fast the next thing we knew the sun was coming up, and it was the most amazing sunrise I've seen - the sky was completely red. Me and Harriet had become pests by this point and decided to play in the pissy sea (ew! The things you do when you're drunk!). The boys couldn't get us back in! We ended up leaving the beach at about 7.30am... me and Rich had a ferry to catch to Koh Tao at 11am! It seemed a good idea when we booked it as EVERYONE moves to either Koh Tao or Koh Samui after the FMP so finding accomodation would've been difficult had we left the following day, but most people aren't stupid enough to leave the day after the FMP! But when we slept through the alarm, woke up just before the bus arrived to take us to the port, and had to rush around like headless chickens whilst still drunk, it didn't seem the best idea!!!!!!!! Luckily we made the ferry and were off to Koh Tao... TBC!