(9 November)

Woke up the next morning to a guy in the next bed leaving, which was just as well because apparently my alarm hadn't gone off and it was half 6! So I threw everything in my bag and hurried round to Scott's hostel...and he had slept through his alarm too! Epic fail! We were ok though cos we had left ourselves plenty of time, so I woke him up and we got a taxi fairly easily. Check in etc was smooth enough, we had McDonalds for breakfast (don't judge us!) and a wee donut :) then got on our plane with a big smiley face on it to Nathon Si Thammarat. Had a minor fright because my day pack which I had zipped onto my big rucksack was hanging by like a cm, so close to losing it! But apart from that everything seemed to be going smoothly, straight on a bus for the pier where we would catch a boat to the island! Unfortunately, the flight times had been changed to a few hours later because of the bangkok flooding...it turned out that the ferry times hadn't! So we had a lovely 4 hour wait at the pier for the ferry. It wasn't too bad because it was really pretty and I essentially sunbathed and finished my book (got burnt to a crisp though! Awkward strap marks anyone?). Was reading the one Claire gave me because she couldn't read any more called Don't Tell Mummy...not the most pleasant read because it's about child abuse, but once i got into it it was good! By the time we got on the boat we were just sick of travelling but still had a few hours until we arrived at Thong Sala, the pier on Koh Phangan.

Unfortunately, in our infinite wisdom from back in edinburgh when we were booking the hostel, we had gone for the mega cheap option - which was easily 45 mins from both the pier and the main party beach Haad Rin, an the big tuk tuk style taxis were not as cheap as expected! If I ever went back I would definitely stay closer to the main beach!
So we found a tuk tuk going our direction an jumped in. I'm going to try and explain how these things work. It basically big enough for about 10 people, possibly 12 at a push with all our bags on the roof. This lady decided it was fine for 14 people! She told two of them to hang on the back standing up. Worst part was, it wasn't even the last people to get on who had to jump on the back, it was the first to get off, so the poor couple who had got on just after us were instructed to get off and let everyone else on then hang off the back! Haha. It was mad. They started to complain that they shouldn't be paying as much, but it was a losing battle as they didn't really have much choice except to go with her! So she refused, collected all our money, and then for some reason (must've been a mistake!) she handed this guy hanging off the back all our money!! He was just like what the hell! And she didn't even realise so he ended up doing very well out of it considering we all gave her about 200BHT! Seriously the most bizarre journey of my life. Add to all that that 8 of the people were a group from Essex - I genuinely felt like I was on The Only Way Is Essex... Mad.

We eventually got to our hostel, to meet another mad lady who ran the hostel, and were led up a hill in the pitch black to the hut we would be staying in. The hut was nice enough, but had a pile of rucksacks in it, so for a second we thought we had been given someone else's room! Lol. Turned out it was all fine though...

Once we had showered etc and felt a bit more human we went to the receptiony area of the hostel down the hill. It was actually really nice, so chilled out. We had food there which was awesome!! Really nice and cheap enough. They had a system where you just write down everything you buy in a book and then pay when you check out which was a wee bit weird.

After dinner we took another long tuk tuk to Haad Rin to meet Anna and Hollie from my tour at Anna's hostel. It was pretty cool, basic but very sociable and in a good bit of town. We went down to the beach to see what was going on.

Ok so, the full moon party is a huge party on the night of the full moon every month on this beach. They also have half moons, and parties in between, but this is the big thing most people go to Phangan for. This was the night before the actual full moon, but the party had already been building up for a few days. It was pretty mental. Loads of fire spinners which were cool, fire skipping ropes (we were later told that the people spinning them burned people on purpose because they get commission from the clinics if they bring them in!), loads of people! The beach was lined with tiny makeshift bucket stalls, each person selling their own version of what is essentially the same thing. Each bucket is basically a beach bucket filled with typically half and half (or slightly more alcohol) alcohol and mixer of your choice. I got mine from a nice lady who when she heard I was from Ireland started speaking Irish! In a thick Thai accent haha, but it was class. She was cool too and gave me 20BHT off the standard 200, and filled my bucket up to the top with coke for me (don't know how people drink it with so little mixer!). So I had essentially got enough drink to last me the night for about £4!

Absolutely mad, we sat at a table for a bit and one of Anna's friends got a Shisha pipe...I've heard mixed reports about whether these have flavoured tobacco or just flavoured steam, but I tried a wee bit and wasn't fussed so at least that's it off the list lol. After our buckets we went to the big pool party at Coral Bungalows, a hotel round the corner. Apparently it was a bit dead compared to other nights but I thought it was good! Basically just a bar with a pool. Met some guys from Belfast and it was all pretty good craic! Scott ended up going back with Hollie (she uses the term "boyfriend" quite a bit more loosely than I would...) and I went back to Anna's rather than go all the way back to ours. I lost my flip flops at the pool party but managed to pick up another pair somehow...apparently flip-flops don't stay with their owner for long in Asia...