Koh Phangan

We checked out of hotel about 12pm and left for Phangan. On the ferry ride over we met an English girl called Rachel who was also keen to check out the other island. And as we got off the ferry and started the very tedious search for accommodation we met an English guy called Chris. Although the four of us had literally just met, we decided to find a room together to cut down on costs. It was really weird and random the four of us bunking in together but we kinda felt we'd known each other longer than the hour or so we'd spent together. We ended up slumming it together for the next 4 nights, paying around £1.50 a night

Playing with fire

In the evening we went down to Haad Rin beach where they hold the full moon party and found a cool little bar/club called the Drop in bar. Here they were playing with fire by having guys entertain customers by using poi - a form of swinging fire around to give a weird trippy effect. They then got out a huge rope and set it a light for anyone stupid enough to want to stand in the middle and skip while two guys swung it round and round. We watched several people really hurt themselves on it. But it wasn't long before Matt, sufficiently inebriated, decided it would be a good idea to join in. It didn't work out as planned, he ran into the fire but unfortunately his judgement was slightly impaired and he forgot to jump - literally just running and falling into the rope, falling over it. Although very funny to watch, Matt's skin instantly burnt off. After a bit of first aid by Rachel, he managed to carry on to the next phase of the night...

Half moon party

After playing with fire for a bit, Matt, Chris and Rachel decided to head into the jungle for the half moon party. Drew decided that his body needed rest after partying too hard the night before and headed home for a relatively early night. After a short taxi ride, there was this huge rave in the jungle with trance blaring out of the sound system, and a few thousand hedonistic ravers throwing shapes all over the place. This was a well organised event, with psychedelic shapes, face paint and a lot of people severely wasted! It was a great party and, predictably at an event of this size, everyone lost each and returned at different intervals in the early hours of the morning with Rachel not even making it back the next night! Matt's taxi decided to run out of petrol on the very last hill getting back into Haad Rin, which ended up in the taxi turning around and travelling about 20 minutes back the other way to get petrol. So near yet so far! This turned a simple 10 minute journey into a lovely pointless 1 hour excursion at silly o'clock in the morning with 10 drunken ravers complaining in the back.

We were on Phangan for a quite a few days but didn't really do anything exciting since our first day. Matt has been out of action because of his leg, not being able to go in the water for the last 4 days or so and Drew has been struggling with a sickness bug. I can't think of a much better place to chill out and do nothing though. It's a very beautiful and lazy place.

Phi Phi

Unfortunately our time in Thailand is quickly running out so we flipped a coin as to whether we should move on to Koh Tao or Phi Phi; heads said Phi Phi won. We spent a whole day travelling across the middle of Thailand in baking heat and arrived late afternoon. We prearranged accommodation and although we're paying slightly more than we'd like to, we're now staying in relative luxury. We cannot tell you how good it is to have a toilet with a flush and comfortable air conditioning.