There isn't an aweful lot to talk about for the last week or two (I don't even know how long I have been here!) that I have been in the Islands. It has been a fantastic time, but has basically consisted of beaches, sunbathing, diving, and a bit of drinking but a whole lot of chilling.

Koh Samui

I flew into Koh Samui from Siem Reap (Cambodia) and was too late for teh last ferry over to Koh Phagnan so I only spent a night here. First thing in the morning I got the ferry over to Phagnan. I wanted to get to this island as soon as possible as it was building up to the Full Moon Party and the island get very booked up in the days leading up to the party.

Koh Phagnan

Koh Phagnan is the party island. This is where the Full Moon Part is and Haad Rin is the centre of it all. A very built up Kao San road type of resort and the type of town I really didn't want to stay in. Fortunately I had some friends staying in a place called Bottle Beach on the North of the island, so I went up and met them there.

Bottle Beach was a little bit of Paradise. It was a fairly quiet beach, but a gorgeous one at that. There were beach parties every night, but these were very laid back realxing affairs with everyone just sitting on the beach, drinking and watching fire shows; guys twirling stich or balls on chains that are on fire... very impressive. I'll try to get some decent footagfe of them at some point.

After a few days in Bottle Beach we decided to move one cove around to a new resort (although the name escapes me now!) which was similar but had a slightly more upbeat athmosphere.

I managed to get in two dives from this beach, going out to a dive site called Sail Rock. it was a pretty cool dive site and great to get some action after my PADI course a couple of weeks ago. I had no problems with the dive and feel very comfortable in the water. I think this is something I am going to enjoy! And I have a LOT of opportunities to dive over the coming months.

The 31st July..... Full Moon Party night.

Some of our friends had moved over to Haad Rin a couple of days before the party so they were closer to the action, but the rest of us stayed where we were. We liked the chilled athmosphere and had also heard of rooms and bungalows being broken into and cleared out while travellers were at the full moon party. We felt much safer in the North.

The Full Moon Party was a really good laugh. You have such high expectations of it because it is so infamous with travellers. It is THE party in South East Asia. I had a feeling that something coming with such high expectations ran the risk of being similar to a New Years Eve party... they never quite live up to the hype.

We got a boat around to Haad Rin from our beach and arrived around 11pm (still early for this party). It was already in full swing and a half hour after arriving , just enough time to get a Samesung bucket and some body paint, I managed to loose everybody! I was fairly drunk at the time so spent a couple of hours just walking up and down the beach taking it all in... them maybe an hour asleep on the beach outside a bar playing Johnny Cash and other music from this Genre. When I woke up again I had a bit more of a walk down the beach and stopped to dance in some of the more dancy tents. I got chatting to quite a few people and eventually met up with a couple of my friends, who had also lost everyone else!

We all converged at the point where we were meant to get our boat home (about 3 hours earlier) and found everyone else... and even a few other friends who were there. We finally got a boat home around 9:30am.

Koh Tao

It is well known that people sleep all day after the Full Moon Party and then on the 3rd they head over to Koh Tao, and it can get VERY tough to find decent accomodation. We had decided to toughen up and go the day after the party. So after 2 hours sleep, still drunk and feeling terrible, Gordon, Jamie and me got on the Cat to the island. Is was pretty busy with other people having the same idea, so I ended up sitting on a stool at the back of teh boat next to smelly toilets and a smelly bin. I was so close to throwing up for the first time on this trip, but managed to save it.

We finally made it to Koh Tao and headed straight for the main traveller beach of Sai Ri. We found some nice bungalows, checked in and slept!

The rest of teh time in Koh Tao has been much the same as life before the party. Chilled out, sunbathing in the day and tehn hitting Lotus Bar in the evening. I have to say I have never ever seen so many HOT.. and I mean gorgeous women in one place.. and on a beach. I really think I am in heaven here. In fact, I may never leave!

Gordon and myself have managed to get 4 dives in while we are here as well. 2 days of 2 dives each in the morning, giving us chance to get the tan going in the afternoons. The first dive was a Chumphon (probably spelt wrong) where I was buddied up with a nice dutch girl and our group also had a couple from LA. I had met the couple before on one or two occasions and they were very LA... very high maintenance. They hadn't dived in about a year, so had been through a refresher course the day before, but they were terrible. The girl couldn't get her buoyancy sorted at all, so we spent virtually our whole dive waiting for her to sort herself out. The instructor said afterwards that we only got to see about a third of the dive site. I was mightily pissed off. I did still get to see some Grey Reef Sharks which was pretty awesome. Diving with sharks, who would have though it!

Fortunately instructor didn't let the LA couple dive again as they were unfit to be in teh water (his words, nto mine) so I buddied up with Gordon. The second dive was much better and we got to see some pretty cool marine life (no sharks this time though!)

Our second day diving was pretty much the same as the first day (apart from the LA couple). The first dive of the seond day was a bit dissapointing as there wasn't much to see down there, but the second dive was much better with a whole range of fish and coral to look at (notice how I am not telling you what they are... I might need to learn my fish!) I bought an underwater disposable camera and got some shots... so if I can get them put on CD in the next few days I will upload them. They'll probably be rubbish though.

I think that I will go for my Advanced diving certificate as soon as possible, so I can go on some deeper dives and have a bit more flexibility. I am already at 10 dives and should get a LOT more over the coming months. I might even try to build up my diving qualifications. The idea of snowboarding in the winter and diving in the summer is rather appealing right now.. but it would be HARD to give up the well paid city job! The lifestyle would SOOOO suit me though.

Tomorrow I am heading over to the other side to see Phi Phi, Phuket and Crabbie beach.