So we're hitting 6 destinations in two and a half weeks - alot to be done and seen but it has been AMAZING.
Phuket was next on the list after Phi Phi - we were however very conscious of our timings - needing to be in Ko Phangan for the 6th ish in order to be able to have accomadation sorted ahead of the full moon party on the 10th. Due to shocking weather conditions - severe lightning storms and rain, forecast for the whole week, Phuket was a flying visit - lovely hostel where we met some nice people and went for dinner with them but we booked ourselves onto an early ferry and bus over to Ko Samui - after a total of 17 hours in Phuket! Another time maybe!
Ko Samui was another classic paradise location - sights becoming all too familiar with us now, although you'd be hard pushed to hear any complaints out of either of us! On the journey over we made the acquaintance of a famous Korean tv star - a Canadian brother of a once very popular UFC fighter Denis Kang. Nice guy but his girlfriend, a Korean woman was quite the opposite - we got the feeling that she knew perfectly well how to speak English but just chose not to! Her loss! Julian told us a great story about being on a celebrity boxing show where he was matched up against a Korean pop star - before the fight the pop star asked me to hit him only in the body, he could take them...just not to hit his face! Julian dutifully obliged by pounding his body and knocking him out with a liver shot! We found ourselves a nice bungalow right on the beach, a very romantic setting! The main area in Ko Samui is Chaweng beach - a 6km stretch of resorts one end, beach bars and restaurants in the middle and bungalows at the other. We had a nice 15 minute walk down towards the bars along the white sand water's edge (again very romantic for us...starting to get worried...). We really liked the buzz of the bars on the beach, low sitting tables laid out all along the stretch with music pumping and Chiang in mighty supply! In yet MORE cases of small world syndrome we met two Finnish girls from Chiang Mai (go Jonas!) and also a bunch of lads from Dublin who I used to play hurling against! We debated whether or not to do some touristy visitis during the day...or to just flake on the beach - no prizes for guessing which one won out! This tan isn't going to colour itself! There was no debate about what to do in the evenings - our romantic 15 minute stroll down to the bars for some drinks and banter. Turns out not everyone we meet is fantastic - got chatting to a Canadian guy one night who seemed at first to be good fun and a laugh - but he quickly descended into an annoying drunk who was just looking for trouble, not for us! We ditched him and had our faith restored by a table of Swedes - a fantastically fun bunch who we quickly got in to a bucket race with over conversation of how unbelievably rockstar Gareth and myself are. A great night was had by all and the best thing about it was that they, like so many, were heading to Ko Phangan for the full moon.
Ko Phangan....Hat Rin....Full Moon Party....the countdown had begun! We arrived on the 6th, giving us what we had hoped would be plenty time to sort out accomadation. On the advice of many people we looked for accomadation away from Hat Rin where the party is held - between noise, security and price is wasn't worth it. So we went in search of Eden Garden, one beach up in a place called Hat Yuan. The accomodation gods had been good to us so far - without booking
anything in advance we've been landing in places and get sorted out. Luck ran out in Hat Yuan - Eden Garden was all booked out and so was the place beside it, but they would really nice and said they may be able to sort something out for us in an hour or so and thankfully he came through for us, a nice little bamboo hut in the hills over looking the beach. We were sharing with 3 of us having picked up Jonas the Great Dane (from Chiang Mai) and it was only a double bed so I had myself some hammock sleeping for a few nights - not too bad though because the mosquitos don't come out at night. So it was really nice to have our quiet beach away from the noise and madness of Hat Rin - we would spend the days chilling in the sun and sea, then hop on a water taxi around to the next beach for partying during the night. We would begin most nights in the same fashion - pad thai from our favourite spot (50 baht/€1.25 for a filling plate), then hit our local and loyal bucket vendor Joe for some of Samsung's finest rum. Pre drinking would take place on the Swedes porch - drinking games, Pontus serenading us with his songs, handing out 
rockstar points (Alex becoming the first certified rockstar of the Swedes - well done son!) and learning some Swedish - we spent so much time with the guys that I'm pretty certain I now fully understand Swedish....Hall Kaften!! Hilaaaaarious :) One of the best nights was Kim-Day - one of the girls had been sick and on anti-biotics so this was her first night on the tear - dutifully celebrated with a day in her honour! Buckets and body paint dominated the evening! One disaster to report...my camera was stolen from the beach and with it 300 photos that I had yet to back up....absolutely gutted about it. So I'm camera-less until Bangkok when hopefully I will pick one up cheap enough. The week in Ko Phangan culminated in the Full Moon party on the 10th of March...we had hoped that it would live up to the hype - we had heard so much about it. And every word about it was true!! One of the best nights either of us have ever had - around 10,000 people descended upon Hat Rin which meant we bumped into a ton of people we had met along the way. The beach was insanity...everyone dancing, bucketing and in some cases sand wrestling! We were having a great time until we met the two young English lads from Phi Phi - one of whom was very worse for wear. After some unsuccessful attempts to get him home, we 
carried him to a medical centre to be looked after. With our good deed done for the day we went back in search of our buzz, dangerously close to being dead after seeing the lads. Thankfully 45 minutes of the funniest dancing ever in a jungle drum and bass bar sorted it out for us - the three of us hopping about the place like crazies! Heading back down to the main dance area of the beach we picked up some more people and danced until the sun came up, and longer still! My head finally hit the pillow at about 10.30am - tired but content! Spent the evening regalling stories of the night gone - absolutely hilaaaaarious! Had to say goodbye to Alex/Benny, Ponty and Bjorn - sad to see them go but delighted to have met them.Our final stop in the islands was Ko Tao for the all too short spell of one night - we would loved to have stayed and done a diving course but we had to be in Bangkok for the 14th as we were flying to Cambodia the next day. We spent the day still recovering from the full moon on the beach and swimming - Jonas booked himself into a diving course so we were able to get cheap accomodation where alot of the other guys had trouble finding a place. That night we had our "going away" party - we would be leaving Jonas, Team Sweden and the English look-a-likes in Ko Tao - a sad farewell but a great session with a serious Chiangover the next day. So here we find ourselves...another nasty night bus...won't be getting any sleep - that I can promise. Our adventure in Thailand has all but come to an end - one month since we left Ireland and already countless memories. If next month is half as fun as the last we are in for a serious treat - very excited to see Cambodia...a place steeped in history...tragic and triumphant.
(Thanks Kim for the pictures...like)
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