Koh Phangan and Koh Tao

We had a lazy morning as we knew we wouldn't be getting any sleep that night. We decided to keep our accommodation on Koh Tao and just get the first ferry back from Koh Phangan which would leave at 8.30am.  We put our faces on (not Andy obviously) and went down to Lotus Hotel at 2pm to catch our taxi to the pier.  The boat was full of people all heading over for the full moon party, some of them already half cut I think. Once on Koh Phangan we took a truck taxi to the beach and the driver was driving so erratically I think he'd been on the sauce too.   Up and down steep hills at crazy speeds and at one point slammed his brakes on so hard that we, about 16 of us, went from filling the whole back of the truck to being rammed into about half of it! Good fun though and we arrived safe and sound at our destination. We went for a wee walk along the streets just up from the beach as we didn't want to start drinking too early. I'm sure our friends will struggle to believe this but myself and Kay were planning to be semi-sensible as we didn't want to lose each other in the 30,000 large crowd.  We had some pizza for dinner, lining the stomach, and headed off to buy ourselves some buckets. The drinks were ridiculously cheap here. Only B200 (£4) for a bucket which had 200mls of whichever spirit you liked along with whichever mixer. So, the equivalent of around six 35ml drinks at home for £4. Happy days. We bought some UV paints and sat for a wee while painting pictures on each other and drinking our buckets. We walked along the beach in search of the best music and saw some amazing fire throwers. Some of the boys looked to be only about 7 or 8 at a push but they were just fantastic. Much better than the older guy. Just shows how fearless you are at that age. We saw a big skipping rope which was on fire too.  There were loads of drunk people getting hit in the face while trying to enter, some did manage it though.  We met some nice Americans and spent the bells with them but unfortunately not long after that I got separated from Kay and Andy in the crowd, despite being pretty sober.  We had made plans to meet at the bar where we had dinner if we got separated but it transpired that although I headed there with the Americans and waited for about an hour, it had taken Kay and Andy over an hour to get from where they were to the bar and so we missed each other.  Later that night Kay and Andy lost each other too in the crowd. We all somehow managed to make it back to the pier in the morning to catch the ferry back to Koh Tao and even though we all lost each other we all had a brilliant new years. 

Once back on Koh Tao we decided to take a traditional 1st of january swim in the sea - not that I've ever done this in Scotland. We all climbed on top of a big (fake) turtle and had some random take our picture on the beach. We met a couple from Liverpool in the taxi back to Sairee beach who were a little worse for wear. She was furious with him, the conversation went a little something like this:

Him - "I don't know why you are so mad, I got you home safe and sound didn't I?"

Her - "the FACT that I am home has NOTHING to do with you! I found you asleep on the ferry!" (throwing her cigarette packet at him!) 

They had lost each other too and she was vowing never to go back to "bloody Koh Phangan".   We headed to brothers after showering for a big breakfast.  Kay and Andy both had a full fry up and I had French toast AND porridge.  We decided it was a day for lazing on the beach but it was so roasting that after a while I decided to go back to brothers, have a cold beer, and use their wifi. We had dinner that night at the restaurant attached to our accommodation which was a lovely wee place right on the beach front. 

The next day we decided to try and head to Krabi for a few days before Andy had to fly back to the UK.  We went across the road from our accommodation to a travel agent but as we were trying to book for the same day we ended up having to get an over night ferry which would mean going back up to Chumphon rather than down Surat Thani which is the closer port to Krabi.  Kay and Andy decided to get some Thai massages done, I opted to go have one (or two) last cold beers at brothers.   Thai massage does not appeal to me, I don't think being pulled in every which way would be relaxing in the least.  We had to leave for the pier at 8pm as even though our ferry wasn't until 11pm we were told that "sometimes ferry leave early, ten, ten thirty maybe".  We were still going to be mega early even if it left at 10 and so we decided to have dinner down at the pier. The ferry was more like a cargo ferry and our "room" was like somewhere the crew should have been sleeping.  It was very hot and very noisy so I think we were above the boiler room.  We all somehow managed to get some sleep before arriving in Chumphon at 5am.  Koh Tao was definitely our favourite place in Thailand and we were all a bit sad to be leaving the beautiful island.