Koh Phangan, Thailand

Today was a big travel day starting at 8.30am from Phi Phi and arriving at our accommodatioin in Ko Phagnan in the evening around 7.30pm. All was ok apart from the bus trip which was slow, hot, crowded and with frequent unnecessary stops apparently to shake money out of the passengers at the driver's friends shops....but it was cheap. That said, we are thinking maybe we will not go for the very cheapest buses in future, especially for the longer hauls.Once we unloaded our backpacks we headed down to the beach which was beatiful, quiet and full of bamboo tabled restaurents serving fresh seafood barbecued over coals (amongst other things) while you wait. We're already thinking we might stay here a bit longer than originally planned!

Today we enjoyed breakfast before heading to the beach, getting some cash from the ATM and lining up a one day dive trip for me for tomorrow. Along the way we also hired a scooter (yes I have a licence and my travel insurance will cover me for any mishaps, and I was very very safe mum!) and we headed off on a bit of a tour of the north west of Ko Phagnan.We finished the day with dinner on the beach again which was great.

I had a 7.45am start for my dive trip today out to Sail Rock which is about 15km off the coast of Ko Phagnan to the north. It is reputedly one of the best dive sites in the gulf when the visibility is good so I was really looking forward to it. I was also pretty relaxed about it all as I'd brushed up on all my diving skills back in October when Sandra and I had visited the Great Barrier Reef.The diving was not excellent, but very good and afterwards I was really exhausted from the salt water, the heat, the swimming and the nitrogen in my bloodstream so I tried to have a nap in the arvo to regain some energy before we headed into Hat Rin for the world renowned Full Moon Party tonight.We got a taxi to Hat Rin and eventually made our way to the packed beaches...there were literally thousands of people there partying between the ocean and rows of bars that fronted the beach. An amazing if slightly full on atmosphere, but well worth the effort to see it with our own eyes. We enjoyed a few drinks and stayed a fews hours before heading home around 2am which I think wasn't a bad idea given that not too many people were getting too out of control yet.

Slept in for a while, breakfast and otherwise a quiet day of recovery from both my diving and the Full Moon Party. Beach, food, beer, bed. I think this lifestyle is growing on me!After much thought and discussion Sandra decided to go ahead and start a 4 day open water dive course tomorrow. Yesterday while I was diving, Sandra did an introductory session on the beach with the owner of the dive shop, a nice Austrian guy who, amongst other things, could also speak fluent German and was very experienced and I think this has made all the difference for Sandra which is great.

Day 1 of Sandra's dive course so I was left to my own devices...which consisted mostly of lying in the hammock enjoying a good book, a swim at the beach and before I knew it Sandra was finished for the day. She said it had been a good but challenging day, but it seems to me she is doing really great so I hope she sticks it out for the next few days so we can enjoy some diving together once she's certfied.Today we also moved from our crappy, crappy overpriced hotel where the staff were awful and the service was worse to a fantastic bungalow which is so, so much better and a third the price. What a nice relief! With Sandra's dive course having three days to run and the nice scenery and cheap accommodation we are now probably going to stay here until the end of the week.

Day 2 of Sandra's dive course today...rough start in the morning as we experienced our first non-airconditioned night of the trip....although the fan was actually quite good and I'm sure we'll adjust quickly. In fact it isn't as hot here in Ko Phagnan as many other places, though probably doesn't drop lowere than mid 20's overnight.Today I again enjoyed my book and did some catching up on emails, my travel journal and read a few chapters of my book in the hammock. Really is nice to be staying in one place for a few days I must admit and without filling all the time up with non-stop activities.Sandra seems to have made more progress today with her diving which is great and tomorrow she is heading out on the boat for two dives at the Marine Park and will be doing a further two dives at Sail Rock on Thursday. I will probably join her one of the two days, at the moment I'm thinking Thursday would be good as I'd like to give sSail Rock another try with better visibility hopefully.

Day 3 of Sandra's dive course. I can't really remember what I did...but most likely lying in a hammock reading a book most of the day. In fact, yes, now that I think about it I was mostly reading and I finished my first book of the trip -The Night Gardener by George Pelacanos. Not a bad read, kind of a crime/detective genre set in Washington DC...the author was also a writer for the very successful Baltimore based television series The Wire so if you like that you might like this book too.

Day 4 of Sandra's dive course...and she passed the final exam with flying colours! Sandra and her fellow students (a Malaysia couple) had to finish all 5 chapters of the text book and do an exam before doing "Chapter 6" which required downing a jug of Thai rum and coke as fast as possible. We decided not to do any more diving here though even though Sandra is now certified as the visibility has not been the best. Hopefuly we can find some good diving in Vietnam or possibly Cape Town.Today I also started reading my second book, this one was left behind in the room that we moved to and it would not have been my first choice: Hedge Fund Wives. I'll report back on how it goes later.

Today we went for a bit of a hike about 4km north up the coast from Haad Yao to Ko Ma beach from where you can walk across the sandbar a short distance to Ko Ma beach. We did some snorkelling for an hour or so which was quite good, although the tide was out which made it quite tough to get out into the deeper water through lots of shallow, rocky, coral and seaweed. But well worth doing.

We had a pretty quiet day today and enjoyed our new and much improved room at JB Hut (there was some major construction happening just below us from 8am even on the weekend!). To our surprise the new room had a better view, a fridge, a tv for the same price, nice one.In the afternoon we did some more snorkelling at Haad Yao beach which was quite good and then some dinner and a fairly quiet night.

Today is our last day in Koh Phangan so we decided to make the most of it but doing another motorcycle tour (we were extra careful on the roads and took it very easy). First we headed south to Thong Sala where we stopped in at a budhist monastary which is run by a Aussie/US husband and wife for the last 20 years which specialises in 10 day retreats where you live to a strict schedule with total silence. Sandra had got a rave review from another German she met through her diving so we were curious to check it out. 10 days is a big commitment though and both of us were not really sure it would be for us and in any event the next retreat wasn't due to start until 13 March so logistics would be difficult regardless.Next stop after a long ride up and down steep hills and bumpy dirt roads was the Than Sadet waterfalls which Lonely Planet had talked up...unfortunately it wasn't really worth all the effort as there was barely more than a trickly of water flowing over a few rocks. Perhaps in the wet season it might be spectacular though if the water volume was much higher. Despite the disappointing waterfalls, overall I did really enjoy the motorcycle ride though so was still a good experience.We drove back up through the main road up the centre of Koh Phangan then via Haad Salat and stopped off briefly to say our farewells to the staff at Haad Yao Divers, including a very friendly Turkish guy by the name of Jener who was travelling and diving his way around Thailand for a few weeks. Jener was also staying at JB Hut so we arranged to meet for dinner and a few drinks and had some great conversation. We exchanged emails and Jener invited us to come diving with him in Turkey some time in the future once we have made our way to London which was really nice.To bed after that to enjoy our last night in the bungalow before a big travel day tomorrow to Bangkok.