From the main Bangkok train station, we caught an overnight train that brought us to the southern town of Surat Thani. We purchased tickets for a first class sleeper, which meant that we had our own air conditioned bunk bed on the train. The train was great, and we arrived in Surat Thani early the next day. At the station, we, along with tons of other backpackers were hearded like cattle onto buses and transported to the port, where we were loaded onto a huge ferry, heading to Ko Pha Ngan. The boatride was 5 hrs long. While on the boat, we were approached by a number of guys trying to rent out their "resorts". According to the locals, anything with beds and a sink can be called a resort. The guys made us nervous by saying that all the resorts would be full (due to the full moon party) so we found one guy that had a nice brochure and agreed to go with him.

On the island we were driven to the "resort" and were very disappointed. It is true that there were huts right on the beach, but the huts were old and delapitated with a bathroom that made a swamp look more attractive. After 5 seconds in the room, we realized that this was not going to do and we decided to look for something better. Right next door, we found a cute resort that was owned by a French hippie couple. We agreed to "splurge" and rent their best hut, which was 20 feet from the water and had an amazing view (not to mention a tiled bathroom). While it lacked air conditionning and a flushing toilet (plumbing on the island is very poor) it did have some charm, a hammock, and even a hanging picture or two on the walls. We agreed to pay the 300 Baht ($12) room rate, which was high by backpacker standards.

After a French style lunch (we ate French fries and Le Pepsi) we decided to walk down the beach to explore the island. The beach was nice and better than Malaysia but still a little grainy. The tide was out so the water level was very shallow. We walked for about 40 minutes and were amazed that we could not seem to find all the backpackers that were on our boat. While we were told their were lots of people on the island for the full moon party, they were no where to be found. Finally, we stumbled onto the busy part of the island, which was at the south eastern tip called Hat Rin. We ran into about 6 streets that were packed with backpackers, stores, restaurants and travel agents. We had finally found the happening part of the island. There were backpackers from all over the world, although I would say the majority seemed to be Israelis, Germans, British and Australian. After a good and cheap Thai meal, we made our way back to our resort to retire for the evening.

The next day we rolled out of bed late and had a leisurely French style breakfast at our resort. We spent the day at our hut, taking turns on the hammock and on the comfy chair on our porch. Since we were on the non-busy part of the island, we enjoyed a day of sitting around and relaxing. This was probably as close to paradise as we could have expected. That night we got ready to head to the full moon party. This party is as famous among backpackers as the Pink Palace in Greece and the town of Interlakken in Switzerland. The party takes place once a month, during the night of the full moon and is a beach party that goes all night long. Unfortunately, Dan wasn't feeling well (he had gotten sick in Bangkok during a big rain storm) so he was not up for drinking. Instead we decided to watch the crowd and roam the beach. The bars on the beach blared dance music while the travellers sat at small tables that were set up along the shoreline. We walked along the beach and the streets watching the backpackers stumble from bar to bar. The party was great fun and we were happy we had gone.

The next day we slept in again and decided to spend another day relaxing on our porch. It was so peaceful on this side of the island that it was easy to fall into a routine of doing nothing. That night we headed back to Hat Rin for dinner and a movie (in Hat Rin a lot of the restaurants show movies during dinner). The next day we decided that we should probably move on, so we agreed to head to Ko Samui to see what another island was all about. We gave up our hut and said au revoir to our French hosts and headed off in seach of another beach.