[May contain reference to (legal) drugs]

We kicked back in paradise for the day, knowing that we had a couple of buckets each ahead of us that night. We had no pre-conceptions about the Black Moon Party, but it seemed like the sensible option as it was the 'moon' party that was on whilst we were in Ko Pha-Ngang.

Hanging out at Boom's Bungalows was a treat in itself. It's a secluded little place set right down in the jungle (but only 3 minutes from the main road) and you get the feeling that some of the residents might have been staying there for years. Nok, the lady who runs the place and mothers the two of us, makes the tourist towns seem a million miles away from a good time by giving you a family atmosphere and good, Thai, home-cooked food. This, it has to be said, is not entirely representative of Ko Pha-Ngang itself, which is something of a party island. And whilst we were more than in the mood for a party, both my wallet and my mind could not stand the thought of raving for 3 months straight. It would be a waste of time.

However, we rocked up at about midnight and were greeted by a 500baht entrance fee. "Once in a lifetime?" i said to Arun, and we coughed up for that, and then a bucket each. As the night went on though, it became apparent that the one stage of techno was not going to change pace. We split up and got chatting to various people.

I woke up alone in our bungalow at about 8 a.m. after two hours' sleep to the sound of knocking at the door. I presumed that i'd see Arun stumble in but on opening the door, one of the dogs from the bungalows wandered in between my legs and bedded down for the night. In my haze I let this go on. It turned out the next day that Arun had sped off to the other side of the island on a solo adventure with some new friends and was too drunk, then too hungover, to face crawling back. I settled in to a recovery day alone; I was more than recovered by the time i'd read a mis-printed version of "The Quiet American," an amazing book about Vietnam in the 50's which i finished that day. Ten hours in a hammock really gets rid of the Red Bull blues.

Arun and I agreed to meet the next day on Had Rin beach, the location of the famous Full Moon Party that, after the disappointment of the Black Moon, we've pretty much settled on returning for in either March or April. It's a stunning, long, golden beach, and we looked out at it from midday til midnight from a bar up in the mountain. Known as "Magic Mountain," this place is infamous in that it tolerates weed and magic mushrooms and these are sold over the bar, so i decided to indulge in both. A bunch of people who were sat around joined us, including Adam the American who was on holiday from Shang-hai with his girlfriend, and we all sat around watching the beautiful sky and the fire-spinners on the beach whilst talking genius insanity for hours. The guys who'd drank more mushroom-shakes than me had a really nice, civilised trip whilst i decided to smoke up and spent the day nicely stoned. It really was the final nail in the coffin for alcohol; it's impossible to see why that's the legal drug back home. We were eventually joined by a couple of Arun's friends from University, Sarah and Amy, who agreed that the bar in the mountain truly is a lovely place.

After both enjoying our first big sleeps, we again caught up with Sarah and Amy and headed up to the part of the island in the north where Arun had found himself a few nights before. It's called Had Yao and it gives a glimpse of the future of these little islands in south-east Thailand with big, fashionable complexes and (relatively) expensive restaurants. It's easy to see why as, once you leave Had Rin and the main tourist part of the island, Ko Pha-Ngang's beauty shines through the grotty huts and half-torn posters of last week's rave. The mountains are dense with trees and from the beach we could still hear the familiar screams of all kinds of birds i don't know. The beach here was pristine and the water like a warm bath. We hired some cheap snorkeling gear and took a dip which was a great way to spend the day but would later be eclipsed by another snorkeling trip. That evening, the four of us sat facing out to sea whilst eating dinner and watching the very best fire-spinner we'd seen yet. He was called Jack and his little brother Charlie also rocked. The last thing we did in Had Yao was to book a trip for the following day to Ang Thong National Marine Park...

Ang Thong

It was an early start for our day-trip out to the marine park, and we were picked up by our lively guide, who called himself "Tiger Woods," at 8 in the morning. The girls jumped in on the way and we were off on a genuine adventure.

I'd been buzzing with excitement the whole night before about this trip because it felt like the first unique experience we were going to have in Thailand so far. Tiger drove a group of us out to the bay, where we hopped on his speedboat and jetted and bounced across the sea towards Ang Thong. The park itself is a collection of rocky mountains that jut out from the sea; they have been specially preserved to the extent that it's almost impossible to stay there for more than a day at a time. We approached at around 10a.m. and were greeted by spectacular, spiky hills, again dense with trees and the sounds of birds calling. We moored on an empty beach and our guide led us towards the beginning of a hill-trek - 500 metres into the jungle top. There were viewing points at each hundred metres upward, and the trek became more and more precarious as we went. Both on the way up and the way down we crossed paths with a small family of black monkeys who took the time to check us out from the canopy, before skipping off in to the jungle. At the summit, we had to climb by hand and foot over some jagged rocks and once we made it and i'd rolled myself a congratulatory cigarette, we stood in awe at the beauty of the park. The sea barely moved and shone back up at us, whilst each island-ette contained a thick dusting of trees on all sides.

Back down, back on the speedboat, and off to the Emerald Lake. Tiger said that if we didn't visit the Emerald Lake whilst we were here, "then no point in coming you fool!" It didn't disappoint. From a viewing point about 100 metres up the land-locked seawater lake glistened blue and green and was evidently untouched. "No-one knows what fish are inside," Tiger said.

After a hearty Thai lunch with rice on yet another empty, perfect beach, Arun and I jumped in a two-man kayak and proceeded to fly around about a quarter of the Marine Park in an hour. Despite neither of us being the fittest, we're no kayak-slouches and the size of the place only really hit home at this point. Exhausted and with the sun beating down, we were grateful to hop back on the boat and zip around the corner to a snorkeling location. Tiger chucked some bread in the water and immediately more fish than I've ever seen in my life jumped out of the water, fighting over the crumbs. We jumped straight in and snorkeled for around an hour, barely lifting our heads out of the water, fascinated to watch dozens of varieties of fish swimming right in front of us above a wonderfully preserved sea bed. After this, Tiger's speedboat bounced us home across rough sea waters.

It seems that for me, the reputations of the two islands we've visited were reversed. Having partied on Ko Tao and not much else (and then gotten ill), i felt down about the trip as a whole and longed for some adventure to complement my Bacardi buckets. On Ko Pha-Ngang, we found it. Tonight we sleep back at jungle-seclusion of Boom's Bungalows, tomorrow we head south, to Krabi on the mainland.