Me And The Moon.

On Monday I turned 22. The past 24 hours have been a whirlwind of excitement and I'm absolutely exhausted. It was all a bit of a blur... so instead of write a long blog, I thought it would be best to upload some photos of exactly what I got up to.....

1) Morning in Koh Tao.

I woke up early in Koh Tao as the boys went for a final dive. I decided I wanted to explore the beach and get some sun so I did just that. It was so early that all the dogs were out playing, and one in particular took a liking to me! I spent the morning swimming with it, playing 'fetch' with it and running with it down the beach.

A birthday morning with a friendly dog! Lovely!

2) Koh Phangan!

We boarded a cataqmaran to take us to Koh Phangan at 3pm that afternoon. We were going for one reason, and one reason only.....my birthday fell on the islands infamous 'Full Moon Party'. We hadn't booked accommodation, so went with the first woman that offered us something at the pier, a stay at 'Happy Beach Bungalows'. We were offered a cheap price and the bungalows were by the beach on the west side of the island, away from the busy full moon strip. When we arrived we were slightly concerned. We were away from most civilisation and had to cross an extremely rickety bridge to reach our destination. The bungalow was basic and the toilet had no flush (meaning we had to use an old fashioned method of filling up buckets of water and throwing them down the toilet!).

But when exploring the beach....we found paradise. The strip of beach was clear and secluded. To use the old cliche of pure white shores, lapping turquoise waves and pure blue skys would be absolutely accurate. The pictures below show exactly this!

We headed out to the Full Moon Party at 11pm with some others from the hotel - a group of older Germans and a boy called Tom on his gap year from Sheffield. With 30,000 people attending the party, we were overwhelmed by the sheer scale of it. We grabbed a bucket each (Sangsom Rum with Coke and Red Bull...a Thai speciality) and partied the night away in style, covered in neon paint, dancing amongst others.

We honoured the Full Moon tradition and partied until the sun came up at 6am before heading back to our bungalow. A birthday never to be forgotten.

3) The Morning After:

When arriving back at our bungalow at 7am after the Full Moon we were all shattered and collapsed onto the beds, desperate for sleep. I managed to get a couple of hours rest but woke up to the sun blinding through our window. The beach was calling. I woke up Gordon and pursuaded him to come for a swim. The beach looked sensational. We spent the whole day swimming, sunbathing, playing vollyball in the sea, chasing crabs and attempting to walk as far out to sea as possible. Marcus wasn't in the mood and slept until 4pm!!
It was an incredible 24 hours I will never forget.

Tomorrow we head to the island of Koh Phi Phi where they set 'The Beach', I'm not sure how it can get much better than this but i'm looking forward to finding out!