"Biggest Beach Party, International DJ's"

We arrived in Surat Thani with 10 hours to kill and quickly discovered that it was not a common tourist destination. Food and English speaking people were hard to come by-which allowed us to save our bellies for the huge night market. When it got dark, the town came alive. Picture Saturday market to the tenth degree, Asian-style. With happy hearts and full tummies we boarded the night ferry. We fell asleep almost immediately.

We woke up on the ferry around 5:30 am, took a tuk tuk to Haad Rin and headed straight for Same Same Lodge, which was recommended by our guide book. We hit the beach late in the morning and could tell it was a party town (it's home of the famous full moon party) by the lack of people up at that hour.

Our first night we found it to live up to it's party reputation. We attended the Drop In Bar's 30th Anniversary. "Music, drinks, free barbeque, fire show, International DJ's." We hit the dance floor and later the beach erupted into a foam party. It was a great introduction to our stay on Ko Phangan.

Most days, we woke up, grabbed shakes, relaxed on our lay-lows (floaties) and soaked up the sun, nearby a patch of palm trees.

From our beach spot, we saw a tattered flier posted on one of the palm trees describing a "light trek" along the Green dot trail. We decided we were in need of some excerise after days at the beach, and headed out the next day. Based on the flier, we were expecting a moderate stroll through the cool jungle. Instead, we spent three hours hiking up the most rigorous trek EVER. We were on all fours hiking up clay gravel and boulders in the scorching heat. We felt like we had fallen for the city's inside tourist joke. Danielle almost didn't make it and considered turning back until she was heavily amused by Kevin's ability to manuever the steep hills in his tractionless indoor soccer shoes. Finally, after sweat, blisters and bug bites, we made it to the Sanctuary. No, we're not kidding. It was literally a detox oasis retreat on the beach. We took a quick dip in the ocean and hopped on a longtail back to Haad Rin.

On one of our last days, we rented mopeds for 200 baht ($6) and explored the many beaches of the island. Molly's bike broke down, leaving us stranded for a couple hours, but luckily Danielle and Beth got to try Dragonfruit. After the minor incident, we enjoyed cruising around and trying local street food. On the way back to our guesthouse, we were overtaken by the picturesque sunset and stopped for a gorgeous photo-op. After a week-long stay, we were beginning to feel very at home on Ko Phangan and were sad to part from the island and Kev.