Day 201 : Full Moon Party!

• Went snorkelling in the morning. Coral was about 100m off the beach (after lots of sea-grass) and not a huge amount to see compared to other places we’ve been on this trip. We saw sea-cucumbers, stripy friendly fish (we don’t know the name), rock cod, parrot fish.
• Headed over to Hat Rin early (5ish) before the crowds descended. Had dinner in a bar and watched about 5 episodes of Family Guy over a Sang Som bucket – lots of the bars are set up like cinemas, presumably so people can take time out from the party later on. Lots of buzz around town before the party starts.
• The town is on the beach and mainly full of shops selling buckets of drink (usually a small bottle of Sang Som rum, a bottle of Red Bull and a can of Coke), fluorescent full-moon themed T-shirts and cheap food.
• Got some free UV body paint with another bucket on the beach.
• Watched some Thai people doing fire-tricks (throwing fire-sticks and poi) – they could teach the drunk hippies at Glastonbury a thing or two!
• The moon had an eerie halo around it – maybe just because of the full moon and clear sky?
• Music was mostly pop / dance – sometimes good but mostly not!
• Took a crazy taxi ride (all the taxis are of the open pick-up truck style) home – the roads to Hat Rin are like a rollercoaster!

Day 200 : Khao Sok to Koh Pa Ngan

Another long-winded journey in various minibuses / coaches from Khao Sok to Surat Thani and then a ferry to Koh Pa Ngan on in the Gulf of Thailand. Lots of waiting around and dubious driving so relieved to arrive to a nice bungalow on a beautiful beach.

Day 198 / 199 : Giant flowers

On the 5th we took a very steep trek up a hill in the jungle to see some giant flowers (Rafflesia kerri) that flower at the moment. Rest of the day and on the 6th we just chilled out and did some planning / reading.

Day 197 : Bat cave

Set off in the morning by boat to bat cave. Walked through the jungle for 2 hours to the cave, picking the leeches off our legs as we went. The cave is stunning and the ceiling is covered with thousands of bats that feed of the crickets on the floor. We also saw some cool frogs, fish and not so cool giant unspeakable thing.

We went through tunnels and clambered across crevices (with one ok torch and a few rubbish torches between us and no safety equipment plus the possibility of flooding if it rained). We walked through a lot of water varying from knee high to so deep you had to swim!

After about 50 min we made it to the other side in one piece (and the camera – in a dry bag) feeling good but very soggy – our trainers have a lot of drying out to do! Saw a cool monkey from the boat – black and furry with white “sunglasses”.

Chilled out in the afternoon before getting back to dry land – back to our bungalow. Had dinner with the Norwegian guys. Bumped into the German couple we spent new year with – they decided to stay here as we told them about it so that’s cool.

Day 196 : Chiew Lan Lake

Took a van then longtail boat to Smiley’s raft house in the middle of no where on Chiew Lan lake in Khao Sok rainforest. We went with a couple of French girls and Norwegian boys who were lovely.The area is stunning and looks like it belongs in Jurassic park. The raft house was cool – a series of huts on a floating platform surrounded by the lake, rainforest and dramatic limestone mountains. We had a lovely lunch then went kayaking on the lake – we saw some monkeys and fish. We then went on two further longtail boats – one at night. We found a bit of wildlife - mainly monkeys but it’s cool to see them in their natural habitat and not just scrounging at temples!

Day 195 : Khao Sok

• Had a restless last night at Sonya’s – I don’t think I could take any more of the roll-mat bed and we also had a rat running around the gutter by our heads (we like rats so it's OK)! We got up early to catch a minibus to Krabi and then on to Khao Sak a bit further north and inland. 
• Mini-bus journey took forever, again, and was overcrowded so we had to sit on the uncomfortable front seats while our bags on the roof got soaked in the torrential rain!
• Eventually arrived at Khao Sok and thankfully our bungalow is really nice, with large glass doors overlooking the spectacular jungle.

Day 194 : New Year's Day

A predictably lazy day – not a lot open on the island and it’s rained all day. Watched a few films at Sonya’s with the other guests.