Koh Samui, Koh Phagnan & Koh Nangyuan

---

We spent just over a week at the islands to the East of Surat Thani. We started with the biggest...Koh Samui. As we anticipated for Thailand's second largest island, it was very touristy. There were lots of souvineer and clothes shops, as well as lots of restaurants and bars. We stayed in a hostel at one end of the strip; we walked past all the busy restaurants and shops to get to the beach. We had a few cocktails over the 3 days, whilst overlooking the view.

There was a street bar that was set up every evening so we often went there before dinner. They played hilariously old-catchy music (Shakira!! Alanis Morisette!! etc!) and gave us free peanuts!

On our last evening we went to a night market which was just off the main strip. We stumbled across it by accident. When we got there the music was loud and it was really busy! I don't know how we hadn't found it before. We watched a fire dancer, who kept getting volunteers to join him from the audience! (thankfully we were standing at the back!) We walked up and down the market, stopping off at cocktail stalls for a 1pound mojito every now and again! We ate some amazing Thai food whilst we were there. I had a delicious pumpkin curry and some fried macaroni. We also had some amazing food from a seafood restaurant...calamari to share, Ej had swordfish and I had some really tasty chicken and vegetable BBQ kebabs! Will had all you can eat ribs and chicken!!

After a few days in Koh Samui we got the ferry over to Koh Phagnan. The ferry was packed! Just when you thought they couldn't possibly fit anyone else on the ferry, more and more people arrived! We were lucky enough to get seats so we slept most of the way.

Koh Phagnan had the perfect amount of bright lights, loud music and neon! We were all in the mood to go out and have fun and had a lovely hostel by the beach where we met some really lovely people! We went to a pool party and had an amazing time dancing til the sun came up on the full moon night. Other evenings we chilled in some of the millions of bars that are in Koh Phagnan! In the days we went to the beach. During the day the beach was really quiet-no one was sunbathing in 'our' area at all. At night the place came alive! Restaurants, bars, cocktail stalls, djs, slides!!...all took over the beach!

We spent a day at Koh Nangyuan-which is paradise! It's the tiniest island with perfectly clear turquoise water and white sand. We braved the steep walk to the viewpoint which was amazing! So worth being unbelievably hot and sweaty for!! We went snorkelling at the beach and jumped off our boat into the ocean for a refreshing swim! (It is SO hot everyday!!)

After our time relaxing on the islands, we decided to head to the West of Thailand and explore Koh Phi-Phi with some people we had met at our hostel.

---

Photos

full moon party
sunrise beach