After a biking up the south eastern coast of Thailand we were ready for a break and we kind of got one.

We decided to divide our "vacationy" beach time between two islands; Ko Samui and Ko Phangan. As we found out, the only thing they shared were beaches.

Ko Samui is an island that was "discovered" by Western vacationers about 20 years ago. Previous to that it's claim to fame had been producing coconuts. Pretty much the same claim to fame that every Southern Thai town has. Anyway, in the last twenty years a lot has changed. It is the smallest town that has 15 daily flight to Bangkok, and where there are road signs only in English, rather than the usual bilingual ones. (The sign we most remember is "Please remember to drive on the left". I guess there have been occasions of not too experienced American, and British (certainly not Canadian!!) drivers letting that slip).

All the tourism has brought a certain atmosphere to the place that makes the well heeled traveler feel most at home. While it wasn't too bad it certainly was different than most of what we have traveled through.

We spent only a day and a half here during which time we cycled around, lied on the beach, read our book, and enjoyed shark and barracuda for dinner.

Only a short 50 minute ferry ride took us to Ko Phangan, the other island we were to see. As we said, the atmosphere was completely different. This island has just become popular with backpacker (mostly young, almost hippie-ish; anyone think we fit the bill?) travelers who started frequenting the island about 4, or 5 years ago. As tourism is just in its infancy the roads are under construction (which makes biking an almost impossible proposition) as are about 50 bungalow style accommodation establishments. The reasons for all the excitement are the Full Moon Parties that take place when the moon is full. On those auspicious days up to 10,000 backpackers descend on the island and supposedly all "fun" breaks loose.

When we were there the moon was about half full, but no worries, to accommodate the traveler who can't organized their trip around the schedule of the moon, there are now parties for every moon phase. So being the curious and existential people that we are we went to the party and "observed". The first thing we "observed" was that things didn't get going until way past our biking bed time. Finally at about midnight people moved down from the main street and on to the beach, the main venue. It was interesting but probably nothing like the Full Moon Party scene. People dancing, drinking, and twirling fire-lit batons in the air were the main attractions.

The next day, our only full day on the island, we joined a snorkeling tour. Too bad we could only snorkel for about half an hour over the course of an 8 hour tour. However, it was nice to take a boat around the perimeter of the island and see and stop at a lot of the other beaches. There a lot of remarkably undeveloped, almost inaccessible except by boat, beaches that are really beautiful.

But for us a day and a half was enough time with the young, hip, party crowd and so the day after snorkeling we joined the mass exodus of backpackers heading back to the mainland. We had arranged our ferry and train ticket together and so after arriving to the mainland we quickly boarded a train heading for Bangkok.