I'd heard that Thailand's most beautiful beach wasn't actually on any of the islands but was actually a spot on the coast, Railay so that was my next destination. I said bye to Sam and Kelven and got a boat to the mainland. Railay isn't an island because its attached to the mainland, but it kind of juts out and has 3 different type of beaches and you can only reach it by longtail boat from the mainland so it feels like you've arrived at an island. Because the place has probably the best beach in the whole of thailand, the main part of it is steadily being built up and already has luxury hotels, where people go with families and suitcases. So I went to find the part of the 'island' where you have to climb over loads of rocks for ages to get to because no boats will take you there so I had to climb and wade in the water with my massive 60l backpack and in flimsy flipflops , but no jokes when I got there after all that intense trekking, it was like a little backpackers haven. It was all secluded and foresty on a beach surrounded by massive tall rock structures with loads of rock climbers dangling down from ropes halfway up them. All the accommodation was cheap but niice little bungalows, and I walked along the beach and at every bar/restaurant were signs for special pancakes, special shakes, bob marley pictures, and you could smell weed everywhere just on this little bit. It was insane. Imagine going to a luxury beach resort town and then finding a special section dedicated to backpackers and hippies that just sit and smoke weed all day by the beach... mental. And I was by myself so had the sickest time hanging out with the rock climbers all day. The 3 that I was with mostly were these 3 guys from san francisco who I called rambo, chuck norris and wild bill cus the name suited each one so much, and I would say the best night of my entire time here was just lying down at a bar with these guys one night, being joined by a whole bunch of different hippie-esque people that came and went, and just looking up at the sky tripping on mushroom shakes and special pancakes for 7 hours until sunrise, laughing and making jokes about people we'd met from quebec and texas... it was the most intensely surreal night ever.

During the days, when I wanted to take a longtail boat out to another beach, I'd have to sit with the longtail boat drivers and wait for more passengers to come before the boats would leave, so I made friends with them and they had this hideout called 'The Cave' where they all went to sleep and chill out and which they'd decked out with mattresses, TV, stereo, strings of cds, decorations, a wooden carving meant to be bob marley I think. So they invited me up, chopped up fresh marijuana on a chopping board and we smoked it through a big bong at like 11am before dropping me at Ao Pranang the famous beach, so I ended up spending my day on thailands most beautiful beach as high as the sky. I went with an english girl I'd met called Sophie but she didn't stay long because there was some lagoon she wanted to check out. I thought I was gonna be by myself but luckily I bumped into a guy called Shaun I'd met on Ko Tao who was also by himself. We hung out on the beach and then went to see the dick cave which for some reason had loads of discarded wooden penises of all sizes, which were meant to be some sort of religious offering from the fishermen. We had dinner and drinks on East Railay where some very pierced and tattooed thai guys came over and chatted with us and designed me a lotus flower tattoo. The next day I got high in the Cave again before the longtail boat drivers kindly dropped me off at the mainland to catch my boat to Krabi.

I left the girls to do their diving course on Ko Tao and went to Ko Phi Phi by myself. I had to take a 10 hour night boat from Ko Tao to Surat Thani then a 3 hour bus to Krabi and then another 4 hour boat to PP, the famous place where The Beach was filmed and also the place where the tsunami happened a few years ago. The night boat we took was just a cargo boat that had cleared a large space and placed about 100 tiiny dirrty mattresses [about half the size of a single bed] and thats where you had to stay for the whole trip. I met two nice english girls and two guys from manchester who I stayed with all night which made the sickly rocking of the boat that little bit more bearable and we swapped books in true traveller fashion and chatted until lights out when everyone had to try and get to sleep even though waves were crashing against the windows and water kept dripping on us and people were snoring loudly. It was a nightmare. And the mattress I was on had bedbugs.

I only planned on staying on PP for 2 days but ended up staying 4 nights because I met up with these 2 guys that I'd volunteered with in Rio, Sam and Kelven. That was fucking awesome and surreal seeing them again because we all bonded so much and became so tight when we were in Rio living together but then because we were from all over the world I genuinely thought I'd never see them again ever. So that was amazing that we managed to be in the same part of the world like 2/3 months after we'd all left Rio! And the guys were awesome as well, so so funny - when I went to find them at their resort at like 11am, they were still drunk from the night before, and they stayed drinking the rest of the day and the rest of the time on the island in fact! So every night I'd go out with them, and I saw my first ever Thai boxing match and also my first ever wet t-shirt contest.. and we'd meet cool travellers at the main bars and clubs but then after a bit I'd end up losing them because they'd get too drunk and wander off doing something stupid but hilarious like jumping in fire or whatever - and I ended up having the best time by myself, I met the coolest people and generally had the most incredible time, and realised that I actually prefer travelling by myself so much more because I meet more and better people and just felt so free to do and act exactly how I pleased.

'The Beach' is called Maya Bay and is a boat ride away from the main island of Ko Phi Phi and you can take tours there during the day or you can camp overnight on The actual Beach which is what the guys wanted to do but it was way expensive so I just did a snorkel tour on one of the days and everyone in my group was a bit older/ foreign/ a couple so I mainly hung out with this quiet Japanese photographer guy. We were taken to 'shark point' which is the best spot for snorkelling because the waters were so clear and sometimes you can see sharks, 'monkey island' which is exactly what the title suggests, then the 'viking caves' which is a beautiful clear green lagoon for swimming in, and then to get to Maya Bay you have to swim across to this rope ladder which is on a cliff face and there are waves that constantly crash into you and make you crash into sharp rocks. But once you climb up the rope, you walk through a little jungle path and come out onto The Beach which is literally stunning, genuinely the most beautiful beach I have ever seen. The sand is so fine, it feels like flour and the water is a clear bright turqouise blue colour - its not that fun to swim in though because there are massive boulders in the water and the waves are really strong. Was so shit I couldn't get a picture of it though because of the swimming you had to do to get there.

I took a boat to Ko Tao with hundreds of people so couldn't find the boys anywhere but managed to find one of Ulrika's fortnum friends and also bumped into a girl who went to St Pauls on the boat [very small world]. It was such a horrible journey, the boat was so rocky and the sea was so choppy making me feel the most seasick I've ever felt like I could genuinely have vomited. So I walked through the boat falling on people as I went because the boat was rocking so much, ran up the stairs where some thai guy clocked what I was doing and ran behind me laughing and making retching noises after me so that when I reached top deck I had to reassure all the people lying down trying to calm their stomachs that I wasn't going to vom all over them.

Ko Tao is a tiny little island where the majority of people are there to do a diving course because the waters are amazingly turquoise and clear - even if you're just swimming in the sea in shallow water, you can still see so clearly all the rocks and little fishes beneath you. I found Blue Wind hostel which I really wanted to stay at because of the yoga I'd heard about and the fact that it was right on the beach and had a bakery attached. I didn't do a diving course but the girls did - I basically spent most my time on the beach reading during the day and also doing a lot of yoga at the guesthouse, learning from this crazy cool scottish guy who's verrry hands on and does a lot of walking around the room talking about core spiritual energy and inner balance of the soul and stroking peoples heads as he walks past. My first ever yoga lesson of my life was done in a room with no fans or music and I was sweating bucketloads cus it was just hot as hell. And some guys I met the night before were in one of my yoga classes because I'd told them about it and that was pretty funny watching them struggle through the twists and stretches. I also met up with the boys one day and we did a self-induced jungle trek to a more secluded beach which was awesome and then played mini-golf. Nights were spent with the girls after their diving, mainly at Lotus bar on a very windy beach getting drunk, dancing by the sea and having fire dancers spin fire over our heads.

To get to Ko Phangan, the (in)famous island that started the Full Moon parties every month drawing literally thousands of people to Hat Rin beach, I had to travel for about 18 hours by night bus to Surat Thani and wait in the bus office watching The Beach before taking a taxi and bus and boat to KPN chatting with a lovely corn-rowed Manc for most of the journey. As soon as I got to KPN I bumped into the boys who I hadn't seen for a week and then went to dump my stuff with the girls at the Hat Rin Beach Resort which was soo pretty and had a pool and we stayed in a little wooden bungalow. We took a taxi boat to Hat Yuan beach to spend the day and meet up with mine and Ulrika's friend from back home which was nice. Then that night, the night before the full moon, I caught my first glimpse of Hat Rin beach and it was unbelieveable, properly jaw-dropping, it was the best night and the most amount of fun I've had this whole trip. It was just loads of people on the beach partying, drinking thai buckets [literally lethal mixers in actual sandcastle buckets], chatting and chilling watching fire shows.

The next day was spent relaxing on the powder white sands of Hat Rin Nok, swimming in the sea [which is actually pretty disgusting cus its the same beach the parties are on and there are always tons of guys that piss in the sea during the night which you're then swimming in the next day. blergh. crystal clear waters though]. I also got a full body salt scrub at a spa to exfoliate my skin so I could properly work hardcore on my tan! Had dinner with the boys and some guys they'd met from Brighton before getting ready with the girls and getting pretty things painted on us in glow paint by thai artists and then headed to the FULL MOON PARTY! It literally had felt like the entire trip, the whole previous three months of travelling had been leading up to this one night, the night we all had to plan our individual travels around so we could make it. And it was so worth it.

The full moon party was indescribabley insane. It was the most surreal and awesome experience of the entire trip - imagine 10,000 travellers all on this small beach clubbing hardcore under the eery light of the full moon either drunk or shroomed off their faces. There was such a cool mix of hippies and Britpack-tour-louts, old and young, western and thai, such an inclusive atmosphere. It was genuinely one of the most incredible and intense nights of my life. We danced loads at different bars, watched incredible fire shows, I hung out with the boys, Ulrika's fortnum friends, bumped into some people I knew from back home, bumped into a girl me and the boys met in Cambodia, and stayed up til sunrise having the best intense chat for abt 2 hours with one of the guys from brighton about philosophy, psychology, general life, and when we moved onto relationships he said 'I bet I can guess what your boyfriend looks like just from speaking to you - he's quite a bit older than you, definitely quite tall and brunette, and not very muscly.... errrrrr guess again?

The day after consisted of minimal movement, reading by the pool, a falafel lunch with the boys, then dinner at a movie restaurant watching Superbad, and the night spent on the beach again but chilling out playing beach games like fire limbo, fire skipping rope, balloon games etc.