Compared to Koh Samui this island could easily be summed up as 'skanky', unless you venture to the more remote areas in the North. 

Sadly the Southern part of the island, where we spent the majority of our time, has a run down and dirty feel to it and the beaches on the South West seem to suffer from a continuous deposit of rubbish and muck, probably swept up from the full moon party beach - Haad Rin Nok (Sunset beach) which is on the South East and the opposite, clean, white and powdery.

Known as the 'hippy' and 'backpacker' island it has cheap accommodation by the beach load along the Southern coast. However a large number of places are not only dilapidated but verging on piles of rubble, awaiting redevelopment, which seems more common here than in Koh Samui. In fact the redeveloped areas have already seen a significant reduction in the traditional rustic bamboo backpacker huts available. There's also a lot of cheap looking accommodation that was put up some time ago to meet the demand, which adds to the 'skanky' feel along the beach side unfortunately.

You simply come to this island to party! Disappointingly there is little else to see and do. 

The famous Full Moon party has become a well organised debaucherous affair, according to the stories that are pebble dashed across the news. The recent murder of a British holiday maker on New Years eve hasn't resulted in the closure of the bar where he was shot. However there do seem to be as many emergency clinics along the beach as there are bars, was this always the case? Does it put anyone off coming here? It's certainly a different place during the daytime, with boat taxi's and a few touts being the only movement we could find.

We could have attended the Shiva Moon party, the day after we arrived, or stayed another day or two for the Pool or Black Moon parties. There is a party every couple of days here, somewhere on the island, and after seeing just how much alcohol goes into a 'bucket' that they serve you I'm quite glad we were able to escape without getting caught up in these. Am I getting old, too spooked by the stories or just boring? I don't really care - I'm only marginally disappointed at not participating in the wearing of dayglow t.shirts, wrist bands and spuing luminous liquid, along with the thousands that flock here each month, as it would make interesting writing/reading! I may as well just make it up anyway as there is no way I could remember anything worth writing about after an experience like that!
 
Despite the lack of things to do we didn't give up that easily. We hired a bike to save on the cost of songtaews, as a days rental was the equivalent of one trip to the next beach.

Nothing seems to open much before 11am, other than the pharmacies - read into that what you choose; so even finding breakfast wasn't straight forward. As we browsed the map marking up places to go it became evident that the lack of roads wasn't going to make things easy. A few hours later after several hikes (by me) up steep tracks which the bike couldn't manage with both of us and a couple of near misses resulting from loss of grip on the dirt, the little voice of warning and the thought of my dads recent email advising me not to go on motorbikes ended our attempts to get around the island. It does seem that the only way to reach some of the few sights that there are here, is to take a boat. I think if there had been slightly more to see than a bunch of waterfalls we would have spent more time here, instead we were looking for the next ferry out.
 
In conclusion, everything seems more expensive here than on Samui, being ripped off by songtaew drivers is a must and the alternative is a motorbike that can't deal with the much rougher terrain, dirt tracks and hills that could do with some improvements. I think the whole island is in need of an infrastructure overhaul. I didn't give it a fair chance but it just wasn't my kind of place and with less than a month left on both our visa's we wanted to get across to the South Western gulf islands before having to cross the border. 

If you are heading here for the full moon party or any other party, take note of the warnings about drugs and the bribing police, as well as the sickening crimes and sex attacks; most of which don't even make the headlines. Be careful and take it easy!

I've read and heard that the north is completely the opposite and tranquil, but not so enjoyable unless you like being virtually the only person there and unable to get around. I would love to hear from anyone who has a more positive experience to share from visiting this island, as I am not adverse to returning one day.