More from this travel report from Ape:

The Thais on Koh Phangan are pretty obsessed with fire. Fire shows here, a hoop on fire there, put a sign on fire or fire up a skipping rope; it's all good. Especially the skipping rope is hilarious; it's alright as long as you're on your own or with just the two of you, but the better you do, the more confident the others get. They're timing their jump-in and drunk people are not good at timing. Many a drunken traveler pays for their bad timing with a lash of the rope on their bare ankles and the smell of burned hair is not uncommon, too. Make sure you know when to quit, because sooner or later some idiot is going to mess up.

I'm partying every night hardcore, so it's great to have a place to close to the beach; easy peasy to go up and down to drop your camera, change your shirt, get some money or my glasses or just rest for a moment. The Euro08 is great as well; party at 11 for three hours, watch the game for two and chill out for a bit, then hit the beach again for some more dancing barefoot on the cool beach.

The Drop In Bar and Zoom in Haad Rin at the
Drop In Resort and Spa in Haad Rin

If you're not in the party mindset Koh Pha-Ngan is relentless and won't work for you. It doesn't bother me that I'm not partying at the party, as I had four awesome nights already. But there is plenty to do on the beach other than dancing. Chairs allow you to relax for a bit, and there's plenty of Thai kids to play games with you, for a fee. It's great fun, but also a bit disturbing to see them walking on the beach at 2am still.

Anyway, Koh Phangan was made for me!

The Bungalows have been upgraded recently and feature these Disney like A frames that are the best in the bay with full modern amenities such as air con and satellite TV etc.

The restaurant is again on the beach, almost in the sea and serves some really tasty Thai and International food. The management are really nice and speak broken English which makes it more exciting for my liking. There is a dive center just 400 meters away and an elephant trekking camp on the outskirts of the village.

In the village seafront are lots of cafes and small bars that are very Thai although some more funky ones are just being built.

I'd recommend it to everyone.