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Walking off the ferry the day after a Koh Phangan fullmoon party, I'm greeted by the sight of two legless tourists on a motorbike scarily swerving their way back to their hotel.

Bike rental on Koh Phangan is only Bt250 a day, but a little further down the road I discover my money is no good.

"We won't risk renting a bike to a Thai tourist ever again," says the shop owner, fixing me with a fierce stare. I'm stood outside a rental place in Ban Tai, the busy village linking the main Thongsala pier and Haad Rin.

 "With foreigners, I ask for their passports as deposit, otherwise noone can rent a bike," she says. "The same rule applies all over the island - and for good reason. People get drunk, crash, and dump their bikes, then leave the next morning." There's real anger in her voice as she continues. "They're all the same; I despise people who have such little respect."

I feel sorry for her. A life dealing with people she hates must be torture.

Next morning I'm woken up in my beachside bungalow in Ban Tai by heavy bass from a speaker. At breakfast two kids refuse to end their allnighter and decide to go sightseeing. Everyone watches, worried, as they stagger towards their motorbike. Back in my room I can still hear the loud thumping of music, which drowns out the waves breaking on the gorgeous beach in front of me. Everything feels wrong, and I badly miss the spontaneous smiles of the Koh Phangan I first visited years ago.

Astrologers reckon the full moon brings energy and heightened emotions. Sounds about right: the high energy on Phangan seems to have blown everyone's circuits. The woman in the bikerental shop had talked about a spike in the number of bike accidents every fullmoon night, as well as fights between drunken locals and foreigners, occasionally ending in deaths. "They would never behave like that in their own countries, so they deserve all they get," she said in disgust.

So much for a happy holiday - after just one night at Ban Tai, I want to leave the south of Koh Phangan for good.

My fellow traveller and I find a place that will take a passport and Bt250 for a bike, and hit the hilly road to the north. We pass through Thongsala again, now the main town of the island where you find everything from 7Elevens, Internet places, bookshops, food stalls, a night market and a superstore.

 Thong Nai Pan Yai and Thong Nai Pan Noi are two beautiful beaches on the northeast coast of the island. In my backpacking days, I once spent most of a Christmas day walking along the latter's stretch of empty white sand in search of a place to stay. Times have changed: now it's crammed with resorts where a higher class of backpacker wallows in the large swimming pools that line the back of the beach.

 Motoring on we reach Chaloklum in the far north, a quiet fishing village with a few seafood restaurants and diving shops. We cruise slowly through and head down the northwest coast, passing Mae Haad beach and gazing towards Koh Ma in the distance.

A wide choice of accommodation clusters around every beach on the island and during the monsoon season, which lasts 'til January, there are good deals to be had. Discounts should be even bigger this year as there's been a sharp drop in tourist numbers. Locals worried about their livelihoods complain that the island looks lifeless.

Hungry for lunch, we turn right onto a bumpy path towards Haad Salad. Shops we pass look like they haven't seen a visitor for months, and a yawning shopkeeper looks hopefully in our direction.

Haad Salad's small crescent beach hoves into view. Among the quietest on the island, its oldschool beach huts sprinkled with wifi hotspots make a perfect getaway for busy city dwellers.

At checkin, the receptionist at our beachside resort mentions that the place was flooded with partying tourists this time last year. "Now it's empty and we've got hardly any bookings - take your pick of huts."

I end up staying at Haad Salad for a few nights, hardly noticing that the moon is shrinking. Perhaps its waning energy will bring me calm and balance before the next high tide of emotion. When that comes round, I just might be up for a party back on Haad Rin.