We left the north with something of an epic journey. We spent the majority of the day having a massage and wandering around the small town of Lampang before boarding the night train. It was a very much rougher round the edges experience than the first one with the carriage doors were left open all night so it was very noisy. Not much sleep was had. We had the first disaster of the holiday when I left my kindle on the train too. Jan without a book is not a good thing! Next, we boarded a plane to Surat Thani and then a bus and 2 boats. We were well stickered and shuffled around from one bus to another whilst lots of Thais had discussions about numbers but we arrived just after lunch to a beautiful, sunny island.

We have spent all week pottering around to different beaches on our moped. The snorkelling was been better than expected; we both swam with a turtle and I swam with a shark as well as some large trigger fish. Their huge teeth and open mouths always make me give them a wide berth. It was also exciting if off-putting when you look to the side and see a shark next to your shoulder that is about a metre long! There were many shoals of other fish large and small too. We felt it was much better than the Similian Islands but not quite up to Egyptian/Maldives standards. We know, we’re spoilt!

A few times, we met up with Kate and her friends (Dorinne and Pleun- great girls) for a drink or food which was lovely especially hearing all about the plans for Bali next. Because it was Songkran whilst we were there, we took part in the new year celebrations which were certainly something different. I was cleansed by a nice lady with a little formal ceremony going into a restaurant, however, when we were driving about, we got well doused with buckets of water and shot with water pistols/ blasters. We did retaliate too -it was great fun to be on the back of a moped with a water pistol in each hand shooting random people. In the evening, we went down to the beach which was quite rowdy by sunset with lots of well-oiled people who had been clearly celebrating for sometime. We had a few drinks ourselves and watched a great fire show before attempting a very long, very tipsy climb up to our hotel.

Koh Phangan next for more beaches!