100 Islands Resort & Spa Surat Thani

In the morning I wolfed down a hasty breakfast before another minibus picked me up from the hotel at 8.30am. I was only second into the bus, but we had to make five or so stops to pick up more passengers, all exclusively Chinese, so no one to talk to. I sat in the back and just read my book. The journey to Surat Thani on the east coast of Thailand took around nine hours. A few hours in we crossed the border at Hat Yai and I had my passport stamped by a particularly ...

... waters. Michelle hopped into a kayak and had a paddle around - the pictures can't start to explain how amazing this place is.

Now, along with the benefits of being in the middle of nowhere in your own little paradise comes a few downsides -

1. Electricity....none of it, just a small generator to power a few lights
2. Running water....OK, we are floating on a huge lake, just jump in to freshen up....but toilet? Ah yes, those huts at the end of the pier on the land ...

... refaire le plein, manger, accumuler encore plus de touristes sur la banquette arrière, etc. Au final, nous avons fini par atteindre le petit village de Kao Sok après ce qui nous a semblé être un voyage sans fin. Nous avons trouvé un endroit sympa pour dormir, l'hôtel s'appelle Art's River Lodge et il offre pleins de bungalows abrités sous les arbres en pleine forêt. Nos deux bungalows étaient collés côte à côte avec un grand balcon commun et ...

Alright this day kinda sucked to be honest. We slept in just long enough to miss both the morning boat and the noon one, with the next departure not until 3pm. This would cause us trouble later but provided a good excuse for aimless wandering in the meantime. After buying our ferry tickets and securing our backpacks, I left Jeff glued to a TV watching the Olympics while I bandied about town pigging out on more fruity crepes. In some freak act of clumsiness, I flipped ...

... pleasent and soon we were in the familiar settings of Pratunam Centre with all kinds of shoppers already thronging the busy street. The aroma of the local food greeted us. The hotel room had a magnificient view of Amari Watergate and Baiyoke Sky Hotel looming skywards! Later in the evening we were woken from our slumber with thunder, lightning and rain which was a welcome relief after escaping the searing heat of Delhi 19 May 08- The Missing Money!! We went out ...

... on our hitlist, Koh Tao. No chance! We got a couple of hours kip and decided to extend our stay on Samui by 2 days and have upgraded our accomodation to a posh resort up the beach but still in Bophut. Its called World Resort and we are staying in a gorgeous bamboo bungalow that boasts luxuries such as air con, tv, fridge, minibar and pool along with hot water! Weve had enough of roughing it for now and whilst the place we stayed in before was enough for what we ...

Another odd night's sleep in spite of our exhaustion and medication. At a certain point one must self-assess and determine preferences and leanings. Julie, for her part, is far more apt to initiate adventure travel while Steve, a classic urban pantie waist, is indulgent but largely (self described) unenthusiastic. Today is a good example. Julie had decided that in spite of the encounter with leeches, she is ...

... but he still looked very miserable. Anyway, so this was all quite awkward, as I still really wanted to sleep, and he was just sitting on the steps to my room not going anywhere. I wasn't scared of him or anything, i just felt bad for making him miserable adn it was getting a little creepy. So eventually I had to close the door on him, as 10 mins later he still hadnt moved. I got ready for bed and put on my ipod as half an hour later he was still outside adn i think he was trying to talk ...