Siam Thara Surat Thani

... of the glorious Srivijaya Empire the kingdom that dominated the whole Malay Peninsula and much of Java. It was during this period that Mahayana Buddhist reached its height of influence. The empires grandeur can still be admired in many areas of Chaiya District. <br><br><br> When the empire hit the bottom, it was ...

... to the laum sala beach, we re-fuelled with an ice coffee and headed back through the national park. We stopped at a local market to buy a tradional thai flower garland which you put around the rear view mirror of the car... it's for good luck which we needed to help prevent us getting lost! So onto our final destination for day 2 and our next overnight stop - we headed for 'Pretchup Kiri Khan'. A lovely town, we stayed in a great seafront hotel with sea view ...

... but I did burn a bit... silly me! We were on the tour with 3 Germans that we got on really well with, it was a good group which can really make the difference between a good or a bad tour so we were very happy. We got onto a longtail boat at the lake and set ...

It began the usual way arriving at the port at 11.30 for a 12.30 ferry that left at 2.00. You come to expect it, you get used to it. Then it was "Get on the boat" and off we sailed. The bay was calm. We took our usual position on the top deck, legs hanging over the side, and thought no more of it as we moved out to sea. The next two hours can be classified as 'interesting'. We soon found ourselves in bigger seas than anyone had experienced, possibly too big a sea for the absolute safety of ...

... WRONG. We board the train our seats are one cart away from the washrooms...gross...and for some reason the aircon isnt on..Weird we baught aircon, we even upgraded. HAahah. yupp you guessed it the aircon was broken, and for the icing on the top because we were in the aircon section our windows are bolted up! Oh wait the electrical is completly out, no lights, no fans, no windows, no food for almost 12 hours! Gotta love asia! :) Ok so we read with our flashlights ...

... the Suvarnbhumi Airport from our hotel Baiyoke Suite located in Pratunam. After checking in the baggage we had to once again go out as the liquids were not allowed in the hand bags and due to oversight we packed them in handbags. I had to manage another carrybag to check in the deodrants and sprays. The flight by Air Asia was a pleasent one as the flight descended into Krabi International Airport, smoothly. We hopped into the waiting bus outside the terminal ...

... our bags, then went out for some fresh air while waiting for the boat to depart. We grabbed a bit to eat then waited. This is when things started to go wrong! Debbie was suddenly wracked with some pretty violent and unexpected vomiting. Nice. After an hour of this, we decided it best to stay the night in Surat Thani rather then jump on a ferry that would take 7 hours (and most likely be full ...

... I apologised to the waiter for the pile of noodles Andy had left outside his door, left a hefty tip as means of apologies, he boxed up the pizzas and we headed down the road (again in disgrace) to see if we could see anyone from our group to get the boat home. Thats when the nightmare began! We got to the tiny marina which had seemed so calm when we arrived to see literally hundreds, if not thousands of people all waiting to get on to boats back to Samui both on the ...

... shoes had to be taken off at the door and footbaths were at each enterance if your feet were dirty or sandy. The next place I'll introduce is the women's dormitory. Rooms were set up in a square with a courtyard in the middle and the toilets on the opposite end from the doors. Thai style showers were also found by the toilets. These being concrete square pools of water whose walls were about belly-high, where you had to use a small bowl to scoop the water and pour it over ...

... This is the best cheap meal I've encountered yet. I also had plenty of fish curries and enjoyed some of the biggest prawns of my life - almost the size of small lobsters! Then of course are the buns filled with anything from pork to chicken to tuna to black sesame. Nice and chewy and incredibly fulfilling as a light snack. While on the island, my eating schedule was a bit erratic so I ate only when I was hungry - true asian style. As a general observation, there seem to be ...