Khao Lak Orchid Beach Resort

... to the Kratome tree, which has leaves on it that produce a Tylenol 3 type buzz when boiled and consumed as tea. If you eat them straight up, your mouth will go numb. I’ve learned that every Thai family is granted one Kratome tree for the use of its’ leaves to cure cough n’ cold symptoms. Unfortunately, the tree on the lot that we’re on got hacked down about a month before Charlie and I made our debut, so every week or so, I venture of ...

... and waking everybody up with a lovely 'briefing in half an hour!’. So we all met up on the main deck, having a coffee, some toast and having a first look at the Similan Islands. Because it was very early in the season, there were rarely any boats around, the islands were nearly ours!

At 7.00 the first groups jumped into the gear and at 7.13 I was under water the first time this season!! Awesome!!! The Dive site was East of Eden, where are a lot ...

... on the beach the rains came again and we retired to the hotel for some fantastic thai curry and more sleep. Fingers crossed tom the weather will sort its self out but in fairness we can't grumble as this is the first real day the rain has disrupted us and we were expecting more of it as its the rainy season. I've now more than likely jinxed the rest of the trip but oh well. Looking forward to exploring the island tom.

Gaz & LJ

We woke up at 5pm.. it turned out we did have jetlag. We got a cab to the train station and caught a train to Chumphon. We couldnt book a bed even though the train was an overnight one. All night we were on hard chairs, which wasnt too bad seeing ...

... suitcase!!.......get the picture?!.........travel light?.......whoooopsss!!!........kinda blew that one!!

Anyway........off to Chumphon a 3 hour trip..........and we catch up on all the latest Pitchy news......the time flys by and we dully arrive..........right on time!!!

The reverse exercise now applys with the luggage...... but we are are getting it down to a fine art...........you know that they say practice makes perfect ...

So we got the night boat at 22.00 and it was quite a small boat with straw mats on the floor to sleep on and open sides. There was a couple of other backpackers on the boat who we chatted to for a bit. Apart from that there was a couple of Thai passengers and the boats crew and that was it. The stars were bright, us being in the middle of the sea and all, so I watched them for a while and got ...

... and it was first time I was taking pictures with my underwater camera, so was using up a lot of air and my dives were much shorter than normally...but its ok..makes me just realise once more than it is a sport and to be reasonable good at it, you just have to do it more often. In the evening we had to go back to Patong to pick up Irinas passport from the hotel and also try on our clothes...by the time we got back around 2am both of us were so exhausted we were unable to speak ...

... found myself wrapped tight into a soap opera that spun around the sole ninny axis. When you have been lonely through the years and haven't had much luck in love then sometimes the drama that a woman brings into your life can be viewed as a good thing. So ninny and I dated and set up house on ko tao. One thing led to another and soon I was in her village meeting her parents and being eyed suspiciously by her grandmother. We shared a lot of laughs and a lot of ...

... beach, but it's surrounded by lush green mountains. There's quite a lot to do in the surrounding area, including riding elephants, scuba diving in the nearby islands, or visiting waterfalls. We're staying at this great resort right on the beach with a balcony that overlooks the sea. We have hot water again, a/c, and even cable tv. Haven't seen a single gecko in our room yet (although there are plenty of enormous critters outside ...