Bangkok, Thailand ( Tuesday 22nd - Friday 25th February )

The journey from Ko Phan-Ngan was a long one and we arrived in Bangkok just after midnight. We'd booked in at the New Siam 2 guest house but were unable to find it, so headed over to the backpacker haunt of Khao San Road and found somewhere to stay.

I got up early, left Julie in bed and headed out to try and find the elusive New Siam 2. The hostel/hotel we'd stayed in that night wasn't too bad but I'd heard really good reports about the New Siam 2 and it also had a pool. As it was over 35° in Bangkok, I felt a pool would come in handy!

After about an hour of walking round in circles, I managed to find New Siam 1 and they pointed me in the right direction of their new place, the New Siam 2.

On walking in, I knew this was the one and for just 750 baht (10 quid) a night, it was a bargain. The place is basically a hotel and we got a great room on the 2nd floor with aircon (a must!), TV, ensuite bathroom and it was complete with a Louis Vuitton duvet cover.

I rushed back to Julie and we grabbed some breakfast and then headed over with all our stuff.

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Had Thien, Island of Ko Phan-Ngan [ Thurs. 17th - Tues. 22nd February 2005 ]

We'd originally planned to stay at Bottle Beach on the island of Ko Phan-Ngan as we'd read it had the nicest beach.
We jumped in a longtail boat with a load of others and dropped each of them at different bays. Bottle Beach is a fair way from the port at Hat Rin and they wanted 1500 baht (21 quid!!) to take us there. We hastilty decided to jump at Had Thien and paid just 100 baht.

Had Thien is home to the Sanctuary resort and just a small number of other little bungalows. We were unable to get in at the Sanctuary, so off we went through the coconut groves to another set of bungalows.
We managed to get in at Beam Bungalows and paid just 350 baht (5 quid) a night for the bunglow. Not the Hilton but it had everything you needed and we were just happy to have to somewhere to stay!

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Big Buddha Beach (Hat Bang Rak) [ Tues 15th Feb. - Thurs 17th Feb. 2005 ]

That's much better! Big Buddha Beach was a welcome change from the hustle of Chaweng and literally just spent two days sat on the beach.

We did venture out one day, but that was only up to see the Big Buddha at the end of town. The Big Buddha stands 12 metres tall and can be seen from almost a mile away. The Buddha is part of Wat Phra Yai temple complex, where we bought some roof tiles to help them renovate it. Bad karma otherwise!

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Chaweng (Koh Samui) [ Sat 12th Feb - Monday 14th Feb 2005 ]

The journey to the island of Koh Samui was a nightmare from the start. We'd booked a ticket to Koh Samui, which included the bus journey to the port at Surat Thani and the ferry across. The bus turned out to be an 8 seater minibus with no aircon and all the bags were strapped to the roof. Along the way we lost one of the suitcases - thankfully not one of ours!
We set off at 13:00 and were due to arrive at the ferry port at 18:00 in order to catch the last fast ferry, which takes about 2 hours to get to Koh Samui.

Although the driver was driving at speeds over 130 km/h most of the way and almost falling asleep several times, we still managed to get there late and ended up missing the last express boat.
Our only option was to sit and wait for the slow overnight boat that leaves at 23:00 and takes 7 hours.

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James Bond Island [ Fri. 11th February 2005 ]

A visit to James Bond Island is a must do if you're on Phuket apparently, so we booked Sims Afternoon tour.

First up, we visited the famous Monkey Cave Temple. A cave with a temple inside and hundreds of monkey's outside. On boarding the bus to leave, the driver was checking everyones feet. "No monkey shit on bus", he warned!

After that, we headed over to the pier where we boarded a long tail boat. Basically a large canoe with a V12 engine strapped to the back of it. Fast but extremely noisy!

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Patong [ Wed. 9th February - Sat. 12th February 2005 ]

Phuket was off our list because of the tsunami but after speaking to other travellers we decided to go. Parts of Phuket were hit quite bad but are now quickly on the road to recovery. The buildings close to the beach in Patong were devasted and were being reconstructed when we were there.
One street back and you'd never know that anything ever happened. They rely heavily on tourism, so we felt it would help them if we did go.

We got a flight from Kuala Lumpur with Air Asia to Phuket and headed to the resort of Patong. When we arrived we were suprised to see how busy it was - the first two hotels we went to were fully booked. We finally managed to get a really nice room at Lucky Mansion for just 500 baht (7 quid), which was 'lucky'!

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