Our trip to Koh Lanta was a horrible one as we were both incredibly hung over and the boat back to the mainland was definitely not the most pleasant of experiences. Once back on terra-firma we were put on a bus and yet again taken to the middle of nowhere and left for 30 minutes when we were put on another bus for 5 minutes and dropped out the towns bus station. We were left sat on a bench and nobody had had the decency to tell us what was happening so after 2 hours we started to get a bit worried, which isn't the best thing with the mother of all hangovers in our heads. The stray dogs across the street seemed to be salivating at the thought of 4 westerners sat outside a closed bus station (or this could have been my head). After 3 hours of being sat in the midday sun we were bundled onto the bus which would take us all the way to the island of Koh Lanta (or 2 islands if you want to be precise.) After the first car ferry our driver raced across the first island to try to be the first on the second ferry! He was second much to our consternation.

We then got a taxi (if you can call it that, it was a pick up truck with four of us sat in the back) to a place called 'Somewhere else' (what a great name). This was a resort on the beach with a great view of the sea as soon as we opened the door of our bungalow. We spent 3 days here doing nothing but reading and relaxing, which Sarah found boring but I loved every minute of it.

We had been told everywhere that we had gone that it was out of holiday season but nowhere was this more true than Koh Lanta. 90% of the beach resorts were closed and in the resort we stayed in there was 6 people (including us!). Our resort couldn't cook half the things on the menu as the guy didn't know how to cook them and his wife (who usually cooked) had to work at another resort as a cleaner to make enough money to live at this time of year.

My over riding memory of Koh Lanta was how bad the tsunami has affected this area. This was one of the last places that the rescue teams reached and there was only a hand full of survivors. I think for the 3 days that we were there we didn't see a single person over the age of 30. This was a very eerie place which Sarah found a bit much. It was our first experience of a place which was devastated by the tsunami and it definitely had an impact on me and this is almost 5 years on! which is definitely eye opening.