As soon as the train got into Bangkok- we were whisked away to the war cemetrys and the bridge over the River Kwai. The cemetries were for the POW who had died building the railway from Burma to Thailand. The museum described how the conditions the POW worked in were absolutely terrible and hundreds died from starvation, disease and exhaustion. A sobering experience. Back in Bangkok we visited Koh San Road- the place for all bagpackers, hostels, bars and sho...

So Koh Pha Ngan was everything one would expect of a Thai tropical island- palm trees, beautiful sea, warm weather and noisey gekkos which would wake you during the night. We had 4 full days there- enough time to relax a bit and enjoy being in the same place long enough to unpack properly! We did the usual- elephant trekking, snorkelling and getting a traditional thai massage- which I mistakenly thought would be really relaxing. Sixty painful minutes later I real...