Friday 26th November

Philip drove us to the airport and we said our Thanks and goodbyes. The flight to Bangkok took about 1 hour and a cab took us to the Eastern bus terminal and at 1330 we boarded an air-conditioned bus to Trat. An interesting drive through farm land, sugar cane fields, paddy fields and rubber tree plantations. We passed through many villages and towns on the 5 hour journey, all with markets and road side stalls selling food. I don't know what the population in Thailand is and I doubt anyone knows the exact number but I can comfortably guess that it's a lot.

We had no accommodation booked and Amie had decided that we would make our way to Pop Bungalows. We were met by someone touting for them at the Bus terminal and got a comfortable 200bhat (£4) after paying the 20bhat fare.

We bought a torch from the 7/11 shop and then ate at Pops. This is our last night on the mainland before heading off to Ko Chang for a taste of island life.

Saturday 27th November

9:20am taxi to the port and a very slow car and passenger ferry to Ko Chang. We then had a taxi to 'Chok Dee Resort' with small bungalows on the water front. We arrived in the early afternoon, unpacked, had lunch at a pizza bar after booking a cookery course for tomorrow and an elephant visit on the 29th.

I sat on the small veranda reading, while Amie had a massage and then watched as they set up a karaoke stage on the grass outside our bungalow. I now realise why we were given a 100bhat per night discount on our booking!

We went to a bar for a beer and then had a Thai meal. On our return the Karaoke was in full swing but we decided we'd rather listen to our ipods. Amie quickly fell asleep and I followed suit, waking some time later to silence.

Sunday 28th November

Breakfast at 9am and we watched a man fishing with a hand line from his restaurant, which jutted out to the sea. He caught many small fish which he kept for the pot. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday in my books.

We were picked up for the cookery course at 1040 after 1 hour on deck chairs. It was a most enjoyable course with 4 other people - Swiss, Austrian and German. We all had pretty much the same cookery skills and made Tom Kha, Tom Yum and Pad Thai. We ate these for lunch and had a break before making a red, green and masaman curry, stir-fried chicken with cashew nuts and Aubergine with hot basi. We then consumed that with white and brown sticky rice for dinner. The instructor then prepared a mango and sticky rice desert, which we all ate. It was all delicious.

We returned to our bungalow at 1830 and we won't be eating tonight!!

Monday 29th November

We had an earlier start with a 30minute taxi ride to the elephant sanctuary, where Steve swam with and bathed with an elephant. I'm not sure either of them smelt any better after their ablutions. Amie was too slow at getting ready to get in the water to swim with them, but since we didn't take any towels with us she wasn't too worried.

We ate some pineapple and climbed aboard Shirley, our elephant who took us through the jungle. We were very high up and it was quite wobbly but we got used to it. The guide took our cameras from us and took many photos of us on the elephant. After a while the guide, climbed down from the elephant and motioned for Amie to take the 'driver's' seat, which she did. I also got a turn in the driver's seat - sitting on it's neck and resting your hands on the back of it's head was not the most comfortable position, despite the fact that your legs hung behind it's beautifully soft ears. An improvement in the design of an elephant, could incorporate a handle bar or steering wheel and better suspension!

We fed Shirley bananas and had our photo taken next to her. We had a coconut of sweet coconut milk on our return to the camp before the drive back to our accommodation. The elephants were so gentle and we wondered what 'work' they had been made to do before 'retiring' to give elephant rides twice a day.

We took a kayak around the bay, Steve swam and we relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. We booked our speedboat to Koh Kood for our departure tomorrow.

Off now to get some dinner before bed.