After my final week of volunteering had finished it was time to explore Thailand! I choose to head to the island Ko Chang which is on the east coast of Thailand. This meant a very long bus ride! From Chiang Mai I took the over night bus down to Bangkok. The bus arrived at 5.00 am and after waiting in a 24 hour McDonalds for 2 hours I had to take another bus and a ferry and eventually arrived on the island in the mid afternoon. I headed to the backpackers area named Lonely Beach and found a beach bungalow to stay in. That evening I went out in the tiny village/road that surrounded the beach. During the night it began to rain and the next day it should no signs of stopping. Reading my Lonely Planet guide I discovered an island nearby that apparantly 'gets only scant rainfall in an average year'. And so after experiencing another overcast day I decided it was time to head to this island!

The promise of a 'dry' island was luckily fulfilled! A minibus and a boat (not unlike the one in Mama Mia which takes Julie Walter's character across to the Greek island!) got me to Ko Samet. It is a very small island, only 6km long, and the coast line is part of a national park. One road spanned the length of the east side of the island and I stayed in a beach bungalow in Ao Hin Kok which again is the backpackers area. The beaches were beautiful. Dazzling clean white sand and pale blue clear sea. The sand squeaked when you walked on it, which according to Lonely Planet was the high silicon content. I can't say I did a lot here apart from relax on the beaches and hang out on the beach front bars in the evening! Although one day i hired a mountain bike with my friend Sam. We planned to cycle to the southern tip of the island, but it wasn't easy! After setting off the concrete road soon disappeared into rock and rubble and a lot of hills! However, after a lot of sweating (and one fall!) we made it and we were rewarded with an amazing view out to sea and over the island. We found a taxi to take us back!