Today we all spent another day chilling at the rooftop pool, which was a good way to get out of the heat, chilling in the water! We've topped up our tans being here the last few days, as during the day there isn't much else to do here. Well saying that… there are temples, floating markets, waterfalls etc… but nothing better than we have already seen, so not worth spending our money on.

Our friend from home, Assad, has been in Thailand the last two weeks doing a Muay Thai boxing camp 3 hours from Bangkok. The camp was nothing like it was described online, and from what he has described it sounds like an absolute hell-hole! So he has had enough of that and is now going to spend the next 2 weeks with us before he goes back home. We explained to him where our hostel was, and where the pool was… so he checked in then came met us at about 2 in the afternoon. Was cool to see someone else from back home and have another person with us again… he has been travelling before and been Thailand a few times so is also handy as he knows more than us about the country! He also has bought an underwater camera with him, which he said we can keep!... so you might see some cool underwater photos coming soon!

We all left the pool at about 5pm as the girls were leaving Bangkok today. We will see them again in Koh Phangan, but we wanted to go Koh Tao to do our scuba diving before the full-moon party, whereas they are doing it after. After they got packed we saw them off at the bus station and booked our bus and ferry to Koh Tao at the same time. We got chatting to the Thai guy who worked for the travel company and he said we should book the diving through him and he will get it us cheaper. The bus and ferry was 1000 baht and he said if we give him another 8000 baht, we can do the 4 day dive course, get our PADI qualification, and have 4 nights' accommodation at the dive centre. The dive centre was called 'Crystal' and we had seen quite a few people wearing vests from it, which is a good sign. However, we weren't going to say yes there and then and thought we would research the company first.

After saying bye to the girls we went back to the hostel to see what the reviews were like for Crystal. They were all pretty good, and Assad knew someone who has been there and said it was a really good place. Also, the price for just the course was usually 9800 baht, so we were saving ourselves around 2000 baht, because we would get the travel to Koh Tao (1000) and the course all for 9000 baht. This is only £167…to be fully PADI certified, accommodation for 4 nights and travel there. In England to do just the course alone you are looking at paying at least £500, and obviously the ocean and life in it, is not going to be anywhere near as good as on this island!! So we went back to Tommy, the Thai guy, and he got us booked in to start diving the day after we arrive in Koh Tao. He then went out the back and bought us all a large beer each, for free, and we had a chat with him for a bit…. He was a top bloke!

Tonight we are going to Lebua State Hotel which is famous for featuring in The Hangover 2 film. It is a 5 star, really posh and expensive hotel resort with the highest open-air sky bar in the world! It has a smart casual dress code, which meant no shorts, so we wore jeans for the first time in months. As soon as you enter the hotel, the staff walk or direct you everywhere. It feels like you are a celebrity as you are ushered every step from the lobby, to the lift, to the first bar, to the second bar etc. In the first outdoor bar the three of us had a 'Hangovertini' cocktail, which was really nice. We then got taken to the sky bar which is amazing! The views over Bangkok at night were incredible, with all the buildings, lights and of course the Mekong River again. There is a band playing in the open air, tables with people eating, then a circular lit-up bar right on the edge overlooking the city. We had one more drink, this time a beer, and admired the scenery. It is very expensive here, well for Thailand anyway, so we had planned to literally just have a couple drinks, plus we had an early start tomorrow.

Our alarm was set for 4.45 am, as we had to be at the travel agency ( luckily near our hostel ) for 5.30am. Next stop…Koh Tao!!

P.S when we have crap WiFi we can't upload photos as it takes like 10 minutes per photo to upload, so give it a couple of days we may have better WiFi and we will upload them then!