Up early after all night torrential rain we are relieved to see the hazy sun shining, although through broken cloud. All signs of the down pour have disappeared.
Realising the only modes of transport are motorbike, bicycle and foot we rent a motorbike for the next 4 days.There is one road that circles most of the island with dirt roads leading off this to paddy fields, rubber plantations and small villages. As we pootle along the quiet road the villagers smile and nod.
The island is hilly rather than mountainous but is covered with lush vegetation. We are told there is an abundance of wildlife here such as hornbills, eagles, monkeys, pythons and cobras, and hope to spot some of the more desirable species.
As mentioned earlier most of the beaches though beautiful are too shallow for swimming. We come across Pasi beach, a beautiful stretch of golden sand with food stalls set behind it. After sunbathing for a few hours we decide to try it out for swimming, unfortunately it shallow with sharp coral and in part mudflats.

Throughout the day we feel the humidity building and watch as the sky gets darker and darker - it is now brewing. Early evening and we know we are in for a storm but it's ferocity took us by surprise. Watching from our balcony the storm appeared to slowly shroud the distant islands as it storked Koh Yao Noi. But when it arrived it's power and intensity could not be mistaken. The deluge lasted a few hours and finally stopping so we can plan our evening meal, which we had decided to take in the village. However, we had to eat at Hillhouse as the island was suddenly plunged into darkness; a power cut.

The following day over breakfast we have a word with Don who gives us all sorts of relevant information about the island; where to get the cheapest beer!!!, the local seafood restaurants as well as the the few swim-able beaches.
At this point I'd hate to give the impression that we were enjoying our sobriety, more we had got use to it. A sober Thai lunch was now (non alcohol). One of the reasons this was so favourable was the motorbike that gave us the freedom of the island. Also allowing us to pop to the shop that had the fridge that had the beer and the tonic (gin had a arrived courtesy of Bangkok Airways) so we could enjoy a sun-downer while writing this blog.

Whilst on the island we have certainly got back to nature, we have seen sea otters, sea eagles and hornbills, butterflies the size of your hand, geckos and frogs and heard various calls, tweets and songs from dawn to dusk.
A great example of this is one morning while enjoying breakfast David almost stepped on a scorpion, I thought it was dead so went to flick it off the balcony when Don Shouted 'stop' in Thai. It was alive enough but he said was relatively harmless (30 mins of stinging) phew! We were still discussing this on our way back to our bungalow 10 minutes later when David shouted 'stop' (in English) 'Look, a snake' as the 1 m long reptile slithered across his path!!!!! On speaking to Don he said 'oh, don't worry about them as those species are not dangerous but very common'. However, we did make plenty of noise on the way back to the room that night!

The rest of our days on the island are spent visiting a small but beautifully secluded cove in the mornings. Secluded because it's a bit of a hike to get to which involved climbing up and over a small headland via a precarious staircase. The beach is also hidden from view from the mainland so we find ourselves having the beach to ourselves for most of the time - bliss. The afternoons are spent pootling into town to pick up provisions (mainly beers) and then on to our favourite seafood restaurant, a very local eatery on the other side of the island. It is situated in a little village; a stilted house built over a mangrove forest. The food is out of this world; huge prawns and squid dishes served with delectable sauces. We can hardly believe how reasonably priced the food is; less than half of what you'd pay in a tourist area. The couple that run the restaurant were lovely and always waited for us to get on our motorbike to wave us off.

Unfortunately due to the weather being overcast and late afternoon downpours we were unable to take a boat trip with Don to the neighbouring islands or get the 10 minute long tail boat to it's sister island Kho Yao Yai. However, the weather did not spoil our time on the island. The people are some of the friendliest we have met, always smiling and willing to give you their time with one cook giving us her Massaman Curry recipe and another restaurant-er giving us free kit-kats at the end of our meal.

While doing a bit of window shopping in the town we get chatting to a shop owner who is very proud of the fact that his was the first of the 4 souvenir shops on the island. He went on to show us pictures of him visiting Big Ben, Brighton and Portsmouth!!!! David and I look on in amazement as we could not be more removed from the home counties and would not have thought in a million years that this chap had ever been there himself. The world is definitely a small place. He went on to shock us further by producing a football shirt signed by Christiano Renaldo, who, on staying at the exclusive Six Sense Resort had popped into his shop for a browse.