Hello everybody,

We arrived in Ko Toa, which is a tiny island on the south-east coast of Thailand, after leaving Bangkok at 5am. We got on a 6 hour bus which took us south to the costal town of Champorn, we then got the catamaran over to Ko Tao. The bus journey was fine, we all pretty much slept most of the way, it was either that or watch a shocking film. The boat journey was a bit rough, we got caught up in a bit of a storm, so was very bumpy and Fran got sea sick, thankfully she only felt it and was not fully sick.

Once on the island we walked along the 'main road', which was in actual fact a dirt path with hotels and bars along one side. We stopped off at a few places and after being told by everyone that the island would be full and there would be little accomodation available, we settled for the first satisfactory room. After checking in, we wandered down the 'main road' further along the island. Soon enough the dirt path turned into a paved path and became very nice, with lanterns and lights in the trees. There also turned out to be loads more better accomodation that was actually available!! We looked around and found one that we liked a lot more than our existing room and booked ourselves in for the following night. That night we went back towards the nicer end of the island and found a nice place selling BBQ fresh fish, I had lovely baracuda and Fran had a delicious red snapper. Once back at the room we found a huge cockroach in the bathroom, so began the 30 mins of removing it.

In the morning Fran woke us up really early as she could not wait to get out of the room, we walked down to our new hotel and checked into our new pink bungalow. We took a walk to find a beach shop, I bought some new board shorts and we also picked up some new beach towels. Then we hit the beach the day. In the evening we went to a restaurant and had tortillas and watched Public Enemies.

The next six days fell into the routine of breakfast in the bar facing the beach, spending the day on the beach playing bat and ball and playing with two labradors in the sea. Then going for dinner and watching a film at one of the many restaurants, then going for a drink back at our bar.

The night before Fran's birthday, we bumped into two guys from the group tour, we then changed our little routine and spent the evening partying into Fran's birthday in a bar with more Irish than Ireland itself.

Fran's birthday was as usual spent on the beach, then in the evening we went for a lovely meal in the island's poshest restaurant. We had salmon pate, bruschetta, beef fondue, cheesecake and apple and blueberry crumble. Thanks Ian and Melissa.

The following day we checked out and at 9pm left for what turned out to be a 22 hour journey of hell to get to Penang, Malaysia.

Love Chris and Fran x