Our South East Asia adventure was almost at an end and we had to make our way to Singapore for our next flight to Australia. We had considered travelling overland but it looked like a long journey and southern Thailand is dangerous even by train. Consequently we made our way to Phuket to catch a flight to Singapore. The Koh Tao to Phuket trip was accomplished by a combination of night boat and mini bus transfer although we must comment that the Thai travel people are quite something! When we arrived for our bus transfer we waited for 2 hours then to be told that we could wait another 2 hours for our bus or pay another $6 each to take a quicker mini bus now. Some of our fellow travellers paid up, but we refused saying we'd wait for the bus we had paid for, this turned out to be the right decision as we were put on the mini bus anyway without extra payment. We doubt there was another bus and this was just a ploy to get more money out of the tourists. That said the bus operator had the last laugh as they dropped us 5km outside of Phuket Town. The moral of the story is never trust Thai travel companies!

Gemma had been to Phuket before (and Patong Beach) and hadn't thought much of it. Our guide book painted a picture of a hedonistic, seedy party town characterized by European packaged tourists, drugs, prostitutes and lady-boys. We steered clear and played it safe in Phuket town centre enjoying a fantastic meal in an award winning restaurant and watching a 10 man United score a last minute winner at midnight, before catching an early flight out of Thailand the next morning.