KOH TAO Next morning we caught a modern catamaran full of Western tourists which stopped off en route at the Full Moon Party island of Koh Pha Ngan. We stayed on until Koh Tao, keen to do some more diving. En route, Duncan did some great negotiating with a bungalow resort rep, who arranged for our direct transfer by bumpy pick-up truck from the port to the Grand Coral Resort, which had a diving centre on site. We booked ourselves onto two dives the following day...

KOH SAMUI If we thought that the journey to Koh Kradan had been a long one, that was nothing compared to getting from Koh Lanta on the east coast to Koh Samui on the west coast, certainly in terms of the number of different forms of transport involved. Rather than waste time breaking up the journey, we decided to do it all in one day which involved a minibus and two car ferries to get to Krabi on the mainland. After various other minibuses and coaches with fello...

KOH LANTA After three days of doing very little it was time to leave Koh Kradan so we caught a high-powered speedboat with a group of other tourists which took us to Koh Lanta, a couple of hours north. Going against our usual instinct, we accepted the first offer we had of a hotel from one of the friendly taxi drivers touting for business on the quayside. And it proved to be a wise move as we found ourselves soon afterwards at Lantawadee, a perfect hotel with si...

KOH KRADAN Early next morning we started what would prove to be an epic journey involving four boats to get to the remote Thai island of Koh Kradan for another hotel review. We were up early to catch our ferry which we thought would take us directly to our destination. What we didn't realise was that the 'ferry' was actually a speedboat which nipped across the border to Koh Lipe in Thailand on an exhilarating yet bumpy journey. Immigration consisted of handing o...

LANGKAWI Next morning we had an early start as we had a ferry to catch from Georgetown to the island of Langkawi. The ferry was a relatively modern ship with seats and life jackets and everything. Emma was itching to sit on the small outside deck and somehow managed to secure the remaining two seats in an area which had been commandeered by a team of crack German tourists armed with bags and towels hours beforehand. The ferry set sail and we felt the wind in our...