Hello, sorry for the long wait for this blog, but we've been on a remote resort, which had free internet, but only in the evenings, with one computer and a very slow connection! Also we were having such a great, relaxing time that we didn't want to think about the blog!

We took the overnight train from Bangkok to Suret Thani. We then took a bus form there to Krabi, then another bus from there to Ao Nang, where we had to go to McDonalds and call our resort to collect us! We met a Swedish couple on the bus journey's, so that made the journey seem quicker, as we chatted to them.

Our resort was excellent. It had a private beach and lots of swings, hammocks and relaxing areas outside. Ao Nang was a lot busier than I expected and really touristy and expensive, so we were pleased to be staying out of there. We spent the week relaxing and swimming in the sea. We hired a moped a couple of times and did one day trip. The trip was to see James Bond Island (from The Man with the Golden Gun). This was great, but full of tourists. We then did some canoeing through the Mangrove Forest and through some caves (again, full of tourists). We then had lunch on a floating island, then to Monkey Cave Temple, to see a huge golden reclining Budda, then finally to a waterfall where we went swimming. Again, we were pleased we had only done one trip, as there were so many tourists and everything is so organised! This seems strange to us after India's chaos. We are not used to being given coloured stickers for certain buses and being given proper instructions as to what you have to do. We've got used to playing it by ear and hoping for the best!

We were planning to hire a canoe in the last few days but unfortunately Graham hurt his back on Monday, so we didn't think canoeing was a good idea! I also wanted to go to see the beach from the film 'The Beach' but the trips were really expensive and all the photos had hundreds of tourists on them, so we decided not to. We then spoke to people who had been and all said it was having full of people and not worth the visit.

We met some great people at our resort, and spent the evening of our wedding anniversary with an English couple (James and Lucy) drinking and chatting. We sat up until 5am, not realising the time! We also met some Canadians, and George has been teaching Graham to play guitar for the last couple of nights, so he is eager to buy one now!

We have had lots of thunder and lightning storms and in the first 3 days we had huge rain storms each afternoon/evening, but it was still so hot outside. For the last 4 days we have had no rain, and it just seems to be getting hotter and hotter. The sea at our resort was very shallow, and has been so hot the last couple of days that I've not wanted to go in. It felt like about 30 degrees! Graham has walked/wadded out to some of the islands near to us, but I have been staying hidden out of the sun!

So, a great start to the Thailand segment of our journey, just very different from India! We've got to get used to new ways of doing things and new money.

Maggie x