Now I am sitting. Sitting is good. After a long break soaking up the sun in the islands we are now in Bangkok the gateway to Asia where the bars are open 24 hours. But today I will be mostly talking about sun, sea, sand and partying - not anymore about the lack of Thailand which I still have yet to find.

Taking the night boat (sleeping with the cargo) was the start of our island experience. There wasn't much sleep with people drinking the night away and playing cards. This boat was to the first of three islands, Ko Samui. There's not much to say here other than it has an airport so the package holiday reigeme has taken a strong hold of the island so inevitably we only stayed a couple of days. Straight on to Ko Pha Ngan.

Now this was a lot better, although the rapid progress on the island means that the holiday makers will not be far behind. I had picked out a beach (Haad Yao) to go to that was, according to the guidebook, really only accesible by taxi boat so I was a bit dubious when a taxi said they could take us all the way. Which they did. On perfectly laid concrete roads. Having said that, the bay was fantastic. We chose wisely. Cheap, sociable accomodation, great beach and a couple of bars to while the evenings away. There was another reason why we had made it here at this time. The full moon party. Legendary, in its own right, it attracts over 10,000 revellers in the peak season. All the farang in Thailand that month gravitate to the once-in-a-life party. I had no idea how many people were there on the night we went but I don't think the beach could hold many more. Even Steve was 'dancing' at one point but no match for my style throwing the shapes until sun rise. I can't deny that it was an awesome night and met some great people drinking buckets on the way. It was however, slightly ruined by the shear scale of rubbish that was left on the beach as people dissapeared. A place that was once described as paradise had been reduced to a landfill. So after a fry-up and a cuppa (I did say this place was westernised) I went back and chipped in the clean up effort and filled a few bin bags before finnally getting to bed at midday.

The other reason to coming to the islands was the diving. Having completed two dives last year in Tunisia with no problem from my ear I was really looking forward to it. I signed up to dive on Sail Rock leaving Steve behind with a cold. This is supposedly the best dive site in the Gulf of Thailand and it was here that I started (and ended) my diving. Firstly on the way out on the boat we were briefed on the site. Now there were two things that I didn't want to hear and they came right out: "we may have some problems as the site was covered in thousands of jelly fish yesterday." oh good! "However, we should be ok as there is a strong current so the dont stay for long." Pah, strong current? it was a jet stream, we couldn't swim at all in it with the hoses vibrating madly threatening to rip the regulator from your mouth. Thankfully the dive master decided to give up and headed around the rock to the sheltered side to relax. I have never seen so many fish in all shapes and sizes, on their own or in massive schools. There was a plethora of wildlife, too many to name - not that I even know the half the names. We even got to swim through a chimney in the coral which was fantastic especially due to the lack of jelly fish. It didn't all go swimmingly though - I managed the first dive with just a slight ache in my ear but when it came to the second my ear was having none of it so I had to surface after about 5 mins and 4 metres. For the rest of the day I had to put up with muffled hearing and a constant ache. I am happy I at least got in one dive and it was a fantastic dive. I will take their word for it that it was the best site in the Gulf.

The next island was Ko Tao - the diving capital of the Gulf so I tried to avoid it. We headed to one of the quieter beaches over rutted dirt tracks in the back of a pick-up, discovered it was really expensive, spent one night then promptly returned to the main beach with our tails between our legs. Both of us unable to do any diving we looked for alternative entertainent (there's only so much time you can spend on a palm tree lined beach!) and decided on taking an excursion round the island exploring the small tracks trying to find our own deserted beach. Needless that deserted beaches here no longer exist although on this island it was possible to see glimpses of what traditional island life is like (coconut farming).

So that's it really, a big long chill out session with the odd party. Preparing for Bangkok.