After another gruelling trek through the jungle back to East Railey beach, I boarded another longtail boat back around the coast to where a minibus could reach and take a group of us to the bus. On arrival at the bus station we all stared ominously at a banged up bus in the corner of the yard, all thinking 'surely not'. About ten minutes later the engine of the bus started, on the third or fourth attempt, and we all boarded. My choice of seat could have been bett...

From Bangkok I managed to get a taxi into Khao San Rd, the main backpacker centre in the city, with the aim of finding a particular travel agent in order to get a bus to Surat Thani in the south. This exercise signalled the end of my trust in my guidebook (only published in March 08) as the didn't exist! I eventually decided to instead use the public bus system and got another taxi to the Southern bus terminal and got picked up a nice cheap overnight bus, which a...