We flew out of Kathmandu on 2nd July to Bangkok where we immediately caught another flight to the resort island of Phuket where we headed for the fairly quiet Kata beach area near the south of the Island. We got a really nice hotel room for around 16 quid a night and spent the next week or so doing pretty much buggar all. This being the last port of call for us on the entire trip meant that the proper travelling as such was over for us and we became holidaymakers. Phuket itself is obviously very touristy although fairly quiet at this time of the year. The busier beach is Hatong a few miles up the coast although thats a fairly notorious sleaze pit and pretty built up from what we could see of it. Kata beach seemed to cater far more for families which suited us as all we wanted to do was wind down before we flew back to New Zealand. It being Thailand we managed to find some decent restaurants and some even more decent Thai curry we're pleased to say. The one day we did get off our backsides was when we took a speed boat day trip to the very attractive Island of Ko Phi Phi and surrounding beaches and caves. This trip was memorable not so much for the lovely beaches but for the very bumpy speed boat ride. We found it rather fun although the locals (who don't seem to have strong stomachs) found it abject misery! Other than watching the world cup semi and finals here we really don't have a great deal to report on what we did but thats just the way we wanted it! The weather wasn't bad (compared to the rest of Thailand where rain seemed to be the order of the day, every day) although often fairly overcast and obviously very muggy. We flew back to Bangkok on 10th July, stayed a night at the airport hotel then flew to Auckland for good on the 11th.