We'd learned our lesson on the last sleeper train and didn't expect to arrive in Surat Thani on time, and we were right! So we didn't rush to get up and stayed laid in our top bunks until we arrived, 2 hours late. We'd bought combo bus and boat tickets to take us to Koh Phangan so we were shown which bus to get on at the station. Unfortunately, the modern air conditioned bus soon filled up (lots of people heading to the full moon party), so we ended up in a ric...

This morning we checked out of Cozy Bangkok and left our bags in storage while we headed back to our favourite Bangkok shopping centre, MBK. Our first stop was the post office where we planned to send a box full of souvenirs and things we've collected home. It turned out to be more of a courier service and we paid almost £60 for our box! We won't be posting anything else after that shocker… We were keen to try out the international food court again without h...

We all woke up about about 6am as the train was supposed to arrive in Bangkok at 7am. We'd all slept pretty well, although I woke up quite a few times in the night - not used to sleeping on a train! We hung around and watched one of the staff members starting to change some of the beds back into seats again -a very streamlined procedure, it probably takes him 1 minute for each set of 2 beds. As it got to 7am it was clear we weren't going to get to Bangkok on ti...

Our last day in Chiang Mai today and we're all glad we decided to come North before heading South. Chiang Mai is a really relaxed town compared to Bangkok and the climate is much more enjoyable! Plus we've had some amazing experiences that we probably wouldn't have got elsewhere. Today we spent the morning by the beautiful pool - I'll definitely miss it when we're back in sweaty Bangkok, and I took the opportunity to have one last swim. After lunch at the hote...

Today we opted to have a lazy day by the pool as Chris wasn't feeling too clever and we'd all had a tiring day yesterday. So after breakfast we nabbed ourselves 3 sun loungers in the sun and stayed there relaxing, sunbathing and reading for most of the day, with swims in between to cool off - it's a hard life! Chris spent most of the afternoon asleep in the room, so Dave and I decided to go out and see one of the temples while he slept and come back later so we...