We left Malaysia and flew from Penang to Ko Samui in Thailand. By 2.30pm on Simon's 30th Birthday, we were lying on sun loungers by the pool whilst looking out over the Gulf of Thailand. One he will remember! After spending most of the last few weeks in big cities, I couldn't wait to escape the heat and pollution in favour of sun, sand and sea. We got straight out of the heavily touristed areas and headed for the quieter north of the island. The next morning we hopped across to Ko Tao on a ferry for a week of scuba diving. Ko Tao was absolutely stunning and an incredibly relaxed Island with very little of the developed hustle and bustle of Ko Samui. We had found our paradise (again!) We stayed for 6 days and dived every day managing to visit most of the dive sites in the area. Although there wasn't any big stuff to see, there was plenty of the smaller aquatic life around. Large shoals of Fusilier (must have been about 1000 of them) surrounding us were a very impressive sight along with large shoals of Barracuda. These really were amazing sights and things you only expect to see on a wildlife documentary. The sucker fish that attatch themselves to the underside of sharks because they are too lazy to swim for themselves were also in the area. For almost an hour on one dive Simon had 3 at once that had sucked onto his thigh catching a lift. There were also small cleaner fish that came and nibbled in your ears and at any wounds that you have. It was quite scary at first but then it became funny once you knew what it was. After the slick operation that took us diving on the Great Barrier Reef, divivng in Thailand was a bit of a shock. No swanky boats here. Instead they were all old wooden craft that you would struggle to sell as firewood. Still, our boat did okay and got us to where we needed to go. It wasn't all plain sailing though. On our final trip, the boat decided to break down just as we turned the engine on to return to the harbour. The engine had kicked the bucket and there was smoke pouring out of the engine room. Fortunately, the engine didn't catch fire but it did mean that we had to radio for help and another boat had to come and rescue us. After becoming very green around the gills, the rescue boat arrived and towed us back to the harbour. Instead of taking us all the way to the harbour, we had to transfer all our equipment and ourselves on to a traditional Thai long boat. This wouldn't be much of a problem but as both boats were still sailing towards the harbour, it meant we had to jump onto a moving boat. Quite tricky but great fun !!!! We could have stayed on Ko Tao forever but unfortunately we had to keep moving. We returned to Ko Samui intending to spend a few days exploring. For one day we rented a banger of a jeep (Simon said it was by far the worst car he had ever driven - which is saying something it did have air con though) and drove around the Island taking in all the sights. I was glad that we chose to stay where we did on Ko Samui because the rest of the towns and beaches of the Island were awful !!! After the paradise that was Ko Tao, we weren't too impressed so left early and headed for Bangkok. Lisa xxxxxxx