Arriving at Koh Lanta we had nowhere to stay so it was the boys turn to do the house hunting. After about thirty seconds we stumbled across a row of brand new beach bungalows, never before been used and, we suspect, probably only finished the day before. Cheap and comfy, if a little flimsy, we couldn't ask for more, right on the beach.

Our stay consisted of lots of noodle soup for Sean and a variety of Thai Green curries, fried rice, noodles, Pad Thai and a token noodle soup, which had to be sent back to remove the baby squids - cringe, for Laura. We were so relaxed we were horizontal. The beach was a mix of Frisbee, sunbathing, reading, sunbathing, sunbathing and a few card games. This was also our evening's entertainment. After dinner we would get drinks or snacks or fruits and take them to the restaurant attached to our bungalows and we would spend a good few hours playing our new favourite, Deal or hearts, President and some others we don't know the name of. Thanks to Tyler we have plenty of games now and a good test of our now much underused brains.

Sean finished reading The Beach, perfect cliché for Thailand and is now obsessed with finding our own island. We'll keep you posted on that.

Koh Lanta's beaches are lovely, longer than Raillay but the sea wasn't anywhere near as nice, loads of massive rocks which made swimming and wading out a bit tricky. The little street we were staying on was quite quiet. There were some bars on the beach open till late but we mostly just stuck to our favourite little eatery which was owned by an old Thai couple who didn't speak much English but ran the stall just outside their living room. We watched them cook our food fresh, the man always cooked the noodles and the woman did most other things on her beaten and blackened woks over a massive open flame. We are looking forward to a Thai cooking course, but we are waiting till the North for that as prices for everything on the islands are massively hiked up for tourists.

One evening we decided to go to a nearby night market we had found out about. That day we had spent a long time chatting to another English couple just older than us who had just spent eight weeks in India so we had a lot of stories to compare. They didn't enjoy it half as much as we did but they did spend a long time being quite ill. They did also discover Cafe Coffee Day and loved it just as much as we did though so they can't have been too bad. So they joined us to the market. We had done some research on taxi prices and decided to hire our own motorbike taxi to save a bit of money. The taxi is a motorbike with a large sidecar modified into a canopied bench seat, which can comfortably fit three adults, just about four and we squeezed five of us on, with Tyler bravely accepting the challenge of being driver. It was an adventure. Good fun. I'm glad it wasn't me driving!

The night market was awesome. We bought sunglasses; genuine Ray Bans and Gucci and a hammock. Sean was impressed by the array of flick knives, throwing stars, tazers and weapons straight out of Star Trek. Lots of clothes and games to play. First prize on bingo was a kettle or a toaster. The food was incredible. We had lots of kebabs, chicken, prawn wantons and quails egg wantons, Thai fishcakes, beef rice, fried chicken, fish balls and our favourite market dessert, a strange thick folded pancake with coconut jam, or peanuts inside. We ate a LOT of food. And still had enough room for some popcorn for our evening card games.

We loved Koh Lanta, so peaceful and laid back and very helpful. However we will always have a little reserve as it was the first encounter we had with The Thai Spider... Anyone who knows us well will know that Sean is even worse than me for fear of spiders. It had poured down all evening and after a lovely evening beating Tori and Tyler at their own games (well almost) Sean was given a large eight legged shock when he went to the bathroom. A shriek and a BIG leap back into the room and we were faced with a dilemma. Do we shut the door and pretend it isn't there and hope it goes away with the niggling worry that it might escape into the room, or do we confront and face the challenge, then safely knowing where exactly the beast was? And so it was Laura bravely crossed the threshold having to step over the creature, something Sean was unwilling to do, and we filled up a bucket of water. The military operation began. Our aim was to wash the spider into the bathroom, part one successful, we locked ourselves in with it and the fight to the death began. After a couple of hefty dousings it looked ready to surrender and so we thought one more bucket would finish it off and we would be safe. Wrong. One more bucket of water and it grew a new lease of life and began to hop and jump very high off the floor to avoid the water. Sean's hysteria made me strangely calmer and he armed himself with the shower head and a small pot to wash away or trap it. Slipping on the floor we dropped the shower and it writhed like a snake soaking us both. So I took the shower and Sean tried to again catch it but the hopping creature got the better of him so I took over and after a couple of deep breaths managed to pop the pot over the hairy invader. Phew. One full bucket of water on top just to make sure it couldn't escape in the night and we could then safely crawl under our mosquito net, both hoping it was also spider proof.

It was the following day when Tori and Tyler told us they also had a third party in their room but they seemed to have coped slightly better, just chasing it out of the window. After our day out the guesthouse owner looked puzzled when we asked for his help. Guess he doesn't get many 6'2" guys asking him to get spiders out of their rooms.