KO SAMUI 4TH - 13TH FEBRUARYKo Samui is Thailand third largest island, its beautiful, with white sand beaches and clear green seas and a picture perfect background of lush green hills. Because of the island beauty it ha become a very popular holiday destination but popularity doesn't come without a price….. More people means more traffic, more noise, more rubbish and higher prices. The rough-hewn huts have expanded into classy resorts and spas and the backpackers are joined by throngs of up-market holiday-makers.The beaches are packed with bodies but you can still find secluded bays if you look for them. Cheap food stalls mix with top-class restaurants, crowded modern shopping strips with Starbucks, McDonalds and store after store featuring knock-off Von Dutch T shirts and Gucci sunglasses.On the 4th we took a short ferry journey from Hat Rin, Koh Phang Ngan to Hat Mae Nam, Ko Samui. We hired a mo-ped and found a guest house for the night. The next day we went to the islands airport to meet my parents who were arriving around mid-day. I was so excited to see them after four months and for some reason so nervous, I found myself pacing around the airport. Ko Samui's airport is open-air and very small, and the planes land right in front of the waiting area. It was wonderful to see them both and get to spend some time with them as I missed them loads.They had booked accommodation for us and themselves from England, so we all got a taxi to the esort on Hat Chaweng Noi. Hat Chaweng is Ko Samui's longest and most popular beach, a 6km strip of white sand lined with beach chairs and sellers, offering sarongs, fresh fruit etc. There is lots of big accommodation and a jam-packed built-up main street. Our Resort was gorgeous, we stayed in bungalows in lush surrounding by the pool and beach, we even had air-con and a T.V (alien items to us!). We had some great food here, my favourite being the huge seafood platter we shared, which included lobster, and Lewis's being the eat all you can meat feast!Roger and Lilian, my uncle and aunt arrived for a holiday on the 9th. It was so nice being surrounded with family suddenly. Lewis was bombarded with Edney's! ha ha !Whilst on Samui we had fantastic weather so had some great time chilling on the beach. We also hired a jeep to explore the island, which was fun, we also watched some Thai boxing, which was really bad, an extremely hyped event but felt similar to watching kids fight in the playground.The six of us left Ko Samui on the 13th by boat and bus to Krabi, the Andaman coast, South West Thailand.We phoned round a lot of places looking foe accommodation but this appeared more problematic than expected as it was peak season, the prices were doubled, there were six of us, and everywhere seemed booked up. We found accommodation on Krabi beach for two nights which was actually nice apart from the first night Lewis and I got a dump of a room as all the others were taken, and I mean a dump; it had a brick wall down the centre of two single beds, a hole for a toilet and it kind of felt like a prison cell. At least it was only the one night!Our resort on Krabi beach was only about half an hour from Ao Nang, so whilst here caught a lift to Ao Nang and then a long tail boat to Railay Beach (60B) for the day. A few kilometres south of Ao Nang is the jagged peninsular of Railay , which encompasses a series of spectacular clear bays with lush limestone cliffs that drop right into the blue sea. The cliff-backed isthmus is also one of the worlds leading rock climbing destinations. Although the official name of the peninsular is Laem Phra Nang, almost everyone calls it Railay. Boats from Ao Nang land on lovely Hat Rai Leh on the western side of the peninsular, the beach is backed by a string of tasteful resorts that make the best of the powdery white sand and spectacular sunsets. The ocean here is deep enough to swim even at low tide. As soon as you step onto the beach at Railay it takes your breath away, it looks like a paradise movie scene and we're so glad we visited. If we were to come back to Thailand for a holiday it would definitely be to this area. We spent the whole day on the beach; sunbating, walking and checking out the flashy resorts.On the 15th we all left Krabi by boat to Ko Lanta.