Never talk to strangers...

Left Bangkok via the Northern terminal and took an air con bus to Ban Phe... the coastal jump off for Ko Samet and the place we'd been recommended by the US guy we met in Mae Hong Song...

The recommendation ws something along the lines of... really beautiful small town, less than half the price o Ko Samet, but the same beautiful beaches as its pretty much sharing the same water. Unfortunately it seems that things have changed. The guesthouses were pretty pricey and the food and drink seemed just as bad... we walked around trying to find a cheaper guesthouse for a while... but my bag is now pretty heavy and it was in midday sun, so I soon opted for a drink in the pub instead.

Despte the fact that I'm not a big seafood lover, which is the speciality here (I love fish and chips, but I don't like any food that watches me eat it... beurgh!) I thought Ban Phe looked like a really nice little seaside town and I would have been happy to spend a night here, but the girls weren't keen so we decided to move on. We could have gone to Ko Samet, but we had already singled out some other islands and as it's a national park there's a 200B fee as soon as you arrive so we decided to grab one of the blue sawangthea (still don't know how to spell that) and head for the nearby town Rayong, where we hoped we could pick somewhere more exciting to go...