Hello again...we finally made it to the islands, after travelling for over 23 hours non stop from Chiang Mai. Not nice...but at least we got it all over and done with in one go! We got the overnight VIP bus down to Bangkok - which was spookily trying to be an airplane...but very comfortable. We arrived in Bangkok at 4am to find out we were in the north bus station out of the city. We jumped into a cab in the hope to get the train outta Bangkok (a city which Mark has declared undying hate for!!) to then find the taxi driver could not speak a word of English and appeared to keep saying something that resembled airport and driving in that direction. After much sign language of us both pretending to be choo-choo trains (along with sound effects...) he decided to drop us off at the train station. I think we frightened hm as much as he frightened us! We then found out all trains were booked so got conned by the thai police (we hasten to add!!) and jumped into a very expensive taxi to the bus station. After a 3.5hr wait there, we were glad to board a bus to Chumphon and get out of the city.

We arrived in the port of Chumphon, which was to be our home for the night. Found another nice little guest house courtesy of the lonely planet (thanks Frankie!!) and boarded the 7am speed boat to the island of Ko tao. After a very rocky ride (Alaine was very sea sick!!) we arrived and were to some bungalows on the south side of the island. These were a bit of the way...and remote, so we stayed one night and went across to sairee beach - which has a little bit more life. Since then we've just been chilling, made a trip to nu - which is 3 tiny islands joined by sand dunes, not inhabited and the only thing on the island is one dive resort. We got a long boat across and stayed for 4 hours. It was very peaceful and beautiful...paradise! We hired out some snorkel masks and went snorkelling in the coral waters. Saw some amazing fish in their natural habitat. The only thing to ruin a perfect day was our disrespect to the sun...which decided to burn both of us. So today we've been taking it easy in the shade getting ready to move onto ko phangan tomoz...we're we'll update you again on how the full moon party went!