Hello all, sorry it's been a while! I think you missed me by about half an hour mum!

So here I am again in Bangkok all ready for my departure tomorrow. Ko Tao was pretty incredible, the scenery was fantastic and the whole place had a really relaxed atmosphere which we haven't been able to find anywhere else in Thailand.

I started my Ko Tao experience pretty badly, the computer I used in Samui was bugged and it deleted all my previous pictures off my camera. As you can imagine that annoyed me, but I got over it pretty quickly when I realised that everyone else had almost exactly the same pictures anyway! We took a three hour ferry from Samui to Ko Tao and cheacked into our bungalows, of which we had one each, they had hot water, a king sized bed, air conditioning and only cost about four pounds a night! We spent saturday and sunday on quad bikes which we rented for 500 baht (7 pounds) for 24 hours including petrol. Most of the islands beaches were only accessible by dirt tracks so a quad bike was the only way of getting around really. Luckily, despite very little training we picked up the gears and everything very quickly, however laurie and jim crashed theirs! They weren't hurt though which was pretty lucky. We spent the rest of our time in Ko Tao snorkelling and sitting on the beach or in beach bars. In the evenings we were able to sit in beach front restaurants and watch really recent films, like 'the pursuit of happiness' and 'blood diamond' both of which were pretty good.

We got back to Bangkok at five o clock this morning after spending the night on a sleeper train which was really funny despite a complete lack of sleep. As it was our last night with the group we went for a drink in the 'party carriage' on the train, where we found a big thai guy walking around flexing his muscles, asking all the western guys for an arm wrestle certain he would win. He was so certain he would beat that he bet me a drink on it. Our tour leader told me not to do it because I would get hurt and all his friends were laughing at me as they looked on. I beat him three times, and he bought me a drink, much to his dislike! After that all the thai guys on the train shook my hand and said 'good fighter'!

We are not with group anymore which none of us really mind, we didnt get on with many of them and only really spoke to our tour leader who was hilarious, and a few others. Thailand is pretty much over now, we only have this one night left in 'Pat Pong' which we have found out is the gay capital of Bangkok! Our hotel is ok though, and needless to say, we are in Koh San road again which is the main backpacker street. I have enjoyed Thailand, I have done so many things that I will probably never do again and experienced the good and bad bits of a culture which I may not have seen if I had just come here on holiday. Having said all that I am pretty glad to be leaving, I am really looking forward to Australia, mainly being able to drink tap water, milk and eat proper meat! Rice and noodles do nothing for me anymore, however, the best food here, banana pancakes, I will miss! I thought that was pretty fitting as I'm quite sure today is pancake day, correct me if I'm wrong!

Thank you for all your messages since being in Thailand, this experience wouldnt be the same without being able to share it with you all and receive feedback! I miss and love you all, take care, i'll speak to you again from Sydney! Mat xx