Pai wasn't originally on the Thailand agenda but I'd met Janine in Vietnam then in Bangkok and she insisted that I had to go. I'd read the couple of pages in the Lonely Planet and sort of expected a bit of a hippy commune. When I arrived I actually wasn't too far from the mark. It's not exactly a hippy commune but it is really laid back. It's sort of hard to describe the place but 10 minutes after arriving I was looking for a place to stay that was a little bit ...

I didn't really do too much for the first couple of days in Chiang Ma. There's quite a few things that you can sign up for mostly based around trekking, massage courses, yoga etc. etc. I never intended to do my trek here as I was saving that for Chiang Rai or Pai as I'd been told it was a bit more off the beaten track. So in the end I opted for a days mountain biking. I've never really done any serious stuff, so I blagged it a little bit when they asked about m...

After leaving Ko Phangan, I flew to Bangkok for a couple of days to work out where exactly I was going to head next. So after thumbing through th the Lonely Planet I plucked for a trip upto Khao Yai National park where I'd sign up for some trekking and hopefully see some wildlife. May be the a cheeky monkey here or there, and catch a sight of some elephants roaming free. Now don't get me wrong it's a nice enough place, but the problem with it is that it covers ...

I went over to Ko Phangan for the Full Moon party a bit earlier than I wanted but I was getting a bit twitchy as people were leaving Ko Tao in their droves. I'd heard all about this thing, and didn't want to be in the middle of the carnage so when I got off the boat I headed for the quieter area of Baan Thai for a place to stay. However I say quiet, it was more like a ghost town when I trundled down to the beach to look for a place to stay. So I took the plunge...

After meeting James and Fabby I needed a bit of a break from the Singha beer. I knew that Ko Tao was the place to get my Open Water PADI certification so I was looking forward to doing something a bit constructive. I found Siam Diving in Sairee beach that chucked in free accomodation with the Open Water. They gave me a bungalow which was a bit of a bonus. The course involves theory and testing, with a confined water dive, and 4 open water dives upto 18m. The con...