There's something quite homely and comforting about Thailand, so coming back to Bangkok was almost like coming home. We were staying in a new part of the city for a change, but having mastered the public transport system before, we had no trouble in hopping on the bus and sky train to where we needed to be. It was a rather bumpy descent into Bangkok airport, so I was quite relieved when we finally touched down (I seem to be getting worse with flying, which isn't such a good thing the further we get from the UK!). A few hours later, our buddies from home (Claudia and Rochelle) arrived and the group was back together again for one last hoorah!

Of course, our first evening together involved a number of beers and although us girls were sensible and headed off to bed at a reasonable time, James (unfortunately?) ended up in a 'ladies' club with a few guys from Argentina. Needless to say, the next day was not quite as productive as we'd all hoped. Us girls weren't feeling entirely refreshed, but nevertheless went up to the Chatuchak market (Bangkok's biggest weekend market - honestly, it's vast!) for a mooch around. When that got too hot, we found a big shopping mall called Terminal 21, also pretty vast, but very cool. Each floor is a different city and so we spent some time wandering through Istanbul, Paris and London taking in a quick trip to H&M as a little treat and splurging on some cake to propel us up to the bus station to work out how we were going to get to Ko Kut.

Armed with a bus time for the next day, a few new tops and full of yummy cake we made our way back to see how James was faring. A few doors down from where we were staying was an enormous german shepherd which we'd seen playing with It's owner the day before. This time though it was out by itself and was obviously looking for play pals…it jumped up and playfully nipped Rochelle and then Claudia, I kept walking quite quickly to get back as it then turned to me and started charging at me! If it had jumped on me, it would have taken me down, all I could think to do was throw my bottle of water at it to distract it - it was a pretty scary experience, even though it was just trying to be playful! Nerves in tatters, we didn't fancy venturing out again for dinner, so continued to battle the hangovers in the best way possible - takeaway pizza and rubbish tv. Perfect.

The girls had been to Ko Kut before and were keen to go back for a few days, it was shame we didn't have longer as it was a beautiful little island…when we eventually got there! We left Bangkok a little late on the bus which meant that we unfortunately missed the ferry across the water. Randomly at low season, they have 3 boats leaving a day - but all at the same time, which isn't very helpful. So we had an unexpected night in Trat and made it to the island a day later than planned. It was worth it though, the island is quite small and being low season was very quiet. The boat over was pretty bumpy, but we made it in one piece and arrived to find ourselves with a cheap room and discounted food and mopeds on account of how quiet the place was. Unfortunately, James and Rochelle picked up a little tummy bug so weren't feeling too great while we were there, but it didn't stop us getting out for a bit of exploring.

There isn't much on Ko Kut in the way of 'sights' other than a few waterfalls, which after the rains they'd had promised to be very nice. So we set off (minus a poorly James) for a day of waterfalling, which worked out great for the first one - we had a nice little dip in a big pool where the little fish nibbled away at your feet - free fish spa! The second waterfall was a little more 'in the jungle' with a long dirt track running up for a few kilometres to the base. Claudia is an experienced bike rider, so I was following behind in her wake getting the best route up the track, thankfully it hadn't rained so everything was fairly solid underneath. Then I heard the dreaded shout of 'SNAKE!'…Claudia had run over a snake, I panicked and slammed on my brakes, saw it, screamed and once it started to slither away into the trees, hit the throttle full pelt to catch up with them. It was huge and had recoiled a little from the shock of being run over, but I'm glad I hadn't been that close behind otherwise it might have tried to go for me…We arrived a little bit shaken, but trying to put it out of our minds. Unfortunately, the trek to the waterfall involved climbing through the jungle and over big rocks…not so easy to put snakes out of your mind when you're stomping through their natural habitat! I was trying to be brave, but as soon as Claudia suggested we turn back, I jumped on the bandwagon and much to Rochelle's disappointment, we went back to our bikes to try the third fall before heading back via the beach.

Sometimes things work out for the best though, as we began to head back down our jungle road (with me concentrating firmly on the girl's back wheel so as not to see anymore snakes), it started to rain. We weren't going any more than about 20km an hour and were taking it really gently, but as we were going downhill were having to keep the back brake firmly on. In slow motion, in front of me I just saw the girls back wheel slip out from under them - thankfully they weren't hurt badly, just a little bit shaken, but it was really difficult for us to get grips on the bikes to pick them up (me having just abandoned mine to help them). After walking them down the worst bits of the hill, we gave up on plans for the rest of the day and headed in the direction of home. It had stopped raining by the time we got to the main road but it wasn't going to be long before the storm set in, so it was a race against the clouds to get back. I wish I'd been able to stop and take a picture of the beaches we passed - the sun was shining and the sand was so white, the sea was the most amazing colour of blue and every colour was just perfectly vibrant against the backdrop of a very large black storm cloud. Absolutely stunning. If I had stopped though, we wouldn't have been able to hide under the shop's awning a few corners before our guesthouse when the taps got turned on and the rain just fell from the sky in sheets. We had to wait about 10 minutes for it to ease off before setting off again for home. What a day.

That evening, we'd been invited out to dinner by a lady that owned the sunset bar (aptly named as in the high season, she has the perfect view of the sunset), so after feasting on homemade massaman curry, we pieced our nerves back together with the help of a few drinks. Our last day on the island wasn't quite as adventurous but we did finally make it to the beach for a bit of a swim. I was a little worried about the boat back to the mainland on account of the weather, but it was so smooth, it didn't even feel like we were moving! Then we were back on a bus bound for Bangkok. We were all flying down to Krabi the next day to meet Ken - James and I had actually booked onto Ken's flight as a surprise - so it was just a quick stop over this time and probably our last one for the foreseeable future! 6 times through Bangkok was enough for one year!