From the idillic Ko Muk we took an interesting boat ride to a nearby island called Ko Lanta. I say interesting because we somehow ended up being bundled onto a tour boat where tourists visit various islands, sea caves and go snorkelling. Even though the island was nearby it ended up taking us a bum numbing 5 and a half hours to get there. We wouldn't have minded the boat ride so much if they had just told us when we booked it and we could have worn our swimming costumes an joined in!

Eventually we got to Ko Lanta, pretty exhausted and still with the large task ahead of us to find somewhere to stay. We were offered a taxi or Tuk Tuk to get to where we wanted to go. It seemed the obvious choice to take the Tuk Tuk as it was half the price, forgetting it was Songkran (thai water festival). A Tuk Tuk is basically an open basket where passengers sit which is attached to a motorcycle. It's completely open to the elements. Songkran is where people stand in the streets and chuck water over everyone and smear white stuff on your faces. All fun and games unless you have all your baggage on you including cameras, iPhones, iPods etc getting soaked. To make it worse our driver kept slowing down at every group of water throwers despite me asking him not to. Eventually we got off and ended up paying double anyway as well as being drenched through. We did manage to get lucky with our accommodation and managed to find somewhere literally on the beach, with a pool, and we bartered the price down thanks to the owner being a Manchester United fan. Who'd have thought it! From our bungalow you could even hear the sea at night when everything was quiet. One slight problem, the first morning I woke up bursting for a wee and found a little friend waiting for me in the bathroom - a frog! I refused to use the toilet until it was gone so Bryan was chasing it around the bathroom with a coat hanger but it just kept jumping through! We had to wait for it to go back down the plug hole of its own accord and then block the plug hole with a water bottle.

A couple of nights later we were enjoying dinner at a restaurant on the beach when we heard a thud on the table. We looked round and there was our froggy friend sitting on the table with us! I jumped out of my seat and refused to sit back down until he was gone. Meanwhile Bryan was casually taking photos of him. The waiter came across to see what all the fuss was about and was completely unphased when he saw the photos of the frog. Obviously this is a regular occurrence over here.

Wildlife aside, it was great to spend some time relaxing by the pool and getting a tan (less of the latter in Bryan's case) and we enjoyed it so much we extended our stay to a total of 4 nights. The beach wasn't of the same standard as Ko Muk but it did have more life and it was great having dinner and drinks at the chilled out hippie bars dotted along the beach in the evenings. On our final night we had just finished our dinner in one of these bars when we were invited by the staff to join them for drinks and a BBQ. Turns out the owner won a bet on the muay Thai boxing and decided to share his winnings with the staff and friends. We spent the evening chatting to the locals and other travellers who were also staying in Ko Lanta. It's interesting the number of people who came over just for travels and then decided to live there indefinitely. It was an unexpectedly pleasant way to spend our last evening in Ko Lanta before moving onto Ko Phi Phi.

I've finally got access to a computer so I've added quite a few more photos. Feel free to have a browse if you like. Xx