I was shattered when I arrived in Melbourne after a 25 hour journey from Manchester via Dubai and Singapore. I had the sense to book myself into a nice hotel for the first coupleof nights, until I could get my bearings and recover from the flight. I was so glad of the comfortable bed when I arrived and I think I must have started to nod off before I even got into bed because I don't even remember my head hitting the pillow! I woke up feeling refreshed the ...

I arrived in Koh Phangan after a fairly short and enjoyable ferry ride from Samui. I had no idea where to stay when I arrived, but knew it had to be cheap because I was here for 10 days. I was accosted by a local trying to sell his bungalows as soon as I got off the ferry (this I have taken to be the norm now). I haggled hard with this guy as I knew I could get much cheaper, but I was attracted by his accommodation as it looked lovely. After bargaining down o...

Arrived in Krabi at about lunchtime after suffering a horrendous hangover on the boat from Ko Phi Phi. I was alittle sad to leave Phi Phi as it was such a beautiful island, however still a little excited about what Krabi had to offer. the best places to stay are apparently Railey and Aonang. After assessing the prices in the former, I settled for the latter due to my scarce budget at the moment. The hotel was lovely. I was staying just off the beach road...

Coming from Phuket town, I thought that Koh Phi Phi must be a paradise by comparison, so I was pleased to look out of the boat window as we approached Ton Sai beach to sea white sandy beaches and crystal clear green water. First challenge after getting off the boat was to find some accommodation, so I immediately got a couple of quotes from a tout at the end of the pier and then toddled off to the resorts to haggle them down from the travel agents price dire...

The flight to Chiang Mai was actually as i had thought it would be. Apart from the food which was marvellous (I had two) there was no safety announcement, no little cards in the front pocket, no escape doors midway through the plane (so you had to run to one end or the other if you wanted to get out in an emergency) and as we came in to land at Chiang Mai, we must have been too high as the pilot made a nose dive to the runway!! I have never been so scared on an...