Ayutthaya & Chiang Mai: 16 - 23 March We left Koh Tao on the slow boat to Chumphon on the Thai mainland; leaving at 2pm and arriving 3 hours later feeling rather cooked - there were two choices of seating - up on deck where you could enjoy the breeze but fry in the sun, or inside the greenhouse like cabin out of the sun but with no breeze or aircon. We plumped for the latter. After a couple of hours wait at the train station we boarded the overnight train n...

Koh Tao, Thailand: 8-16th March 2011 We arrived on Koh Tao and checked into our hotel which we had booked for the first night only, on the assumption that we would find a dive school pretty easily on the beach, which we did. There are lots of places to choose from and if you decide to do a course or sign up for a dive you get a preferential rate on the rooms. We chose "Coral Grand Dive Resort" which was nicely situated at the quieter far end of the bea...

Bangkok: 3-7 March 2011 Our convoluted route to Thailand from India via Hong Kong passed without any issue, mainly just boredom and lack of sleep. There's absolutely nothing to do in Chennai airport (except swat flies!) for 6 hours between 9pm and 3am! We arrived into Bangkok in the late afternoon of the 3rd with a thunderstorm hot on our heels, but were safely inside our hotel before the first raindrops fell, the first rain we've seen on our trip - oh the novel...