The view is to die for. James and Laura's villa overlooks a shallow bay where fishermen and fisher birds take their fill as the tide goes out. Inland there are large ponds which are probably fish farms. Directly opposite there are a few more modern villas and some local houses set in palm trees and natural woodland.Out to sea the karats of Phi Phi National Park rise steeply out of the turquoise Andaman Sea.

The villa is set on a hillside giving a fabulous view of the scene. The living room and main bedroom form two parts of a courtyard which has the infinity swimming pool as its centre piece. To the rear there is a ground entrance building housing three further bedrooms. A fish pond teeming with goldfish and aquatic plants is built into the floor and steps across the fish pond access the courtyard. the main bedroom, the one we had, is open on two sides and is in prime po sit ion to enjoy the views as you awake in the morning. the gardens are immaculately kept with palms, fruit trees, lawn and flowers.

Bit of a change from a wooden hut with mats on the floor, no windows, a hole in the ground and a barrel of water for everyone to share.

After a couple of days relaxing by the pool we felt sufficiently refreshed to venture out from our sanctuary. We knew that there was an apple repair shop in Patong Bay and so set out in our rental car to find it. Patong Bay is the busy part of the island where most of the action takes place and most of the tourists go. We parked in an underground car park and set off to find the workshop. Unfortunately, it was a Sunday and Chinese New Years day to boot and the repair facility was shut. Not to worry we would explore Patong, enjoy the New Year celebrations and have a nice dinner. Sounded like a plan. It was long after dark when we came to leave and the town was jumping. We emerged from the car park into a part of town we didn't recognise and were forced into a traffic flow that we couldn't escape from. Scooters and motor bykes were buzzing around us like a swarm of angry bees and we were well and truly lost. After getting stuck for ages and moving at a snails pace we eventually saw a sign for the airport and followed that route. We got lost again but passed a large Tesco which was marked on the map but marked on the wrong side of the junction. That set us wrong again but we eventually worked it out after passing it for the third time and made it back to our sanctuary in search of large gin and tonics. We didn't venture out again for a few days.

James and Laura joined us for a couple of days and we were a bit braver. With their guidance. James and I played golf on the Saturday at the Blue Canyon Golf Club. Let's just say that it is at the opposite end of the golfing spectrum from Carr Bridge. We had a great time but a lousy score. In the afternoon we went to the night market at Phuket Town where we enjoyed lots of weird food from the hawker stalls and some very potent cocktails. Back home we took on the other Pollocks at pool on James's new full sized table. Susan and I won 5 - 0. Very 'les majestie' in a country where 'les majestie' is a crime attracting a sentence of 11 years in jail.

Suitably refreshed and restored we are back in Bangkok ready and eager for the next leg of our journey.

PS Sadly there are no pictures to accompany the hill tribe jungle adventure because it was too risky to take the camera with us. Also we do have a Chiang Mai adventure written but lost it in our old computer. This will get rewritten in due course and combined with our second visit there.