Which beach to head off to? Over breakfast we decided on Koh Lanta, quickly packed and the hotel driver took us to the ferry terminal. We soon got wise to the fact that most people here have some angle they want to play and here was no exception, with tourist touts posing as officials. The cheap ferry was obviously the preferred backpacker mode of transport and A-lo's wheelie bag stood out like an air con unit at a 400 Baht a night resort. The real comedy mome...

I opened the door with trepidation, not wanting to see where we had ended up….it was actually quite nice: 40 bungalows arranged around a huge square with restaurant etc in the middle and right on the beach. Further back was a large hotel with nice pools etc. This would be ok to keep the rain off our head. Dumped the jeep back with the miserable fellow who rented it to us and met up with the snorkel trip crew across the road. We had opted for the speedboat to...

The breakfast buffet was crawling with ants (not just one or two but hundreds - I steered Annelise away from the worst bit!), so in reality our choice of food was a bit limited to toast and jam. We lounged by the pool a bit. A less than thoughtful pool designer had lined the pool with black tiles which absorbed the heat. By 11 the water was so warm you could stew in it. We were both feeling restless, probably because this wasn't the kind of beachside living ex...