As the train rolled in to Surat Thani we were two hours late, but we thought there'd be plenty of time to catch the regular three hour bus on to Krabi where we could then pick up a ferry to our paradise island for the next few days: Koh Phi Phi. As instructed by our guidebook, we ignored all the travel agencies that hassled us to get on their tourist buses and headed down the road for the local Government bus. As usual for the Lonely Planet, the directions didn't quite match up with reality (we'll soon be investing in a Rough Guide at this rate), and after about 15 minutes wandering around aimlessly, we realised that the Surat Thani train station isn't actually in Surat Thani… Obviously. Why didn't we realise that?

So it was a 40 minute bus journey to Surat Thani, where we then picked up the three hour bus to Krabi. By this point, we'd been travelling for well over 12 hours overnight so we were pretty miffed to say the least when we thought we'd arrived at Krabi bus station where a short taxi ride would take us to the ferry jetty, but the bus driver told us we should get off at the final stop which was five minutes away. We foolishly believed him and he ended up driving us to a stall in the middle of nowhere where an old man was very happy to sell us a taxi to the pier and a ferry ticket - for 200 bahts more than we should have paid. With just twenty minutes until the final ferry of the day left for Koh Phi Phi we had very little choice to pay for the ticket, earning the bus driver a nice little commission. Two hundred bahts is only around £4, but it's just so annoying being ripped off when we're on a budget.

Anyway, once aboard the ferry we caught up on some sleep as we made our way to Koh Phi Phi. It's a small island on the west coast of Thailand which was seriously damaged during the 2004 tsunami, but we'd heard that the locals had worked hard over the years to rebuild much of what was lost.

The ferry pulled in at Tonsai Village - which we renamed Shagaluf as it's basically overrun with boozy ravers. We really wanted some chill time though, so swerved the budget options at Tonsai and booked ourselves into a gorgeous beach resort in the north of the island. As there's no public transport on the island, we had to charter a longtail boat to get there. Our boat driver wasn't the most typical of Thai's. In fact he was pretty rude, and when we arrived at our resort he offered us no help in climbing out of the boat - around 100 meters away from the shore. So we had to lift the large bags out as the boat wobbled; being careful not to drop them. Then we waded through the sea with our backpacks to the resort reception. We were so tired, hot, dirty and grumpy by this point - hardly grand beach arrival a la Daniel Craig…

Once inside our room, our frowns were turned upside down. This place was heaven. It was a wooden cabin with a bedroom inside - with floor to ceiling glass windows along three of its walls. The living area was outside, and we had a garden shower, and beautiful bathroom too. The whole cabin was surrounded by palmtrees and tropical plants so it felt completely secluded from the other cabins. Beats bunk beds in a room with strangers…

After a much-needed shower we got all dressed up (well, the best we could with our limited wardrobe!) and lounged around in the resort's restaurant on the beach, where we treated ourselves to pad thai and cocktails.

The next day we had a tough schedule. Breakfast on the beach (which was included, so we had three helpings); followed by swimming in the crystal clear turquoise blue sea; lazing on the beach; oh and a Thai massage at the onsite spa…

By lunchtime we couldn't feel further away from Bangkok as we relaxed in paradise. What a difference a day makes.

After being beaten to a pulp at the spa (ok, this part wasn't as relaxing!) we had Thai-style chicken and cashew nuts for dinner on the beach. The sky was clear and the moon was full and round. It was bliss.

The following day we hired one of the resort's longtail boats to take us to Maya Bay. As our waiter had said the night before - it's impossible to come to Koh Phi Phi without visiting this beautiful beach on neighbouring Koh Phi Phi Ley. This beach has seen scores of visiting tourists ever since Leonardo DiCaprio dipped his toes in it's waters when he filmed The Beach. Sure enough it looks like Heaven on Earth in the movie, but we limited our expectations - convinced it would be overrun by tourists. But, as we turned the iconic limestone cliffs that almost completely seclude the bay, we caught our first glimpse of the world-famous beach and were blown away. The water was the clearest water imaginable, as it gently rolled over powdery white sand. Yes, there were a few boats full of tourists enjoying it with us, but it certainly wasn't over-crowded so we found a spot on the sand to sit and enjoy the view. We applaud the location scouts for the movie - surely there aren't many beaches in the world better than this…

Before heading back, our driver took us to a couple of spots for snorkelling around the island. Wimpy Nat was too chicken to snorkel, but Bret gave it a go. After some embarrassing sloshing around, he soon got to grips with it and had fun swimming among thousands of multi-coloured fish.

After that we stopped at a fish-free blue lagoon, where we both dived in for a lovely swim.

Back in the resort we realised that despite being really careful we'd both got terribly sun burned and thanked our lucky stars we didn't have a massage booked in the afternoon - our red raw skin wouldn't have responded well to that battering again.

Instead we took a dip in the peaceful hotel pool and then sat in our pants eating burgers that we ordered to our room…

Right now we realise we're terrible backpackers, but who cares. Another mojito please, waiter!