The first time we visited Koh Phangan was with Alicia, at the end of August and for the full moon party in September. First impressions of the island had been brilliant for all three of us, so we liked the place before we even got going.

Now we have returned for a second visit and have come to love the place. At first we stayed at the same end of the beach we had previously, but with a decision to move to the opposite end for a change came some very good things.

This will make Alicia jealous as where we now stay she had wanted to. It is called "Haad Yao Bay View Resort", so called as it is built partly over beach and partly into the sea on the rocks overlooking the bay. Better than that though is that we go it dirt cheap for a block booking and even better is that our oversized balcony overlooks the tropical gardens, beach, sea and every night is directly in line with the sun setting over the sea, lighting up our whole room with the dancing orange and yellow glows. No prize for guessing where we sit each day!

Our new found favourite restaurant also happens to be 'on the beach', so every day after sunset that's where we are found. All seats facing the sea by candle light, we watch the night fishing boats in the bay while the guy with afro hair and a guitar sings acoustic.

Just for an idea on the food front at this beach restaurant here is an example, two banana shakes (gorgeous!!!), two pasta or rice dishes (decent portions as well) with crusty bread give us a total bill of about five pounds!!! Yes that was 'five pounds'.

In the time that we aren't sunset gazing or dining by candlelight, we have tough decisions to make. As you will see from the pictures the pool is set once again part over the beach and part over the sea so when your swimming you can see both from the edge of the pool. But that's not the problem, the problem is that the sun beds are both on the deck around the pool and on the beach below. So the first decision is which area to choose to sunbath, the next is when you get too hot which way do you go to cool of? Forward to the sea or backward to the pool? Sea/pool, sea/pool, sea/pool, you can see the predicament we are faced with every day!! It's a hard life…

For our exercise though other than swimming which you will see Norman has taken to joining in with, we play beach bat and ball in the sea. Only calf deep in the sea makes it hard enough to justify as exercise. As yet we can only reach a rally of 54 so that needs some practice we think.

Every now and then you need something to break up these difficult decisions so we went scuba diving for a day. The weather had been great for days so the sea should be clear so off we went at 7am. The dive site was called 'sail rock', and is situated half way between our island and the next giving a 45 minute boat journey to reach it.

We were not disappointed with the visibility when we entered the water, we had a clear view for around 25 metres which for diving is fantastic. Our guide was called Becca and with the number of dives she had done here she knew her stuff. We did two dives the longest been 37 minutes and the deepest been to 26 metres, the marine life was amazing. We saw Moray eels, Trigger fish (very territorial ), Scorpion fish that camouflage as moss on the rock that sting like a scorpion if you get too close, boxer shrimp, bat fish, parrot fish, angel fish which have orange spots with vivid purple strips down the ides of their bodies, and a great number of other things but that should be enough for you to get pictures on the web and see a taster.

One of the really interesting bits was going up and down the 'Chimney', which is a two metre wide tunnel that goes vertical through the centre of the rock, it has entrances like windows part way up so you can come in or out at different points, but in a small place like this there is an abundance of sea life you get up close and personal with.

With breakfast, dinch and tea and coffee on the boat and beaming sunshine we had a brilliant day diving, we had hoped to see the resident whale shark which if you don't know are around the size of a single decker bus, but sadly she wasn't playing out this day. So we will go in search later somewhere else.

While on our little moped exploration we stopped at a few spots to look around and again got some sun sets in at a different beach or two, but we also did a little visit on request of 'Norman', both the real 'Norman' and the jaundice 'Elephant' Norman. We went to see some more rather large real life elephants, with a nice little touch of been able to hand feed them!!

For 1.00 pound we bought a full basket of bananas and took it in turns to feed two of the elephants, if you hold your hand out with the banana flat on your palm, they very gently nuzzle at your hand while picking up the banana with their trunk. Their trunk end is not flat but kind of 'u' shaped so it curls around the banana with a little help of suction in order for them to hold it while they get it to their mouths. The only down side for you as the feeder is the remaining elephant slaver they leave on your hands, but really its no great fuss.

The elephants don't mind playing a little with the bananas by way of you teasing them a little so they have to have a couple of goes at getting it out of your hand, but as gentle as they are we didn't over do this as after all they are pretty big and could no doubt give a good whack with their trunk.

Norman the elephant enjoyed meeting his bigger but less colourful friends, however he had to be careful not to get eaten by been mistaken for a banana as he was the same colour!!!

The elephants have an interesting tactic for preparing their bamboo to eat, they get it lined up on the ground and then with what looks like a tiny foot step stand on it, completely mangling it into pieces that they can then eat! Very little effort involved for something weighing a few tons.

After a couple of trips out its now back to resting for a while until we summon some energy to do something else, but hey there is no rush!

So for now as you can tell we are quite content with our little piece of paradise lifestyle and think we will hang around here a bit longer, after all why spoil a good thing!!

Hope you aren't too green after that little read, but if it helps we can say the day this was wrote it was raining!! But its only early so it could be cracking the flags by this afternoon…Ha ha ha.

P.S. when you read the names of islands and it says 'Ko' or 'Koh' at the beginning, that means island.