Hi everyone,

The next stop on the little tour of Koh Lanta was to a lovely location called The Dream Team resort, curiously named and enough to put me off but once inside the gates the place was lovely, more than half down the West side of the Island and at the end of Klong Nin beach. the garden bungalows are really comfortable and had what is refered to as 'showers in nature' that is to say that the shower room is open to the stars and the elements I suppose, however, the weather was fabulous so no issues there. The shower cubicle so to speak is very large probably 4 times the normal size and has a platform of large slabs / stones with smaller pebbles around the outside and plants which just feed off the run away water. A shower head comes from the far wall and that is that. The overall effect is great and with a good strong head of pressure, showering was a real pleasure.

The Staff at Dream Team, or should I say The 'Dream Team' whilst being very friendly, helpful and warm people have not quite caught the concept of service. There is nothing malice in that statement and no critism is meant infact it was a source of amusement all round, for example, a cup of tea was never served the same way twice, sometimes it arrived in a cup, sometimes in a pot, sometimes the milk arrived in a small stainless steal jug, sometimes in a large china jug and on one occasion in a 2 Litre carton! Cutlery was sometimes availible and sometimes not, eating scrambled eggs was intersting and on one occasion having order museli for breakfast a bowl arrived with a mountain of fruit, milk and yogout underneath which were a couple of flakes of museli, clearly the end of the packet! it sounds daft but it just became a source of amusement which was only enhanced by the resident ladyboy who double checked everyones orders and confused issues even more. The bonuses to the Dream Team resort outwayed any little nuisances, the pool was very good indeed with submerged seating facing the beach and the sun, the location was quiet, there were nice terrace chairs and loungers, free beach towel , views onto the Andaman Sea for sunsets (yawn - not more!!) and then a wonderful terrace from which to watch the great line of fishing boats anchored up on the horizon everynight with lights ablaze catching squid and other exotic fish. The place was a really good find and I recommend it to you my friends, without a moments hesitation. Value for money? Well you should know me by now, of courcse it was.

Time passed quickly and the return to BKK had to begin, we were taken by the Dream Team courtesy bus to the port and stayed with the staff whilst the assortment of taxi drivers etc waited for the boats to come in. The first boat arrived with few passengers and didn't raise too much activity, The second boat, our one, had more of a decent batch and mayhem ensued. All the touts rushed to the gangplank stopping anyone getting off and then all the passengers got the same treatment, brochures, pamphlets and special offers thrust under their nose, (not much good if you don't have your reading glasses on!) offers of this that and the other, everything at once. it is amusing to watch but if you are new to this type of thing it is a bit overwhelming.

Eventually everything sorted itself out, Dream Team had hooked a catch, waved us goodbye and with a big smile they ushered their bemused new couple away. We boarded the boat and then had a very interesting journey which entailed changing boats in mid-sea, going from comfortably loaded to nearly overloaded and then seeing our bags being hauled from one boat to another over the sea. The explanation I suspect was due to a low tide at Ao Nanag but we never did find out.

One night in Ao Nang and then to the airport next morning for the short flight back to BKK, it was all coming to an end too quickly. Luckily I had seen a deal on the Internet for a 'Classy', if I say so myslef, Hotel in BKK, due to Tourism being down by 30% in Thailand there were / are some really fab deals on Hotels, so I'd booked us into a 4 / 5 Star for the price a 2 Star. What a coup this was real luxury for the last night, then back to my more usual habits! The Express Bus from the Airport was less than 'Express' due to a delay and then heavy heavy traffic, we jumped off at Silom road near Lumpini Park and hot footed it to the Hotel for what turned out to be a very comfortable short stay which worked out to 20 pounds each. That evening we visited the Night Bizzare, again, where you can get great food and drink and entertainment and then went onto Patpong Road where you can get just about anything else!

We still had not maanged to find Rosie a watch and we had looked at hundreds, trust me! We came out of The Muzik Cafe (great place, check it out) and just about all the stall holders had packed up. We crossed the market and I spoke to one guy who had put everything away, I asked him if he had a certain type of watch and within the blink of an eye he had dived into one of the big bags he had already packed, pulled out another bag from which he produced exactly what was required. The starting price was as usual, crazy, but having reduced that by 95% the deal was struck, He was happy, Rosie was happy and I had no money! I had clearly done something wrong!

The folowing day I said goodbye to Rosie at the Airport, changed a flight via Quantas (really cooperative company and a good carrier) and returned to the City. I have managed to revert to my normal habits quite quickly but for my last night I stayed in the same Hotel. Upon check out Rosie clearly had the last laugh on me, inadvertantly, or so I thought, she had used one of the bottles of water from the fridge, two were supplied 'free' and two had to be paid for. I came to settle the bill and discovered that the 'wrong bottle' had cost me 4 pounds!! A normal bottle of water costs 15Bht about 30p!!! The water had been consumed and the Hotel were laughing at me!

Never mind onto the airport again where I started a long day travelling, I was eventually off to Krabi Town but via a very circumventive route which was of my making. I eventually arrived at 6.30pm and I shall give you more next time regarding the Redheaded American girl who tore a local to bits infront of his mates in the bar, the two Swedish sisters who just couldn't keep their clothes on and the German guy and Sara the LadyBoy, all good fun!!

See you soon

Chris.