Not sure if I even picked the right place on the map for this entry. How poor is my geography that I dont even know where Bangkok is in Thailand and I've been here for two weeks scouring through lonely planet looking at maps most days.

So Im now in Bangkok on my lonesome for a few days... quite intimidating. There are strikes around the Khoasan area and people in red tshirts galore with police using shields. So thats quite scary, adds to the intimidation of an already mad city... But I'll come to Bangkok in a bit. First I'll update from Ko Samui onwards.

We left Ko Samui for Ko Phangan, whcih was an hour or so by catamaran. Pulling up to Ko Phangan we saw just how beautiful it is, which surprised us both ecause of the associations between Ko Phangan and the Full Moon Parties etc in Haad Rin.

we met a lovely Israeli man who guided us and told us to aim for Thong Nai Pan Noi, when we were originally planning to go to Yai. So, wild things that we are, we jumped in the Tuk Tuk and took his advice. Its on the north of the island and its absolutely stunning. But the journey there definitely isnt easy... its around 45 minutes, of which most of it is over the most bumpy dirt track going through a jungle area that I have ever been. You are quite literaly thrown about on it. I thoroughly ejoyed it though,it added to the authenticity of the trip and reassured us of how secluded and beatuiful the place would be. Just google it to see!

We shared an amazing fresh pineapple juice on the beach after checking into cute little beach huts made entirely of dark wood, with partially outside toilets. THey were really lovely. That night we headed to a restaurant at the end of the bar and had te most fantastic barbecued steaks I've ever had (more on the food theme here!). I ate until I felt so full of meat that my tummy hurt a little, but it was definitely worth it.

Then we strolled down to the beach and sat on some more mats by the sea, lit by candles, and drank mojitos and honolulus and watched the stars. This really cannot be beaten. Although the lemon daquiri that we ordered next was a bit mediochre. That night was definitely the most interesting of them all. We woke several times to the sounds of creatures rustling arund outside of our hut, the walls were so thin that it sounded like they were inside the hut itself! So Adam whipped out his hand torch and searched away, but alas they were outside, no comodo dragons to tell of. That we saw...

We spend the next day just mooching around on the beach. Got some noodles for lunch in our swim stuff and drank iced tea. Then had another fantastic thai dinner and drank more cocktails by the sea. It raelly was a stunning place, we spent an hour or so just sitting on the rocks looking around the bay, its hard to put it into words how lovely and secluded it was. Thong Nai Pan and Railay beach have been so idyllic and we'd both love to go back there sometime and spend more time exploring.

The next morning we were dedicated to the cause and woke at 5:45 to watch the sunrise. We sat proudly on the sunloungers dedicated to the rich ones that stay in the fancy beach huts and ate the snack that the hotel had made us. (Both nights the whole team of hotel staff came knocking onour door with a homemade snack and a little note saying "dear anna and adam. sweet dreams and enjoy with our snack", it was the sweetest thing ever). We also made a fried in the form of a random scrappy black dog that came and sat by our side for the whole sunrise and then followed us all the way bnack to the hut and lay on our doormat. It made me want to adopt him. Even though he was a erally unattractive dog, with a big of a mangey leg. It added to his glory.

That day we had more beach time before braving the dirt trak again and heading to Baan Tai for the Black Moon Party. Throughfear of staying too close to it and getting robbed we stayed probably 3km away by mistake. BUt the hut was quite nice.

Will update more later slash tomorrow :)

x