The morning began at 0515 hours with our early morning wake up call. This then meant we had three quarters of an hour to get up, showered and packed for the taxi arriving at 0600. By 0530, Dad was getting stressed (would you believe) and by 0545, Mum had escaped to our room to get away from the stress. We left the hotel at 0600 and by 0615 we were at the airport, all checked in and sitting in Chang Mai departures with a can of Coke. Now that's what I call making good time! After a few grumblings from me about why we had to be up so bloody early and get so stressed with each other when the plane wasn't leaving for another three quarters of an hour, we started to board and were on our way.

The flight to Bangkok was very pleasant until we got to Bangkok and the pilot announced that due to heavy fog, we were unable to land so we would have to circle the airport till it cleared. Half an hour later and all feeling a little nauseous, the pilot announced that it wasn't clearing so they were taking us back to Chang Mai. I turned round to see Dad's face go a very funny colour after all, we had another flight to catch from Bangkok in only four and a half hours (!) With this, Mum came up with a very cunning plan to pretend to be asleep to avoid being ranted at. Wish I'd thought of that one first!

So off we went back to Chang Mai to get refuelled then back to Bangkok in the hope the weather had cleared and thank god it had! The stress started again as we only had two hours to get our luggage and get checked onto the next flight and my suggestion of going to find some shops was not received as well as I hoped.

I finished my book that I started that morning on the flight to Krabi just in time for a spot of erratic flying and a rather bumpy landing at Krabi airport which had the grand total of two planes in the yard and not a lot of sign posting for where you have to go as we found out when we wandered into the departure lounge whilst looking for baggage claim. Oops!

Next we had a mini bus waiting from the hotel which took us to the boat to take us over to Koh Lanta. The boat ride was very nice and we spent the whole time sitting on the top deck with the sun in our eyes and the wind in our hair. Bliss.

We arrived at Koh Lanta to be greeted by a young girl who put a flower garland round each of our necks and then transported us via golf buggy to the hotel reception. They sat us down and gave us an ice cold flannel and a cocktail which was very welcome while we checked in. It was then back to the buggy to go to our rooms which were very nice indeed!

We were all pretty knackered from our day of travelling so we decided to go out for something to eat before we fell asleep. For ease, and because it appeared to be the only place within a 10 k radius we went to one of the hotels restaurants where Dad muttered something along the lines of 'breaking the food budget' and 'you'll be on bread and milk for the rest of the holiday' With that we indulged in some Tom Yam soup except for James who had crab for starters. For mains we all had some sort of curry except James who had Sea bass and then Mum and I finished with Crème brulee and bananas with syrup for pudding. This was all washed down with a few bottles of wine and ended up spending almost two days worth of food budget. It was worth it though!

After dinner, we all waddled to our rooms and crashed out for the night ready for a heavy day of sunbathing I had planned for the next day!

Sherie