Hi guys well, where to start!!!! Sorry it's been so long since my last entry. What with the madness of new year in Thailand and travelling over here, it's kinda been ousted by the way side. However, all the time I was in Thailand I kept a hand written journal so will select best bits for your amusement!!! After one night in Bangkok ( the last night with the group) i caught an overnight bus down to koh samui, in southern Thailand. The bus in principle was a great idea as it is by far the cheapest way to travel but a journey of 13 hours should have started alarm bells ringing!! The bus set off at 1800 on the 26th and we weren't due to arrive until 10 the following morning. The journey was hellish, broken occassionally for a loo stop in some grot road side services! The only plus side of the bus option was that I met a really nice couple from bayswater in London who were travelling for a month. I got on really well with them both and we ended up spending the next week and a half together including new year. When I headed to Thailand I had no strict agenda as such. I new roughly where i wanted to see but no idea how to go about doing it and pretty much anyone who travels in SEAsia has exactly the same idea. To be honest, there are so many travellers swarming every corner of Thailand that you never feel stuck or alone for very long. I took the precaution before leaving Bangkok of arranging accommodation for the first few nights in samui. I was staying at a place caked the SIlvermine beach resort and restaurant. Let me put one thing straight- this place did by no means satisfy the criteria for beach "resort". Resort conjures up images of white sands, beach -side waiter service and water sports and this place failed to meet any of these expectations. I was literally staying in beach hut with no hot water, no fridge and no AC!! In fact on arrival, the place looked as though it had been burgled there was so little furniture in the room!! It did at least have a fan (AC is always extra) but it was pretty grim. I woke up the first night to find a cockroach feasting on my soap!!! Having said that the location was fab and I was literally a stones throw from the beach so it did at least satisfy that promise. The staffwere surly faced aswell which didn't help! Sebastian and Martha from London were having an entirely different experience staying in a luxury beach resort along the coast so we spent a bit of time there. After two nights in SAmui we all decided to head to koh pahanag for the infamous full moon party. This is famous for a number of reasons mainly that travellers literally flock in their tens of thousands to gather on one tiny beach to welcome in new year. The atmosphere was incredible but the whole evening was exhausting. Due to sheer numbers, we spent most of the night being separated from each other and having disaster after another. I managed to drop my camera in the water containing all photos from travels and twisted my knee while people had bags nicked so the evening just turned into a comedy of errors! I also managed to see in the new year with total strangers rather than the people i was with which spoilt it a little.After a days recovery, i travelled overland to krabie. Krabie is a hub for travelling to some of the smaller islands on the west including phi phi and kao lanta. Krabie beach is voted the 2nd most beautiful beach in the world and it certainly was stunning. I have to say though literally all the beaches we saw in this area were incredible. Railay is one such island where you can get away from it all. We took a long tail boat for the 20 minute crossing from krabie. It was so deserted that the boat stops a few minutes from shore and you have to walk the rest through the water- real tropical island stuff!! The sight on the approach was stunning like a scene from "the beach"!!!! Railay is very much travelled by back packers and as a result you can find really cheap aaccommodation. We found some tree huts on the eastern shore which were £8 a night. They were fairly basic with nothing more than a mattress on the floor and a fan, but also kind of romantic in a cast way kind of sense!!! You had to elk up about 200 steps to reach them so the views were incredible. They were all self contained, a little primitive perhaps but did the job! We decided to spend a few more dais on railay to do some exploring which I will recount to you in the next entry!! Hope you are all well in old blighty. Xxx