We set off from Koh Tao yesterday to get onto a high speed catamaran, which would take us to Champon where we would get an air conditioned, seat reclining, movie showing VIP overnight bus to Bangkok.

When we got to the pier in Koh Tao we could see the catamaran that we all assumed would be our ride off the island. What we didn't see, was the tiny speedboat next to it that we were actually crammed into as well as all of our luggage. Now it doesn't take Steven Hawkins to work out that 40 people and 40 bags into one speedboat doesn't go!! So after about 10 minutes of not going anywhere and trying to get comfortable another speedboat turned up and half of the passengers transferred over. Now we had a three hour journey that wasn't really all that bad except for the fact that when we got to our destination, neither of us could hear as we had been sat at the back of the boat next to the three engines that seemed to be at a constant 1'000'000 revs!

Once we had landed we then had to walk about 100m along a pier. Not too bad I hear you cry, only this was little more than two planks of wood that were riddled with woodworm that we had to navigate whilst carrying 20kgs of luggage on our backs. Add to that the rain and the fact that there were 38 other people all doing the same and the pier was bouncing along as we went and you'll get some idea of what it was really like.

Once the relative safety of dry land was reached we just had an hour wait for the bus to leave - even though we could all see the bus sitting at the top of the road!?

Still, once we boarded at least we knew it was only a 9 hour journey and we had already phoned ahead to ensure that we would be able to check in to a hostel at 1:00am so all was good.

We stopped about 6:30pm so everyone could get some food and drink and use the facilities. However, they clearly forgot to feed and water the bus and about an hour later we had pulled over again to watch steam pouring out of the back of the bus!

Nobody was worrying, but at the same time people were asking a lot of questions being of the driver and his mate, including how long it would take for us to be on the way again. Word reached us that there would be a bus in twenty minutes but it wouldn't be quite as comfortable as ours, and nobody really minded as it was quite warm and sticky outside and we all just wanted to get back.

Of course, twenty minutes soon came and went and on further questioning the driver told us that it would be another hour as the bus company had decided to send another VIP bus for us. Then one girl came onto the bus and told us that they were sending a bus from Bangkok to collect us so we would be on our way fairly soon. It was time to burst her bubble!!

We pointed out that we were four hours from Bangkok and that the bus would have to travel that to get us, and then it would be another four hours back again so we wouldn't be getting to Bangkok for about another eight hours - 5:00am. You could actually see her brain working it all out and then her face just dropped!! She went outside to explain to her friends and there was a domino effect of smiles to despair, which was so funny that it almost made it all worth it!

We decided to take our blankets outside and join most of the other passengers, as there was at least a breeze outside. We put our courtesy bus blankets on the floor and proceeded to spend the next four hours drifting in and out of sleep whilst being eaten alive by the mozzies.

Eventually our bus turned up and the rest of the journey was pretty uneventful - we now had only the small matter of trying to find a bed at 5:00am. This actually proved easier than expected and by 6:00am we were showered and in bed in out little room with no windows. Only problem with no windows is that when you wake up you think it's still the middle of the night and after the previous night's events, checking out in time to catch our plane to Fiji was not particularly easy!

None the less, we are now at the airport in one piece waiting to board the plane to Fiji.