The beginning date of my travels arrived late January...I couldn't believe I was actually going! After a packing frenzy in Shetland, re-packing madness in Glasgow and two 6.5 hour flights with Anne, Andrea and Yvonne we made it to Bangkok. Here we met Kylie and had our first taste of Thailand - a crazy Khao San Road where the music was blaring and the locals dancing, breakdancing and selling street food. We took in the large street market the following day before boarding the overnight train to Khao Sok National Park...it was actually an alright journey in my train-bunk-bed! Khao Sok National Park was where we did a local home stay.

We ate meals provided by the host family and our stay included elephant trekking, bamboo rafting (very Pocahontas-esque) and jungle trekking with 'Tu'. This experience was incredible, a climate and culture a world away from what I am used to in Scotland!

An overnight stop on the way to our next destination was at Krabi where we sampled foods from a night market (Andrea and I were unadventurous here and went for the nutella crepes - the other three had viatnmese rolls, corn fritters and coconut pancakes). After a low-budget ladyboy show and a 'Chang' beer (I don't even like beer but it was included in the ticket price!) and some sunbathing the next morning it was time for Koh Phi Phi! After five nights in different locations we were really looking forward to being settled for some time!

I absolutely loved Koh Phi Phi. It's friendliness, small size and beyond laid back atmosphere were the biggest selling points for me and I was so sad when we had to leave! Our non-backpacker-budget-but-lovely hotel 'Ban Yan' was where we were based in the main town of Tonsai. We went to the stunning but tourist mobbed view point, the beautiful eastern beaches (which involved a slight jungle trek and Anne and I sprinting in flip flops after hearing and seeing a snake!) and spent time wandering around the markets. Banana smoothie shakes were a favourite choice amongst us all and this is where I started becoming partial to Singha.

Highlights for food in Koh Phi Phi included 'Le Grand Bleu' (for a 'posh' meal and nice atmosphere), 'Papaya' (for cheap and very tasty Thai food), the mexican below Banana Bar (for fresh guacamole and tasty fajitsas) and 'Anna's' (for some mouth-watering Thai curry).

Scuba diving was one of my favourite things about Phi Phi. Kylie has her advanced PADI (scuba diving certificate) and I was the only other one who half wanted to do it...I ended up being persuaded at the dive shop! The dive shop. I laugh every time I think about the dive shop because the evening Kylie and I signed up was one of the ditziest, blondest evenings of my life. I don't know if it was because I wasn't wearing glasses or contacts or because I was beyond nervous but after tripping over a cat, writing my birthday instead of the date, trying prescription goggles on and off and giggling my way through signing the forms I smacked my head straight onto the door shutters. It was such a whollop like from a cartoon - cringe!!! Kylie and me were doubled up laughing. The diving guy was asking if I was okay - I was way too embarassed to speak it looked sooooo stupid so I just walked off laughing! Our diving instructor was really friendly and patient. After some spluttering and spitting out salt water I couldn't believe I was ready to go down and had to signal to Miller (diving guy) without speaking...with no 'real' air...yikes! Well it was pretty amazing. We did two dives and my second dive was much better as I was more relaxed after realising that I was okay after the first! Miller said I was a different person here and I started taking in all the amazing sea life - corals, turtles, fish, eels...absolutely incredible!

'Carlitos' and 'Banana Bar' were my two favourite bars here and I really enjoyed my nights out here. So laid back and fun with great people and music.

Koh Phan Gan was next for the full moon party. We stayed at a resort where there was a beach on our doorstep which was lovely. The full moon party with 30000 people was packed and it was hard to keep 5 girls together! Good fun though and two days later we were off to Bangkok.

We stayed at a lovely hotel here, our hotel rooms were like flats! We spent the day recovering from our busy but amazing two week holiday and Kylie and I were first to leave the group as we flew to Australia the next day. After being so excited about Australia I hadn't really thought much about Thailand but the amazing food, friendly people, laid back culture, sunshine and of course great company gave me the best start to my travels. I didn't want to squeeze all of Thailand into one post but there you go! If you get the chance, definitely go!