After a few days on Samui, we’re back on Koh Phangan, staying at the Coral bay bungalows in Chaloklum on the north of the island.

Nice bungalow, with a great view over the bay (see above) and wonderfully coloured sunsets.

We have a tokay living in our bathroom, using the floor in there as his toilet. He hasn’t caused too much disturbance so far, though we can hear other tokays calling during the night. He’s about a foot long and very brightly coloured.

Not sure what’s happening next, might be off to Cambodia to see Angkor Wat, or might not. Vic is trying to sort out travel details but it’s not easy.

After our brief stay at Ao Chao Phao, we travelled back to Thong Nai Pan and managed to get a couple of bungalows at the Thong Ta Pan resort we had stayed at earlier.

We spent a few more days relaxing and enjoying the food and surroundings, as well as making a short excursion to Thong Nai Pan Yai, to the south of Noi where we were staying.

All too soon it was time to return to Koh Samui to get Lisa back to the airport. We returned to Samui on Thursday 17th March, and stayed with her at The Jungle Club in the mountains above Chaweng. The huts there are basic (thatched wooden huts with mosquito nets) but were very comfortable and had good shower rooms.

The Jungle Club pool is excellent, built on the edge of the mountain to give it that trendy “infinity pool” look. The owners and staff are all very friendly and there are two free Jeep transfers up and down the hill (the only way to reach the Club) per day. The huts are only 450 Baht per night. (The Club can be contacted by phone on 01-8942327 or 01-8918263, +66 for Thailand)

We spent an evening in Chaweng, eating and drinking at The Deck (very good value, for Chaweng).

After seeing Lisa off on Friday we headed back to Chaweng and walked along the beach before going to “Three Monkeys for dinner.

I’ve uploaded some pictures from our time in Thailand so far.

We met up with Lisa on Sunday and caught a flight to Koh Samui that evening. It’s only an hour from Bangkok on the plane (14+ hours on the train/ferry).

We stayed for a couple of nights at Cactus Bungalows in Bophut, just along the beach from the hotel we stayed in in 2001. The bungalows were nice enough, though the beds were mattresses on a raised concrete platform, so could have been softer.

After a day recovering from travel and visiting the cafes of Bophut we caught the ferry from Bophut to Koh Phangan (there seem to be at least 4 ways of spelling it) at 9:30am on Tuesday.

Arriving there we got a pickup truck to our resort (Thong Ta Pan at Thong Nai Pan Noi) for a very expensive 600 baht. With hindsight we should have got a Song Thaew instead as they only charge 80 baht per person.

Nice resort, our bungalows were on a hillside about a hundred yards from the beach. Towels and toilet paper were provided which was a bonus. Nice clean beach in a bay with good swimming. We spent a bit of time lying on the beach and swimming.

We spent three nights there, eating at resort restaurants and on our last night we visited Que Pasa, a Mexican restaurant run by an English girl. The food was good and we were entertained by the local dogs playing and chasing motorbikes.

On Friday we moved on to Ao Chao Phao, via Thong Sala, to stay at the Seaflower bungalows. Looking back, it was probably a mistake, the rooms were more expensive and had fewer facilities (no towels or loo roll) and the beach was much narrower with a very shallow bay that made swimming impossible.

We enjoyed a few sunset drinks at the Pirate’s Bar, and then had a superb meal at The Village Green, a nearby restaurant/pub. Vic and I had a massaman curry (chicken and potato in a sweet peanut sauce), and Lisa had a giant BLT baguette. We’d definitely recommend a visit to the Village Green to anyone in the area. They do lots of British pub grub too, like steak and Guiness pie, chip butties etc.

We’ve been here in Negombo for just over a week.
We’re staying at the Silver Sands hotel, which is nice enough, though the staff are a little umm.. untrained. We’ve been eating quite a few meals in the excellent and friendly Ruwini restaurant, just across the road on Lewis Place.

Tomorrow, we fly to Bangkok, where we’re spending one night. We’re then meeting up with Lisa who is flying out from the UK to visit for a couple of weeks on Sunday. We’re all flying down to Koh Samui on Sunday evening, and after a couple of nights there, getting the ferry over to Koh Pang Ngan

We’ve enjoyed Sri Lanka, we’d like to come back when the tsunami recovery work has progressed further and visit some of the areas we’ve missed. We’ve spent far too much money, which is going to make things interesting, but hey, that’s why we’re doing this whole trip.

Early start tomorrow, flight is at 7:45am, and we’re under instruction to be at the airport 3 hours before, so 4:45am!