Haad Yao beach, koh phangan

The guys at See Through Resort

normal service will be resumed when I'm sober again...

A taxi, a plane, a bus, a ferry and a jeep, 6 hours and we arrive in our second home "See Through Resort" Haad Yao on Koh Phangan. We booked in here for a few nights in April and loved it so much we stayed a couple of weeks, we have 9 nights this time.


We arrive to sad news though, one of the guys we met in April (Teh, the fire juggler) was stabbed and killed a few months ago-a young life wasted!

We meet up with Ang and Jun a couple who both work here and whom we have kept in regular contact with over the last 7 months. It's like we've never been away.

We arrived to rain, our first in the 4 weeks travelling but the first morning here is blue skies. The tide is high (which makes this a great place for snorkling the reef straight from the beach), the beer is cold and the food is good.
Which reminds me, gotta go...

Life is lived on the streets of Bangkok, it's not hidden away it is all there laid bare to be explored & experienced. Sexploitation is probably what now springs to mind but in truth life here revolves around food. You can not walk 5 paces without passing 2 or more food vendors of one description or another. The smells and the sounds of cooking are everywhere and if you don't like the idea of eating from a street stall, remember this is one place where you can see your food being cooked. We have a whole spit roast chicken from a stall parked outside KFC, it costs us £2 and we are asked "you want choppy chop" (halved and quatered with a cleaver). For desert is a bag of mini doughnuts from a few stalls up, a salad pick'n'mix and cold beers from the local supermarket and we are sorted for our last meal in Bangkok. All in for about a fiver!

Location:Charoen Nakhon Villa Soi 4,Khlong Ton Sai,Thailand

Landing in Bangkok for us is like slipping in to a comfy pair of slippers (just for the record I don't own, and will never own a pair of slippers. Especially the blue ones with the fur lining. No sir, not me).

Thailand sells itself as the land of smiles, this is not just tourist nonsense (although I could just be a tourist who has fallen for the nonsense!). The Thais are generally and genuinly friendly, polite, happy and welcoming, a pleasant change over the past few weeks.

So what does one do with just one night in Bangkok?

Well, we jumped on the skytrain to Sala Daeng, took a walk through Lumphini park and ended up at Suan Lum night market. A few plates of various rice, noodles and currys followed by a walk around the stalls and we are ready for home.

Until we see 'doctor fish' (this is a new one on us, so must be tried). Dr Fish is not an old friend we have bumped in to, in fact it is a fish tank full of tiny fish who love to nibble the dead skin of the feet of anyone paying up the £3/15mins to relax whilst dangling feet in a sunken fish tank (strange but nice, ok take my word for it).

For sure though I for one will not be having the whitebait from the restaurant next door!!

Oh yes and anyone who was thinking 'one night in Bangkok, ping pong with Ting Tong in Pat Pong - ding dong' well get out of the gutter!

Cambodia in the morning, ping pong is apparently half the price...