And so it begins....

Whoop whoop! We arrived in Bangkok and immediately got heat stroke due to a 40 degree leap in temperature... once recovered I had the best massage ever, a 1 hour Thai massage for just £4. Done by the typical tiny, beautiful Thai girl bending and stretching my muscles, twisting me and entangling me in positions that I didn't think possible. It was pretty painful at times but 'no pain, no gain'. James still hasn't had one, I think he has THE FEAR! I can't wait to learn Thai massage then he wont have a choice! of course other types of massage were available just around the corner...

From Bangkok we booked a night train south which James told me in great detail about how the seats clip together to make a bed and a second one pulls down from the wall, how you get a curtain, fresh, clean bedding.. so I'm thinking, awesome! watch a film, get a good nights sleep, how wrong I was.... when the train arrived it was just a normal train with hard plastic seats not built for western leg lengths. Possible the worst 7 hour train ride of my life followed by a 5 hour bus ride, what joys!

At the island of Ko Surin the snorkeling has been brillant. people say the coral is dead, (got 3 degrees too hot last year and killed it off) which is true but is quickly regrowing plus we didn't see how good it was before so it looks great to us! The marine life is in abundance, as well as many beautifully coloured fish we saw 8 black tipped reef sharks, a turtle, a lion fish and a scorpion/stone fish in one trip!

we have settled in to the travelers way of life qickly and easily meeting great people along the way (including our fabulous Swiss doubles Patrizia and Sven and two wonderful Italians Daniel and Mirko) who also enjoy a steady pace of life. An example of this: the 6 of us having dinner the other night and it took us 15mins to figure out what day of the week it was!

The island itself is stunning, all the jazz; white sand, turquoise sea, giant lizards roaming the forests, mischievous monkeys swinging from the tree tops and occasionally into your tent to steal the odd banana or coffee pot! also less desirably sporting the odd rat that eats through the tent and leave holes for the red ants to come in and eat you alive while you sleep! but worth it entirely. the first night james could feel the rats running up the side of his arm as he was pressed against the side of the tent, thankfully not telling me this until the following day!

upon leaving the island james discovered that giant soldier ants had decided the best place to set up a new colony was his left walking boot. lucky he noticed before putting it on. there must have been at least 60 ants in there. i guess ants like dark, smelly, damp places.

onwards we go inland to Khao Sok national park!