I still had a couple of weeks left on my Thai visa so rather than moving on, I decided to stay a little longer and make the most of my time here. I wasn’t entirely sure what I wanted to do or where I wanted to go. I have been to Thailand before and although it’s pretty nice, I didn’t want to head up north or to anywhere like Chang Mai again. Instead I chose to fly south to Phuket. It was only a 1 hour flight from Bangkok with Air Asia and cost £40, so not bad. Again I have been to Phuket and stayed in Karon beach area before so had a rough idea of what it was like. I looked on line for hotels or hostels etc. in some nice areas but they were all quite expensive as this seems to be a major holiday resort now, rather than a travellers destination.

I managed instead to find an apartment, a condo on the top floor, to rent for just over a week and it only cost £300.

One of the huge benefits of this was being in quite comfortable surroundings, close to the attractions without any of the immediate noise etc. Plus having a kitchen meant I could cook for myself rather than having to eat out and the major bonus, was having a washing machine. Most travellers don’t tell you how much time or money they spend on doing laundry, but believe me, it adds up. Yes, you can wash things in the shower or sink or hand them into various laundry stations that charge by the kilo or item, but over the months I have been travelling and adding up how much I have spent on laundry, I could have probably bought a washing machine!

Phuket and Karon have changed since I was last here, noticeably the sheer volume of Russian holiday makers, probably escaping the Siberian winter. I have no issue with that at all, good luck to them, but the whole place ‘feels’ different. The beach is crowded and it’s difficult to talk with some people due to language barriers. All said and done, in between watching my laundry go round, I simply spent a couple of days sat in the air conditioning, out of the blistering heat, and binge-watched 4 seasons of Narcos on Netflix. If anything, it’s improved my Portuguese-Spanish.

One of the things I really wanted to do whilst in Phuket, was to visit Khao Phing Kan, or to give it its tourist name, “James Bond Island”. It was used as a location in the 1974 James Bond film, The Man With The Golden Gun, as Scaramanga’s secret hideaway. So technically it should be called Scaramanga’s Island.

There are plenty of tours on offer all bookable locally with minimum one day notice so I chose one which included lunch, drinks, fruit and some sea kayaking too, all for 1,200Baht. A small minibus picked me up from the apartment and drove for about an hour or so picking up others along the way and we transferred to a boat. It was smooth voyage and the sea breeze was welcomed. Of in the distance and haze, you could see outlines of various mountain pinnacles rising out of the sea, but due to the haze playing tricks on your eyes, it often appeared as if you were seeing double.

It wasn’t long before we arrived at the first kayaking place. It was a sheltered cove and you could see where the sea had eroded some of the cliffs at the bottom while the tide was out. There was a small cave which we paddled into and on the ceiling, there were hundreds of fruit bats hanging upside down.

We carried on paddling though and then we saw light coming from the other side and suddenly we were in a secret lagoon, hidden from the outside world. I was one of the first to emerge from the cave so it really felt like I was exploring and going somewhere nobody has been before. There were walking fish on the exposed mud, loads of butterflies and monkeys too.

Back on the boat, it was about another hour to the next kayaking destination. Similar to the previous one, in through a cave to discover hidden lagoons around various rock formations and back to the boat. It was a really relaxing and enjoyable way to spend the morning.

Next it was on to the star attraction, James Bond Island. Ever since I first saw The Man With The Golden Gun, I thought how amazing it would be to live on an island like that. I still do, so when my 6 numbers come up, that’s what I’ll be doing. The island itself is quite small but there are plenty of tourist stalls lined up where Roger Moore and Christopher Lee had their duel. You sadly only get about 30 minutes to 1 hour on the island as there are boats bringing more tourists in on a conveyer belt system. It’s not really long enough to fully appreciate the setting, explore or be able to take a decent picture without anyone pushing in or photobombing, accidentally or on purpose. I had to be quite assertive to get some pictures.

I hope the Thai authorities do something to restrict the number of tourists visiting this island and preserve it.

Aware the film was made over 40 years ago, it’s in a marine national park and it’s a big money maker for them, but more recently so was Maya Beach off Koh Phi Phi, used in the 2000 film, The Beach. It was inundated with tourists but is now closed indefinitely to preserve the ecosystem there and without the tourist invasions, almost immediately black tip reef sharks have returned.

I was staying only minutes from the Karon Temple which on several evenings, hosts a thriving night market selling all sorts from souvenirs and clothes, to the famous Thai street food. The only issue with this, is that it gets crowded beyond belief. It took best part of 20minutes to walk somewhere that would normally take fewer than two. It is still a practicing temple and if you get up early enough, you can see locals lined along the street offering food the monks. It’s called Tak Bat and is an important part of Thai culture.

On one of the last days in Thailand, I decided to go all out and get a full massage. Exciting… Initially though, I went in just for a foot massage but also had a foot scrub too. It was nice but a little concerning when she produced something that looked like a potato peeler. It was all good in the end and now my feet are very smooth and relaxed. Next on the menu was the back, shoulder and neck massage and I certainly learned one thing. Never say to the oldest, smallest and wrinkliest of Thai masseurs, “It’s ok, I can take it.” I should have known I was in trouble when she just smiled wryly… She must have had forearms like Popeye and fingers harder than diamond drills. Am surprised I managed to last the hour intact, but I did and felt absolutely pummelled but amazing afterwards.

It was an early start the next morning as was catching a flight to Siem Reap in Cambodia…

I was pleased that my oldest school friend, Burtie, was visiting me in Thailand. I remember back in June saying to him, “I’ll see you in Bangkok in January”. It doesn’t seem that long ago and it has come round so quick. The next couple of weeks weren’t going to be travelling as I had been, it was more of a holiday for him, and me. So the accommodation would be a little ‘better’ staying put in a couple of locations, rather than moving on ever other day or so.

The plan was that we would have four or five days in and around Bangkok and then a week on an island somewhere. Somewhere quiet to relax and chill out, before returning to Bangkok again.

The first day was quite slow as he was still adjusting to the 7 hour time difference from England, so we played it easy. Just exploring the streets around the Khao San area and getting a welcome to Thailand massage. I forgot that I am quite accustomed to Asia now, but it must have been a sensory overload for him; the heat, jet lag, tuk-tuks revving, street vendors trying to sell all sorts of trinkets, services and taxis. Hundreds of tourists all bustling about and live music blaring from every bar there is. Amongst all this, we managed to find somewhere for a few drinks, something to eat and a catch up.

Next day, we found a taxi that would take us to one the more popular tourist destinations in Bangkok, the Damnoen Floating Market, for 600Baht. It was over an hour and half outside Bangkok but once we were there, it was 2,000Baht for a long tailed boat to take us around. Feeling a bit ripped off, we payed up anyway and enjoyed the day. But we were just there to look and didn’t want to buy anything, much to the annoyance of the boat driver. Perhaps he was on commission or something.

About 30mins from the floating market, was another famous Bangkok market, the Maeklong train market. This market has a train which runs through the middle of it. No health and safety here. When the train comes, the stall holders have to move their wares back for the train to pass safely. Once the train has gone through, they move their wares back again. The train comes through at crawling speed every two hours and although it’s an attraction, it must get quite annoying having to move everything in and out repeatedly.

We visited the other sights in Bangkok too, the Grand Palace, the Emerald Buddha, the Golden Buddha, etc and used a tuk tuk to get around. Quite an efficient mode of transport, if a little on the small side (for me). In the evenings, we’d venture out and eat in various places, enjoy a few cocktails from the converted VW Campervan cocktail bars and drink a tower (8 pints) of Chang beer for 580Baht between us and then shoot some pool.

You shouldn’t come to Thailand without at least visiting the bridge over the River Kwai and the infamous ‘death railway’ built by prisoners of war. It’s good to get out of the city and away from the massage parlours of Bangkok and the happy hour drinking. There are plenty of tour operators offering various day trip packages from Bangkok for around 700 baht, including transport, lunch and a trip to the Erawan waterfalls national park. The minibus picked us up around 7.15hrs and drove like a Mariokart maniac through the congested streets for about 1.5hours before arriving in Kanchanaburi (it’s only about 85 miles from Bangkok). Here we had a little time at the war museum and about an hour of free time at the bridge itself, to cross over and take photos etc. Last time I visited Thailand, I came here on my way up to Chiang Mai so stayed overnight in a floating bamboo hut yards from the bridge, but this time it was only a day trip and sadly time didn’t allow us to visit the notorious hellfire pass.

Next we boarded a train which crossed over the bridge and several viaducts clinging to sheer cliff faces. It’s said that for every sleeper along the railway can be counted as a person who died building it. Quite a sobering thought, especially when it allows travellers and tourists like me the opportunity to hang out of the door and pose for a photo.

After about an hour or so we got off the train and had a Thai buffet lunch which was really good and a nice opportunity to meet other travellers doing similar tours from Hong Kong, Korea, Ireland, Germany and Holland. After lunch, we had time to relax at the Erewan Waterfall National Park which was a lot smaller than I remember, but thankfully the water was cooling and just what was needed.

Before returning to Bangkok, there was a quick stop off at the Kanchanaburi War Cemetery where there are only 6,982 graves. Then it was a mad drive back to the hotel again. After a long day it was a quiet night, packing and watching a film as the next day we were heading south to one of the less ‘touristy’ Thai island, Koh Chang.

To get to Koh Chang, we chose to go by bus to Trat and catch a ferry, rather than fly. It only cost 600baht but took 5 hours. Fortunately the coach picked us up from our hotel on time and the seats were comfy, even after 5 hours, and dropped us off at the ferry port where we transferred to a van and drove onto the ferry. The ferry was like HMS Driftwood and trundled slowly across the bay sheltered from the wind, so the crossing was really smooth. Disembarking was a simple case of driving off the other end and the van drove to our hotel, the Mercure Hideaway. It was about a 30 – 40 minute drive to the south west corner of the island, through some tight, steep and twisting roads, dropping other passengers off along the way. My initial impression of Koh Chang, was disappointment as we drove through White Beach and Lonely Beach resorts, they seemed to have a feel of ‘Costa Del Asia’ about it with some graffiti and rubbish in places, stuff I haven’t really seen for some time.

That soon passed though and the scenery became more green with glimpses of beaches and there were a few local style bars and restaurants dotted along the road. The hotel was nice, comfortable and clean, had a couple of brilliant pools and a decent breakfast buffet, although a significant amount of Russian holiday makers there.

The idea whilst on Koh Chang, was to pretty much do nothing. Just relax on the beach and go snorkelling. The beach at the hotel was small but perfectly formed. However the visibility in the water was limited, still suffering from the effects of the storm that blew through a week or so previously, but also the tide changes and lots of sand in suspension. We spent most evenings at the Happy Turtle bar, owned by a Swedish guy and his Thai wife. The food was excellent, as was the service, it was reasonably priced and there was a free pool table too…

We hired scooters for a couple of days and got them cheap at the hotel. Initially, we explored a beach not too far from the hotel with hardly anyone around but by the time we got back to the scooters, we found some monkeys had knocked one of them over. Fortunately there was no damage.

We also rode around to the other side of the island which took a whole day but it was worth it. It was much more remote and could pretty much see a way of life that hasn’t changed for hundreds of years.

One of the highlights on Koh Chang for me, was to do a snorkelling boat trip. The diving was just too expensive, so snorkelling was the next best option. A whole day out on the boat visiting 5 islands, lunch included, fruit and snacks too, plus unlimited soft drinks. The sea was gin clear and we had 45 mins to 1 hour at each of the snorkelling sites. Managed to do a few duck dives and saw lots of sea urchins, nudibranches, sea slugs, angel fish, blue spotted stingray, lots of barracuda and a whole load of others including a small yellow jellyfish about 3cm long. I think I got stung by it on my right foot as I now have four symmetrical sting marks.

All too soon, it was time to head back to Bangkok on that ferry and bus again. For the last night we stayed in the Banyan Tree which is quite a nice hotel… As I have booked quite a lot though expedia.co.uk I was entitled to an upgraded room so ended up with a beautiful suite overlooking the pool on the 21st floor. In the evening we went up to the Moon Bar on the 61st floor with spectacular views over Bangkok and had a couple of cocktails to end this part of the trip, to say goodbye to Burtie as he flew back to England and near freezing temperatures.

A couple of days later, I flew south to Phuket…

After stopping back at the station to collect the ferry tickets, it was as short 20min minibus ride to the ferry pier and I got to see some of the forests as we were driven to the dock, but don’t think I really missed much. The catamaran was waiting at the end of a long wooden jetty which seemed to take ages to walk down in the blazing sun. The bags were stowed in the front cabin and we took our seats ready for the 1.5hour crossing to Koh Tao. I have really been looking forward to this part of my walkabout for some time and staying at Sairee Cottage Diving Resort also. The idea of sitting on a white sandy beach for a few days, diving, eating delicious Thai food, having Christmas and cocktails was really appealing, especially having been so active over the past few months.

It was hot and crowded as people disembarked the catamaran all at once but I managed to find my transfer ok. My bags and I were bundled into the back of a pick up truck and before I knew it, I was at the hotel and checked in. I had booked a poolside room on the first floor which was actually nicer than some of the beach front bungalows. The air conditioning was fantastic and so was the swimming pool. The next day it rained heavily in the morning but cleared up around lunchtime.

I was meeting my brother and his wife as they were holidaying in Thailand too, so we had agreed to met up for a few days before Christmas. It was nice to meet up and it almost felt like a holiday from the travelling. We had a couple of excellent Thai massages and found a good restaurant, Su Chili, which served both an excellent and spicy hot Thai Green Curry as well as vegan options. We ate here a couple of times as the food was good, reasonably priced and the service was pretty good too.

While on Koh Tao, Chrissy managed to obtain her PADI open water certification which is a good achievement. Tim and I are both certified professional divers so while she was doing her open water course with Sairee Cottage Diving, we had a couple of pleasure dives. Am aware that this is not the best time of year to visit Koh Tao for diving, but in all honesty, I expected better. Yes, it was as small group and water was warm (29 degrees) but the visibly was poor, less than 4m, didn’t see much in the way of marine life and there was lots of dead coral. Perhaps we were just unlucky. The second dive was a wreck dive at 28m, HTMS Sattakut – an ex-Thai navy boat sunk on purpose off Hin Pee Wee. Once again, the visibility was so poor that I didn’t see this 50m long ship until I swam into its side…

Next day, Chrissy was still diving, so Tim and I hired a scooter each and went to explore a bit more of the island. I have never really ridden a scooter or a motorbike before so was a little apprehensive but soon got the gist. It was a little 125 with nobly tires.

Good thing too as some of the roads were little more than a muddy dirt track, not dissimilar to the tracks around Swinley Forest, but it was good not having to pedal. We explored a little of the east side of the island and then up to the northern end stopping off at Mango Bay view point for a banana smoothie and water before heading back.

Some of the paths were a little steep but it was good fun riding up them, but the brakes were pretty much on full going down. It made a nice change riding a scooter as this is something I don’t normally do.

In the evenings, we would meet up at the Sairee bar and enjoy ‘happy hour’ while looking out to sea enjoying general chit chat. Really cannot fault this location and hats off to Mother Nature.

There’s a little island just off the north west side of Koh Tao called Koh Nang Yuan which is probably what most holiday brochures show as Koh Tao. It’s easy to see why. I caught a long tailed taxi boat over to the island which took about 10 – 15mins for 500baht return.

There’s a 100baht entry fee on the island I didn’t know about but not an issue. They do not allow any plastic bottles on the island as they’re trying to preserve its pristine condition. This meant downing a 2 litre bottle of water at the entrance, and placing the bottle into the ‘return and recycle bin. It was probably a good thing too, as meant I wasn’t dehydrated. It was a short 15 walk around the island and up a narrow and steep path to reach the viewpoint for the quintessential view of Koh Nang Yuan.

After spending some time up there just soaking up the view and atmosphere, I found an empty deck chair under an umbrella, essential shade from the sun and went for a little snorkel. As the bays were a little more sheltered than the main Sairee beach, the water was much clearer and much more of what I expected in Thailand. There were lots of fish and sea cucumbers around but sadly a lot of the coral was dead or broken, perhaps from the tsunami back in 2006. But it was still really nice and didn’t spoil the enjoyment. There’s a a little restaurant hut there so was able to get a quick snack and another drink before meeting my taxi boat again at the agreed time for the return trip. To his credit, he turned up exactly when he said he would and the transfer back was as quick and as smooth as the ride out there. There is something to be said about Thai efficiency.

Christmas on Koh Tao was a quiet affair. I appeared to be the first one up so took the opportunity to commandeer the pool with my Santa’s hat.

I had a few snacks for breakfast but really wasn’t hungry at all. My Christmas Day lunch was a packet of peanut M&M’s and a banana smoothie. I spent the afternoon on the beach not doing anything and it was great. By the time evening had rolled round, I had done a couple of FaceTime calls to those back home and was quite hungry now. I walked the 10 minute walk to the busy area and there was a nice looking place opposite where had eaten previously called Sairee Sairee. It was a Mediterranean grill type place and for a change from all the curries and noodles, I went for a mixed grill. It had perhaps the most tender, juiciest and flavoursome pork steak, chicken and medium rare steak I have eaten in a long time and it definitely did the job. To finish I had a home made passionfruit tiramisu and words cannot describe how good it was. Needless to say, I had another on Boxing Day too… 🙂

Last time I was in Thailand for New Years, I struggled to find accommodation as left it quite late to book anything and ended up in a place that wasn’t very nice. This time however, I was able to book a few days on Koh Samui and a ferry transfer too. Samui is a lot larger than Koh Tao but not as busy as Phuket or Patong. The beach at Lamai was absolutely lovely, soft sand which seemed to go on forever and giant boulders dotted along the way. The beach wasn’t crowded and there were various bars offing happy hours, thankfully not all at the same time so had a sort of ‘long shore drift’ of cocktails and beers.

New Year’s Eve there were fireworks as you would expect but nothing dangerous like Diwali or anything.

After New Years on Koh Samui, I needed to get back to Bangkok to extend my visa for another 30 days. The reason being, my oldest school friend is visiting Thailand for a couple of weeks in January so I’m looking forward to meeting up with him and doing a sort of ‘mini tour’ if you like.

The ferry, well catamaran, was due to leave Koh Samui at about 08.00hrs which meant as hotel pick up at 06.30hrs. Needless to say I didn’t get much sleep for fear of oversleeping and missing the boat. It was a bit of a bundle to get on but there were plenty of seats. It was a 4hour crossing back to Chumphon, stopping off at Koh Pha-ngan and Koh Tao along the way to drop some people off and pick up more. The crossing was quite rough with 4m swells. It didn’t take long for some people to be seasick but I was ok. It was just the noise of people being sick and the odd waft of vomit that didn’t go down too well. The ferry crossing was over soon enough and it was a relief to be back on dry land. Just walking down the jetty to the place where all the coaches were waiting, I could feel the sun burning the back of my neck.

The coaches were comfortable but it was a long 9 hour journey back to Bangkok and there was only one 30min stop along the way.

Still I have done a lot longer and more uncomfortable journeys on this trip, so this was a walk in the park. We arrived in Bangkok at about 21.45 and it was only a 5min walk to the hotel. I checked in with ease and tried to sleep. Even though I was on the 6th floor, I could still hear quite clearly the live music from the bars opposite. I think if I hear another Thai rendition of John Denver’s Country Road one more time, I might loose control. It’s not a bad song, but 4 times in 3hours is a bit much.

I got up early the next day and got a transfer to the visa office. It took a couple of hours to complete, most of the time was waiting which was no issue as I had no time agenda, but it was also up and down stairs to take photocopies of everything. The appointment itself could not have lasted more than 5 minutes and soon enough, my visa was extended until 5th February.