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…