I haven't posted in a couple of weeks because I'm a little lazy and didn't bother going onto the 'net. We left Bangkok anyway and headed for Koh Phangnan. It cost us 350 baht for our 10 hour bus journey and also included was the boat from Surat Thani to the island. On the boat (which took about 4 hours) we booked a bungalow with some dude named Manus who seemed kind of nice, but when we got there it turned out to be a dump.It was crawling with spiders, ants, cockroaches, etc. Had no hot water and so on. It was lso in a cap location and we would have to rent scooters to get anywhere. We left after one night and headed to Had Rin. We spent about five days there not doing very much. Going to the beach and stuff like that. It was fun and relaxing though.

Then we got the boat to Koh Samui which took about 45 minutes and cost 150 baht. We spent a lot of the time there going to the beach also, including renting jet skis, and we tried to paraglide but the guys kept telling us it was either too windy or not windy enough. We were staying in a place called the Apple Resteraunt next door to a muay thai (thai boxing) gym. Which had cheep food and the owners were very nice.

Now we are in Surat Thani which is not in the least touristy, it makes a nice change to experience a more realistic view of Thai life. Today we were at the bus station and encountered lots more scammers.

Sample images from first few days:

1st picture is a stupid giant head symbolising something (probably). Then is Steven posing with the Thai flag and finally is a building inside the Grand Palace compound.

This is my first post live from Bangkok, Thailand. We arrived here on Sunday and it is extremely humid and the heat can be quite uncomfortable. We haven't done much in the way of touristy stuff, but today we went to the Grand Palace.

It's quite difficult to get there because along the way you are constantly approached by Thais who try and get you to go somewhere else; on a tuk-tuk journey, a boat ride etc. There is also a chance of being approached by someone well dressed and with excellent English who attempts a real "soft sell" con job. Today we met one who told us about others con, but we knew he was conning us because he told us you needed to wear socks to the Grand Palace which is untrue.

Anyway, that'll do for a first post. I'll try uploading some photos now.