After Cambodia we flew back to Bangkok and arranged a sleeper bus to take us down into southern Thailand (Don Sak), the ferry drop off point for the Ko Samui, Ko Pha Nang and Ko Tao islands off the east coast. Our initial plan was to spend a week at Ko Tao learning to dive - but as we had not even built up any confidence in the water snorkelling, we bottled it and went for the slightly less challenging option of Ko Pha Nang where we could snorkel and generally bum around on the beach for a few days.
We avoided the busier party places of the island (being too old now to join the teenager full moon parties!) and split our time between Thong Nai Pan and Koh Ma
We do not often mention specific accommodation in our blog, but we make an exception here to praise "Dreamland" at Thong Nai Pan on its fabulous setting and swimming pool. This was the perfect place to unwind, read several books, and laze about in the pool - being fairly new to the whole swimming thing, Gary was able to perform his first dive, albeit not very gracefully !
This was also Caroline's first experience at snorkelling and we loved it - we now can't wait for the crystal clear waters of the Perhentians in Malaysia to do some more, where apparently you can swim with Turtles and Sharks (or at least away from sharks).
At Koh Ma we splashed out on our first extravagant accommodation - a whopping $60 a night for an ocean bungalow with all mod cons including a DVD player (Gary's treat) and a bathtub with a seaview - sheer decadence watching the sunset from the tub and settling down to a bit of Jason Bourne.
