Ko Phagnan

We had a bit of a stressfull journey to the island as we thought we were being scammed by the travel agent. They'd taken our money for a minivan & boat to the island but then it transpired they were actually sticking us on a public bus which was late. Even the owner stroking the hairs on my arm and looking bemused didn't calm our fears. As it happened we made the boat on time. When we got to the island though we had the 'pleasure' of meeting the incredulously named 'Space', a Brit lass who was living on the island and working in a bar. 'Space' - for God's sake! Anyhow, we had to wait a while as we'd agreed to split a cab with her and she was waiting for her, get this, blind traveller friend from Portugal. 'Space', (I can't even type that without laughing!), and her mate got out of the cab the beach before us and we headed along the lumpiest track I've ever known to meet Marc & Sorcha. We found Mr & Mrs Boase in a state of extreme relaxation sitting at a beach bar at the far end of the bay supping Singha beer and generally looking like the cat who got the beer. We had a couple with Marc and headed off to bed. It had been a long day.
The following day Ben developed a 48hour gastro-intestinal infection, (or 'the shits' as it's known medically), and had to spend the whole day within dashing distance of the latrine. Thankfully we were in a very lovely little hut in a very peaceful place so it was pretty good for convalescing.
Marc & Sorcha looked after Beth and kept her plied with Beer & food in much the same way as they do with Woody I think.
Once I was better we did all the usual things, eating, drinking and relaxing. We dabbled with the idea of snorkeling and visiting other beaches but frankly it was too darn lovely where we were. They had beer, excellent beach barbies and coconut shakes, why would we leave.


We had ourselves a massage and felt deeply relaxed, it was Ben's first time and he loved it, and it only cost us about 4 quid. Relaxation on the cheap is so good in Thailand.
The last day was a bit of a sorry affair as the Heavens opened, (again), thus signalling our time to move on. Marc & I had to trudge into town in the pouring rain in some rather fetching yellow & transparent rain macs cursing and swearing that we'd "Come to Thailand by mistake. We're not from England."
M&S took the sensible option and flew, (first class!), to Bangkok while we opted for 'divvy class' cab-boat-bus.
The bus on the mainland was exceptionally comfortable with the only main drawback being the choice of films. We were treated to that all time family favourite, light-hearted comedy extravaganza that is 'Hotel Rwanda'. Laugh? No. I cried. A lot. So did Beth. A lot. Then we got 'The Wedding Crashers' which involved a lot of boob shots followed by 'American Pie - Band Camp' which was pretty crude. I don't know if it's a cultural difference or they just don't vet or censor these things the way we do but they were hardly what I'd call suitable for a family oriented bus journey. We'd already been treated to a soundtrack on the catamaran featuring some rap artist singing his hit "F*** you, you Sh**". I kid you not. Google it if you don't believe me. Mercifully Bangkok came into view before they could show any more dubious films like "Die Screaming With Sharp Things In Your Head".