[Goal of the season]

Amy and Sarah had left Ko Pha-Ngang on Februry 8th, leaving Arun and I to spend the day to ourselves. Feeling settled at Boom's, we decided to experience this place properly for one last time, chatting all day with Nok, who teased Arun and properly introduced us to her dogs and puppies. As we ate lunch, the pups played around our feet, perhaps becoming more familiar with us and making us feel all the more a part of their family. Nok told us about the time she had spent living in Germany and learning English; she now finds some Thai customs strange, but she admitted that she still saw many European customs as silly. After a walk to town through the scorching heat which made my muscles ache thanks to the previous days' kayaking, we both slumped in to deck chairs on the private beach at Boom's. Arun and I were both reading books by Barack Obama. As the sun disappeared behind the trees and then over the horizon, the fishing boats which Nok said came too close to the beach sailed home, and Arun and I drifted in to conversation about family, home, and our ambitions. Hanging out together has been as good as ever.

We were up early the next day to begin our journey to Krabi, which was supposed to be over by 5.30 p.m. but actually ended closer to midnight. Bidding the staff at Boom's Cafe a fond farewell, we saddled up, feeling refreshed after the relaxing day before. We were both relishing one more ride on board the Lomprayah catamaran as a taxi took us down to the pier, and the ride across to the mainland was perfectly smooth so we got ourselves a couple of beers and hit the top deck to catch the breeze. Once we arrived at the port-town of Don Sak, a gang of us who'd bought the same ticket down to Krabi were escorted straight past the mini-bus we'd been promised and herded on to a dubious looking bus. We chatted to a couple of older German guys, jokingly reassuring each other that despite our dodgy transport, we'd all get to Krabi in one piece.

This, at least we were right about, but as the bus began to divert away from the main highways and through seemingly every small town on the way, stopping regularly to pick up monks and schoolchildren, it became apparent to another one of the English people on our journey that we'd been somewhat scammed. We were over two hours late when someone eventually asked the driver where we were (it was dark now, and Thai road signs only get harder to read at night). He gamely agreed to stop and let us all have a smoke outside a petrol station, before explaining that we were about two more hours away. The scam was confirmed when we got dumped in a grimey bus station a further 20 minutes from Krabi.

So, we were mildly scammed, but still in high-spirits thanks to the stunning vistas that greeted us on the way in to our destination, a small market town on the south-west coast of Thailand. Krabi's hostels were pretty fully booked and we were struggling to find any rooms at all. "The next tourist we see, we'll ask," I said to Arun, and almost immediately we bumped in to a couple of American girls, Kate and Erin, who helped us find a modest little place which only charged us 100baht per night each. We booked up, and then followed the girls down to the night-market to grab some food. A genuinely Thai experience, this place hummed quietly with a consistent shift of customers both Thai and tourist wandering between the roughly 50 food stalls, all of which served a huge variety of fresh seafood, kebabs and noodles. At times we sat, at other times we walked until we could salivate no more, at which point we sat and ordered again. Arun, the girls and I had a great laugh, mainly jibing each others' country and language, and we were introduced to the Thai guys called Boom and Tom they'd met that day. Tom insisted that we go and get drinks at his friend's place, "Some Bar," telling us repeatedly that it'd be "fucking cool man!" He didn't disappoint.

The next day Arun and I grabbed some fantastic breakfast with the Americans, and once they departed for the nearby beach we visited "Arun's Restaurant" before booking our boat ticket to Ko Phi-Phi with the main boat man of the area, Ali, a round, smiley guy who spoke an entertaining strand of English. Later, once the Americans returned, we all headed once again to the night market, this time eating even more adventurously and becoming even more astounded at the cheap prices. My note from Nok warning people away from feeding me nuts came in handy. After this, we walked up to an awesome little reggae bar called "Fu Bar" owned by a Thai-rasta called Mr. Wood. Kate, Erin, Tom, Arun and I got some drinks and got stuck in to a hugely competitve game of Jenga which I eventually lost. We were joined by a Swede named Sebastian (who confirmed that Swedes think Julian Assange is innocent, "the only news story i'm following out here," I told Seb) and once again had a great laugh until the wee-hours.

The next day we had to shoot off early again, waving another bunch of international friends off, but not before one more trip to "Arun's Restaurant." The boat we arrived at, whilst looking a little rickety at first, glided so smoothly across to our next island that we both flashed each other a look of surprise upon arrival. Ko Phi-Phi, on the surface, is the most stunning island we've been to yet, with sheer cliffs lined with bright green trees and crystal clear waters full of fish, only disturbed by the huge volume of boat traffic. The reason for all the boats became obvious once we stepped on to the pier - the entire island is devoid of traffic, people only walking, cycling or pushing karts around. As we walked to our accomodation, found after much searching by a nice travel agent called Top, the frantic development going on on the island caught us by surprise. Guest Houses, restaurants and bars of massively varying themes are everywhere, poking out from behind one another around infinite little alleys. The blazing heat was clearly more hot than where we'd been before making the island as busy as it can get, and after walking past dozens of guest houses with "full" signs outside we eventually arrived at Tropical Gardens. Once again we'd found ourselves a secluded little jungle-bungalow not far from the action but far enough to relax at will, this time with a small pool replacing the beach. We'd landed on our feet again, we decided.

We soaked up the atmosphere of the island, deciding that whilst it's completely tourist-dominated, the relaxed vibe that results is completely unique. We continued wandering (with a huge sleep inbetween) for the next two days, visiting little food markets and taking in mango shakes on the beach, before heading out that evening for a big night. We started by watching some football, marvelling as Wayne Rooney scored the goal of the season and seemingly inspired the whole island to cheer simultaneously, each one of the bars eminating cries of "did you see that?!" We moved on, grabbing a bucket each whilst watching Arsenal win, and we then once again went to meet up with Amy and Sarah who'd arrived on Phi-Phi earlier that day. We caught them on the main beach, where four cool bars compete for attention; we chose "Slinky's" for its awesome sound system and danced on a platform until the morning. The night was the best beach party we'd been to since arriving in Thailand and the night was only marred by Amy's losing her purse, fortunately with only hard card inside. I had my new Gorillaz t-shirt pinched, but have been told to stop complaining about this.

Having lost their room key, Amy and Sarah came back to Tropical Gardens with us and valiantly helped me through a bottle of Thai whiskey. Unfortunately, I drew the short straw and was denied a bed, instead perching on a bench on our balcony and drinking, chatting to whoever happened to be awake at the time. I caught up on some sleep that morning once the girls had gone to re-open their room, but woke before i'd had a chance as Rory and his friend Rich called to let us know that they'd be on the island. Before meeting them, i sat down to have some breakfast and chatted to one of our Aussie neighbours from our huts, a young artist called Lani. We decided to hang around for the day so that she could meet everyone.

Arun and I were buzzing as we walked down to the pier to meet Rory and Rich, and after exchanging big hugs and handshakes we were introduced to a bunch of other guys they'd met on their way to the island - Cam from Canada, Helen from Germany via Oz, and Monica from London. The gang of us found them a place to stay, again through Top, our travel agent who grew increasingly friendly as we enlarged his customer base. Outside their room, Lani caught up with us and as we turned to introduce her to everyone, we literally bumped in to Sarah and Naomi, our dubstep friends that we'd met on Ko Tao. Arun and I took a look at each other, finding it impossible not to show our joy at suddenly having a great bunch of people around us from all over the place, and as we all introduced and exchanged smiles and hugs, the sense that we were not just having a good time crept in - that we might, in fact, be having a better time than we could have ever expected.