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The week of work as normal was punctuated by a couple of leaving parties for a Burmese intern who has been here for a year and a fellow volunteer moving on. The first celebration was on Wednesday where there was much activity, cooking and excitement during the day. In the evening, we all gathered at someone's house for a feast of some favourite Burmese dishes including delicious noodles with pork, sweet egg salad and some other unidentified pink salad. We also tried some winkel-like shell food - the tops of the long, spiral shells were cut off and you had to suck the small slimey blob out. An interesting experience, but one we might not look out for on menus! There were a few speeches and gifts and we had a fun evening getting to know folk better. The next night, we were out for a Thai fondue, apparently often had for celebrations. This was similar to one we had in Cambodia where a plate of coals is put on your table and a metal, conical barbecue on the top which has a bowl around the outside for the soup and noodles. There was, again, several unidentified meats which we gave a go and we both tried the prawns but excused ourselves form the rather large, tentacle clad, squid.

We inherited a motorbike from the volunteer who left so thought that we would make use of it by getting away for the weekend. We had a slow start on Saturday morning and headed off with a vague idea of heading to Kuraburi, a port about 50km to the north. Our lack of research and planning soon showed when, after 30km and with bottoms already numbing, we saw a signpost indicating our destination was a further 50km away. On our small, low power bike this made for a 2 hour journey in the mid-day sun. We finally arrived in Kuraburi hot and tired around 1.30pm. We found a helpful guesthouse owner who made some phone calls for us and confirmed that we could get a boat to an island - Koh Phra Thom - at 3.30pm and stay there for the night. So we had some lunch and had a snooze for a few hours waiting for the boat.

It was a short ride in a taxi to the 'port' which turned out to be a couple of boats moored in a small inlet in the dense mangroves. For the first 15mins of the boat ride, we slowly navigated through a maze of narrow channels through the mangroves before coming out into the open sea. It was then a short ride across the water to the port on Kho Phra Thom. Waiting to greet us was Mr Chuoi, our host for the night, who had a red bandanna round his head and a cigarette hanging from his mouth, and looked slightly like a character from a war film. There are no roads on the island, just narrow concrete lanes and our transport was in a metal side-car attached to an old motorbike, which Mr Chuoi calls formula one. The island was much bigger than we had thought and it was quite a long ride across to the western side where our accommodation was. Our bungalows were very basic bamboo huts on stilts with an open-air bathroom out the back but in a beautiful setting just back from a deserted sandy beach with great views across some small islands and back towards distant hills on the mainland.

After such a long journey, we were relieved to have a swim in the sea and pleased to find ourselves in such an idyllic place to watch the sunset. In the evening, we were presented with the menu - a very large, freshly caught, red snapper; the options being barbecued red snapper or fried red snapper. We opted for barbecued with spicy Thai sauce. Not being big fish lovers, we were slightly apprehensive when the massive fish complete with head, eyes and tail was delivered to our table. However, we were pleasantly surprised as the snapper did not have a strong fish flavour and was actually quite delicious. Mr Chuoi taught us how to get the meat off the fish and urged us to eat with our hands as this helps to find any bones. We didn't take too much encouragement, always happy to be back eating with hands after our time in Nepal and India. There were a couple of others staying in the bungalows and we had a very pleasant, relaxing evening.

We had a slightly fitful nights sleep as the hut's construction meant that we were sharing it with most of the wildlife on the island! It was a bit like being in a tent where everything sounds like it is a bit too close for comfort. There were deer passing outside and inside there were plenty of geckos, lizards, frogs, and from the droppings found the next day, some mice. We felt perfectly safe within our mosquito net, but the strange noises did interrupt a peaceful nights sleep and the cockerels woke us early in the morning.

With such a short time on the island, we were not unhappy to be up early to make the most of it. After a delicious breakfast of pineapple pancakes we set off across the string of beaches to find a dive shop where we could rent snorkeling gear. We were pointed in the direction of the small islands just off the coast as good spots to see coral and fish. After a long swim out with low visibility we arrived on the island and soon found ourselves snorkeling over amazing fish of all colours darting in and out of beautiful corals (the corals are apparently quite small and young and are just re-establishing themselves after the tsunami). We had a lovely time, diving amongst the corals and spotting fish... none of which we can identify but all of which were very pretty! Walking back along the beach, we were surprised by a flying fish which jumped up and sped across the waves in front of us.

There is very little development on Koh Phra Thom which meant that we were swimming alone amongst the coral and had whole beaches all to ourselves - something that we did not expect to find in Thailand. All too soon though, it was time to leave and head back home. The journey back was very pleasant and the bike ride not so hot in the late afternoon. On our return, we have been happily reflecting on our time and realising the price of paradise... it turns out our 50+ suncream was not enough to cover our snorkeling trip and we both have slightly pink backs, but nothing a little aloe vera can't solve. In addition, Drew's feet have been slightly shredded with the flippers having rubbed and broken the skin on his toes and also, due to unintentionally kicking a big rock on the beach, he has a very blue, swollen big toe. Hopefully with rest and ice, it will be better soon.

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