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After our weekend break in Koh Phra Thom, it was a fairly relentless three weeks of work especially for Drew. We extended our visas and stayed for longer to try and make sure we tied up as many loose ends as possible. This included the launch of a new website for the Calcutta medical charity we worked for last year - work on this hadn't begun until our last few days there, and it was a relief for all concerned to get the new site up. Heather helped out on this and with work on the Burmese charity's website, and is now pretty good with two of the major open source content management systems (although she thinks a career change in this direction is unlikely when we return).

Despite the work, we still appreciated having 10km+ of beautiful sandy beach on our doorstep. Drew's toe which he bashed on Koh Phra Thom recovered slowly so he couldn't accompany Heather on sunset runs along the beach. We enjoyed being part of a community centred around the NGO again and were happy most nights to follow the Thai / Burmese tradition of sociable meals.

We had our eyes opened to the plight of Burmese people in their own country and here in Thailand, and hope we've been able to make a contribution to the work of the NGO. That we extended our stay once again reflects the fact that we were enjoying the work; we could easily have stayed longer with plenty more work for us to help with.

However, we've decided that we ought to make the most of our remaining time away (down to only around 10 weeks now!) and visit some of the many fascinating places in the region. It's been hard to pack up our second Thai apartment, donating our kettle, coffee-press, mugs and bowls to the volunteers staying on, packing everything into big rucksacks and jumping on a bus. We can console ourselves that the unsettled feeling is compensated for by the fact we're sitting on another Thai island sipping a cold beer as we write this. We think we might cope.

As seems to have happened to us at the end of pretty much every project, the signal that it was time to down tools and move on came on our last day when the internet connection in the office failed just after lunch. Probably just as well as otherwise we might have still been there doing one more thing into the evening. Drew didn't notice the wire cutters in Heather's bag. We enjoyed our last sunset drinks on the beach and a few more celebratory tipples after, which didn't make getting up and leaving on Saturday morning any easier. So after a late start, we finally managed to get everything together, give back our bikes and jump on a bus headed to Phuket.

It was only an hour and a half before the bus conductor woke Drew up with a start to let us know we were at our stop. The stop was a dusty junction where we managed to pick up a taxi to take us to the Bang Rong pier in the north east of Phuket island. The pier comprises a cluster of restaurants on stilts in a mangrove lined inlet. We were presented with options of an expensive speed boat departing soon, or waiting a while for the more basic ferry. Not being in any hurry, we decided to take our time, eat some lunch and soak up the very down-to-earth maritime atmosphere of the place. We didn't regret the choice - the ferry was an interesting experience in itself as we were loaded onto a simple wooden long-tailed boat along with several other passengers (most of the women wearing ornate head scarves as we're now moving into a predominantly muslim area), and various cargo including several motorbikes, building supplies and some very heavy metallic machine parts. Watching the ferrymen deftly load and unload the heavy stuff at very basic concrete piers along the way provided great entertainment.

Our destination was Koh Yao Noi, a small island within the Phang Nga Bay national park (the filming location for the island hideout of The Man with the Golden Gun, if that helps you picture it). The island is surrounded by impressive limestone karsts rising thousands of metres vertically from the sea. We are staying in a basic bungalow on the shores of another beautiful sandy bay which looks out across to the islands and it has been a great place to unwind and start our travels.

On our first day here, we rented some bicycles and set off to tour the island. We soon realised that we have been spoilt in Khao Lak with very good bikes as the ones we were given here had saddles stuck solid in a very low position, and only a couple of functioning gears. This made the ride over the islands' modest hills much harder work than it should have been, and we had to stop for rehydration a few times as the midday sun again took its toll. However, for the most part the road stuck to the coast where it was relatively flat and pleasant.

Our bungalow is on the East coast so we had to rent a scooter to indulge our need for watching the sunset. We sat at the end of a long pier and watched the numerous islands melt into the shadows - one of the better ones we've seen, and we've seen quite a few lately.

We are just back in from a boat tour of the limestone karsts that we have been looking out at for the last couple of days. We managed to join forces with a very pleasant German couple to share a longtail boat on what is quite a 'standard' tour. Up close, the islands are even more impressive than from a distance and it was a spectacular day. From a distance the islands look like rocky monsters but hidden amongst the large cliffs are fine sandy bays with clear water and beautiful corals. The first island that we visited was quite large and had sheer cliffs on all sides, but there was a slight cut in the wall which you can just fit a boat through which leads to a beautiful, big open circular bay hidden inside. Over the day we went in for several swims on postcard-worthy beaches, saw stalactite-filled caves and lots of brightly coloured fish. As this was a tour of the highlights of the area, we were by no means the only ones enjoying their beauty and there was a steady procession of tour boats of varying sizes and modernity. You can't complain about other people sharing the beautiful scenery but it is a shame that litter is starting to become a problem, especially the ubiquitous plastic bottle.

Feeling recovered and very relaxed, we are ready to move on tomorrow - our plan is to go to do a bit of island hopping and end up in Malaysia in a few days time, where we're looking forward to some fusion cuisine and perhaps contrasting a beach bungalow on stilts to what was - until fairly recently - the tallest building in the world.

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