The travels of Tim and Megan: Ko Samui and Ko Tao, Thailand

On Saturday Megan went on a snorkeling trip (Tim wasn't keen - lazy!) which went out to Ko Tao, another small island near Ko Samui. Snorkeling off the boat at Ko Tao was unreal - it was as close to Finding Nemo that Megan had ever seen. There were iridescent rainbow coloured fish, dragon fish with big long whiskers and little electric blue fish...Megan was quite jealous of all the Japanese people and their underwater cameras.

Getting back to Ko Samui in a thunderstorm was one of those experiences that Asia throws up now and again - overcrowded boat, rolling seas and slow to pass out the sick bags. We think the locals find such things hilarious. Luckily Megs got on to the boat fairly quickly and saved a seat with a towel before a quick trip to the toilet. On her return, she found some English couple eyeing her seat up. When she reclaimed it the girl said "its a f*cking joke, you can't f*cking save seats on a boat." Who knew? Awesome - can't wait to get to the land of Poms!

Tim decided to give the snorkeling a miss and hang out at Ko Samui. After a bit of a sleep in, Tim checked out the shops along Chaweng Beach and got a combo from McDonald's (the upsize of the coke and chips was absolutely enormous - for an extra 50 cents NZ you can get your chips delivered to your table on a dump truck and drink your coke from a trough). The combo cost about $NZ5 in total. Then it was time to laze on the beach again.

Tim got a couple of hours of really hot sunshine before another black storm cloud rolled in and dropped about a month's rain on the island in six minutes. Once Megan returned from the snorkeling trip, we played some pool and got some kai at our local pub across the road and watched the English premiership (perhaps) be decided by two stunning comebacks. Exciting times if you're a fan of the beautiful game, if you're not, you're probably sick of us talking about it.

Sunday started full of hope, but turned out to be about as useful as our toilet was a couple of days back. Having pre-paid for a return ferry to Ko Phan-Ngan, the actual ticket debacle that unfolded was astounding. There is just no logic or common sense in a lot of the tours etc around here. We bought and paid for our return tickets in a travel agent. We hopped on the bus at our hotel and the woman on the bus took our receipt of payment and gave us each one ticket. We asked how we get back and she told us our ticket was good for both ways, then she disappeared.

The guys at the ferry terminal tried to take our tickets and told us we would have to pay for the return leg, but we just snatched them back and got on the boat, which seemed to be fine. Then in Ko Phan-Ngan we had to exchange the tickets we used to get there for new tickets to get back. But then when we got back to Ko Samui, it was a game of "guess who wants to take you back to your hotel?" And it seemed we were no good at the game. Until we got stroppy and then got a bus to take just the two of us back to our hotel, special treatment for the crazy Kiwis who were probably about to snap and kill a few Thais.

That is partly because our day trip to Ko Phan-Ngan was a dog-ball (for those who don't know this term, it was complete and utter arse). A few minutes after we arrived it started to rain and didn't stop until we were back on the ferry to Ko Samui. Plus there were 6 billion flies for every person, and loads of tiny frogs jumping all over the road and getting squashed by pedestrians, which was kinda gross. We had decided to visit Ko Phan-Ngan for its beautiful beaches, but they were crap because it was raining. Oh well, win some lose some. At least we have finally gotten some use out of the Kathmandu poncho bought in NZ - love the 50% sale.

Monday, our final day in the Kingdom of Thailand, was rather uneventful. Although the rain had stopped, we decided not to go on a jetski as the water was still quite choppy. We did wander round the shops of Chaweng Beach, however, and we picked up a few bargains: Megan got some jandals for $6 and Tim (even though he doesn't smoke) bought an Arsenal cigarette holder and lighter in one for around $9. It fits his credit cards/ID cards etc in perfectly and also makes for hours of fun.

Highlights of our Asian trip: boat trip to Halong Bay, seeing the body of Ho Chi Minh in his mausoleum, our time in Hoi An (especially Megan's bargains at the tailors), Nha Trang (jet ski, beach and dodgem cars), visiting and crawling through the Cu Chi tunnels, Tim firing an AK-47, wandering around Ho Chi Minh City, the beach in Ko Samui (when the weather was good) and Megan's snorkeling trip around the islands.