Sun, sea and Sangsom

After one final brain-meltingly spicy Bengali breakfast with Hollie and one last eye-boggling taxi ride out of Kolkata - being winked at by rickshaw drivers and marvelling at skinny men shampooing themselves in the gutter in the morning sun - we were on our way to Bangkok.

We were soon happily ensconced in the clean, air-conditioned restfulness of my uncle Andrew, aunty Ros and cousins Chloe and Toby's house in Bangkok. It was just what we needed - a comfy bed, homemade cookies courtesy of Toby, cold beer, a big swimming pool and trashy TV.

Two days later we made our way to Ko Samet. This is the closest little island to Bangkok, so was a perfect place to await delayed-by-Icelandic-volcanoes-Dave's arrival. It's hard to find a beach in Thailand which isn't beautiful, but Ko Samet's must be way up there: powdery white sand, warm, clear sea, shade from palm trees, fruit and pancake sellers ambling by. We spent our days lazing under the trees, and our nights doing what you do on a Thai island - sitting on cushions listening to bad music, drinking cocktail buckets and making friends.

It is ruddy hot in Thailand - I don't know why I thought it would be cooler than the subcontinent! And giant snappy mosquitoes add to the discomfort.

We scurried back to Bangkok to meet Dave, staying in sleazy sex-tourist-land, Sukhumvit, in a hotel with a very retro swimming pool and a staunch anti-sex-tourist policy. We peeked at the Red Shirt protests, and it was hard to see what all the fuss was about - it was more like a little festival, with peaceful protesters selling souvenir t-shirts and DVDs. We didn't hang around, though - we headed to Ko Chang for a few more days of seaside.

Ko Chang is (obviously) beautiful - sea as warm as a bubble bath and jungly hills rising to meet the hazy blue sky. More of the obscene heat, though. It's hard to relax when your brain is constantly melting and seeping out of your face. Chang is even more of a party town than Samet, and the music is slightly better, so we enjoyed some delicious ice cream cocktails and disgusting free Sangsom.

We escaped the heat one day by scootering to a waterfall with a pool of cold, dark water underneath, perfect for swimming in and if I sat on the slippery rocks for long enough, little fish came to nibble my feet. We also spent a day on a boat snorkelling between islands. That was when the monsoon chose to poke out a teasing oar - we ended the day shivering under towels as thunder crashed around us. It was bloody lovely.