The last few weeks in Thailand

Pretty much as planned we went to Koh Phayam and enjoyed the vast beach at Ao Yai. We found a nice front-rower at Coconut Beach Resort - a basic bamboo job - set in spacious grounds. We realised on the first night that we were the next bungalow from the South Star Bar. The 6pm reggae was OK most nights but we had a pretty uncomfortable night when they blasted away some really disappointing tunes until 3AM.

Koh Phayam had a little touch of the nightmarish. There was an awful lot of faux spirituality and juggling going on. But, even though there must have been 3-400 people staying on Ao Yai, it never felt crowded on the sand. I found some good volleyball games and we played frisbee in the sand. We took a scooter around the island and found it to be developing fast with ex-pat businesses. Phayam is out-of-the-way as it is close to the Burmese border and away from other tourist centres but it seems to be getting a reputation - in a couple of years it might be a serious party party island - though the lack of electricity should slow things down.

We met the charming Laurent, Nina and their child, Victor, from Paris, and we spent the days with banana shakes, guitars nd kniffel. We also ate some of the best food, and certainly best value food, of our trip, at the tiny family Pratsai restaurant just inland from the beach, Huge, tasty curries, packed with fresh veg, were only 60 baht, and we enjoyed them nearly every night.

After a few days in Ranong online we went to Burma for an hour and came back to get our stamps to entitle us to the last 14 days of our trip in Thailand. After that we decided to check out Koh Chang before heading to Bangkok. Little Koh Chang (to avoid confusion with big Koh Chang in the North) was very much like Koh Jum. Super quiet, a lot of candle power, and a very relaxed traveler vibe.

We got very lucky and found a bungalow at Sunset Resort at the North end of the main tourist beach. The week flew past in a blur of curries, banana shakes, volleyball, walks, giant-lizards-in-the-bathroom. I guess we were starting focus more and more on returning home.

We had our last week in Bangkok. We made it to the weekend market and, though it was spectacular and had some more individual clothes, we found the prices for tourist tat were more competitive near where we were staying at Khao San Road. Next time we go we will see some temples and buddhas but this time we shopped and hung in the rooftop pool we had accidentally acquired in our desperate scrum for a hotel room upon arrival. It was a very pleasant surprise.

Bangkok probably demonstrates the worst aspects to tourism, traveling and perhaps even human development in general. It is a particularly good place for making you value your return home. Bangkok is terribly polluted - dangerously so at the wrong time in the wrong place. And to get anywhere takes immense patience. We were very much a part of it, but perhaps the most unsettling aspect to life in the tourist areas (beyond even the disgusting sex trade) is Bangkok's role in the homogenisation of global culture. Of course there are pirated goods. Yet there are also people from 100 countries buying the season's fashions and recycling them worldwide. It brought home how bizarre it has been to see teenagers dressed in the same (fake) quasi-street-surf gear from San Diego to Santiago to South East Asia.

Overall Thailand was, if not a revelation, then still a bonus. We found that there are islands for every taste and budget and the same safe feeling that you get in other primarily non-violent societies (e.g. India) combined with novelties like very alternative cultural attractions, transport methods, cuisine and customs. The drawback would be the two-tier system that is in operation, which basically means that there a lot of people trying to rip you off. I am not going to dwell on this again though. Thailand was a great pleasure and now I totally understand why it is so popular. We will definitely go again.