Day 7

FMJ (first mate Joey) here. Arrived in Koh Tao 9am.

Captain Kelly really lost his sea legs after the treacherous catamaran journey over here, so had to hit the deck for a few hours. I, excited to feel some sand in between my toes, went out to explore. We're staying on Sairee beach, the busiest part of this sleepy little island. First impressions of our accommodation weren’t that good – no fridge or TV (what we'd been used to in Bangkok), but after having a couple of hours to adjust to beach life, we realised that a shabby chic little bungalow is exactly what you want here, and we couldn't have asked for a more convenient home whilst on the island. Our resort is right on the beach, has an excellent bar/restaurant with a terrace that overlooks the sea and the most helpful and polite staff you could imagine.

First off I wanted to see what Sairee Beach had to offer, so went for a little wander. There's basically a street that runs parallel to the beach, with bars, restaurants, shops and moped rental places every 10 metres. There are also a lot of nice looking resorts and beach bungalows dotted between here and there. Koh Tao feels like a million miles away from Bangkok – there are few cars, and you can ride around the island on a moped in a couple of hours. You have to take your shoes off before going into any bars or shops here too, which is actually extraordinarily liberating. After our sickly journey to Koh Tao, and once SK had got his head down for a couple of hours, we needed to refuel, so thought a simple pizza, chips and salad meal would sort us out and set us up for the day. We were sightly wrong. Funnily enough it seems not all Thai establishments are that great at cooking Italian food. Our bad - we'll stick to Pad Thai and Mussaman chicken from now on.

After food we did some more exploring, and spotted a couple of nice looking bars and restaurants we plan to frequent during our time here. The weather is a lot cooler here, but the sun was still shining on day 1, so I was finally able to get my tan on. After a few hours of lazing around, swimming and tanning we got ready and headed back to to the bungalow to get ready to go out for a few beers and some food. We didn't go very far from the resort on our first night, just to a place a few doors down where happy hour is from 4-9pm – the happiest of hours if you ask me! Most of the bars have decent happy hours here it seems; I mean, who's happy between 12-1pm, apart from bar owners who know no one is able to enjoy their craftily timed drinks offers.

After a few £1 Chang's we had some lovely Thai food. We're both learning to love the culinary ways of Thailand. The authentic food is so fresh and flavoursome, nothing is wasted here and nothing is taken for granted. By 9pm we were both shattered, so headed back to our bungalow for an early night. Rock and roll or what.