Arriving in Thailand the contrast with Cambodia was instantaneous. After crossing the border we pedalled off (on the left hand side of!) a beautiful modern road and hot-footed it to Bangkok in time for Zoe's birthday. In Bangkok we stayed once again at the Atlanta Hotel, a film-set of a place more or less frozen in time since it became the first western-run hotel in Bangkok in the 1950s. We cycled a bit in the city (which actually wasn't too bad) but mostly we got around on the Skytrain and the new underground. We applied for and obtained 60-day visas at the Indonesian embassy (phew). For Zoe's birthday we dined at The Oriental (see Flickr page for the photo story). We were amazed and impressed by the number of lesbians and gay men visible in Bangkok. Then after four nights we said 'until next time' to that fantastic city, hopped on a night train with our bikes and journeyed south.
For the last four nights we've been on a liveaboard diving boat cruising around the uninhabited Similan Islands 65kms off the tsunami-hit west coast of southern Thailand. We've been lucky enough to do several liveaboards in the past so the routine's familiar: get up shortly after dawn, have a light breakfast, dive briefing, dive, eat a cooked breakfast, loll about or snorkel to white sand beach, dive briefing, dive, eat a big lunch, loll about/sunbathe/sleep, dive briefing, dive, eat a snack, dive briefing, night dive, eat supper, have a couple of beers, early night. It's pretty miserable! Underwater we saw loads of gorgeous coral and millions of kinds of fish, plus some 'big stuff': octopus, cuttlefish, lobsters, turtles, stingrays and some curious leopard sharks!
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