Si & Charl On The Road: Signing off from Thailand

Our last few days on Koh Pha Ngan were spent just relaxing, Charl was tired from her course and Si was nursing his sore intercostal muscles (which are still playing up). The final Friday we had a little sleep in the afternoon so that there was a chance that we would make it through the night at Guys Bar and see sunrise the next morning. The party was incredible, great music – slightly old skool trance from back in our early days of clubbing and proper house music, a brilliant vibe and everyone having a good night. We saw sunrise – Simon commented how he hadn't been up that early the whole time we were there and wasn't it nice – I did remind him that I'd told him how nice it was on many occasions but he'd preferred his sleep.

(Guy's Bar Party, about 7am)

(What's a party in Thailand without the obligatory fire-dancing. This lady was pretty amazing - and all part of a night raising money for a charity helping kids in Burma)

(Full-moon on Koh Pha Ngan - our other commitments prevented / saved us from the party in Had Rin)

On the Monday we were up at 7.30 to take a 4wd track from the huts back to the main road, followed by some hair raising over taking by the guy from Horizon who was driving us to the ferry. We made the ferry in time and had a four hour trip via Koh Tao back to the main land. As usual the ferry was over booked but we had plastic stools on one of the outside decks so we had some fresh air. Back on the main land we had to go through the usual rigmarole of exchanging already bought tickets for different tickets, getting coloured stickers for us and our bags and then hanging around eating un-appetising ham rolls whilst we waited for the bus.

We lucked out as we'd been allocated seats at the back of the bus which for some reason had twice the leg room of those in the rows and so despite the 8 hour journey we coped ok. We stopped at the same rest area we had 3 years ago on our way back to Bangkok from Koh Tao and had some not too dissimilar rice and chicken curry followed by water melon and pineapple chunks.

Back in Bangkok we were dropped off in the Koh San Road area – the haunt of all 18 year old backpackers so we swiftly grabbed a taxi to take us out towards the airport and the motel we had booked. For a really reasonable 1500 baht we had a deluxe room with lots of space, full length mirrors, ensuite bathroom and no bugs. We slept really well and the next day we had an easy and lazy morning as we didn't need to be at the airport until 2. The transfer was included so we had an easy trip to the airport (which always impresses – Bangkok airport is a pleasure to be in) and spent our final few baht on some lunch before jumping on our flight to Sydney.

We brought the good weather to Sydney with us; Sydney has had a bit of a rubbish summer by all accounts but we brought the sun and hot weather and had perfect weather the whole time we were there. Arriving at Steve and Alex's felt like going home. We fitted straight back in – Simon loading the dishwasher, me making nice cakes for Steve and Alex – and we enjoyed having our old room back. It even had a few of our bits and pieces left from before, including Simon's surf board which he took out most days we stayed. Most of all we enjoyed just getting to spend time with Captain and Alex – thank you both for a great stay, you always make us feel at home and we wish we could spend time together more often.

(Always welcome so long as I cook!)

(Steve in a bunker. He still beat Si though)

I love Sydney, and it would be very easy to settle and live there. But it's also very glamorous and dare I say image conscious compared with where we'd been in Thailand and certainly Christchurch where we are now. The traffic in the city is as bad as any city and if we didn't have the group of friends we have there it could be quite a lonely place. That said we would never rule out living there because it is such a fun city and it's full of some of our favourite things in the world. Steve's promised me legal / commercial director of his company when he's up and running in any case – so unless I can do that remotely from the top of a hill by the sea in NZ then we might have to give Sydney another go some time.

Pip came to visit on the Friday, it's always weird seeing people in the different locations but we had a great weekend, going out to Wharf bar in Manly, chilling on the beach, having curry and just catching up. Pip's doing really well in Melbourne and hopefully we'll be able to get down there some time to see a bit more of it than we did before. Mentally it feels like we are next door. It's a 3 hour flight but it feels so close, as if it would be no hassle for a weekend visit.

Steve and Alex put on a great BBQ on the Sunday with some old friends around, I had to make the obligatory banoffee pie and impressed yet another ozzie bloke who had never encountered such a great pudding before.

As always it was sad to say goodbye to Steve and Alex, but not as sad as usual as we're sure it won't be too long before we see them again. Our bags have gradually been expanding during the trip and leaving Sydney airport we had to do some rapid re-packing to avoid paying extra baggage charges. They are so stingy on the weight allowances these days – all down to rising fuel costs. And then we were off to New Zealand.....