A week on Ko Lanta

Hermit crab

"Stop swatting or you'll scare the frog," I said last night as Amy went about her routine of squashing mosquitoes. We were trying not to upset our latest lodger - a small fat frog who'd taken a liking to our bathroom. He'd left by the morning.

We've been quite lucky with our creature room mates thus far. There are always ants, mossies and friendly geckos, but thankfully my arch enemy Monsieur Cockroach has only made one appearance (I dashed the brute's chances of a night indoors after I deftly swept him out with a broom).

Amy's foe is as always mosquitoes. She can't spend five minutes in the room without stalking the place, flip-flop in hand, swatting the buggers.

The weather's been pretty ropey in Ko Lanta. One of the reasons why we've stayed here so long is because we've been holding out 'just one more day' for some sunshine. Our daily routine is breakfast, stroll to a nice spot on the beach, sprint back to shelter when it starts raining. The sun came out today which we've taken as a good sign, so we're staying just one more day before leaving for Malaysia.

At least it's been cool. I've enjoyed chosing restaurants on the quality of the food, instead of the size of the fan. The food is excellent on Ko Lanta - it puts the crap that was served up on Phi Phi to shame. The locals are extremely friendly too (quite suspiciously at first. We simply weren't used to it).

My stomach has reprogrammed itself since being here. I start the day with some hellishly spicy thing then continue through til dinner. Last week I tried a bland old pizza for a change and the stodginess of it kept me bloated well into the next day.

Today we explored Khlong Dao beach. It's a few miles north of where we've been staying and doesn't have the dead coral of 'our' beach. The only sea-shells in sight belonged to hermit crabs - hundreds of them, all scurrying into the sea en masse, only to get swept back again by the waves. They're angry little fellas and weren't too happy when we picked them up. But the clams are more rude - spitting water at Amy, then sticking their tongues out when she touched them.

On Wednesday we squeeze inside a small van to travel to Malaysia. I'll miss Thailand. It's been bloody great here.