Heading south from Bangkok, we settle near Krabi for a boutique week or so. Yes, it’s “Man With The Golden Gun” country.

We take a trip over to the left-hand-most of the archipelago: Hong Island. Crystal blue lagoon stuffed with snorkel-worthy fish, precarious limestone cliffs, and sand to die for.

Oh, and a 6ft-long Monitor Lizard who roves around looking for unfinished sandwiches and unwary 4-year-olds.

Heading inland, the island shows its scars. The parties of cheerful tourists who headed to the same beach on 26th December 2004 did not all make it off. Their boats have been left where they landed – up in the rainforest, almost 100 yards from the beach – as a sober memorial.

Full set of photos here.

After re-acquainting ourselves with the fevered pace of a city whose central focal point seems to be a strip of approximately 39 modern shopping malls (not pictured above… this was a side street), we head up the river to go and see assorted temples and palaces.

En route, Jayne gets her fortune told. “You will meet a tall, handsome stranger”.

Lo and behold… a few minutes later, there he was:

… the giant reclining Buddha of Wat Pho.

If you haven’t been to Bangkok, it’s possible your preconceptions are wrong. Admittedly we arrived from India, (so it may as well have been New York or Geneva to us), but it’s a thrusting, modern, commercial city – and quite apparently a powerhouse of Asian consumerism.

(The traffic could do with some attention though).

Although the tail end of Typhoon Ketsana managed to inundate our apartment and waterlog James’ laptop mid-stay, we loved it. All the photos here