This was our twelvth trip to Thailand and was more a r and r exercise than exploratory and was split into three centres for the fortnight. Phuket, Lanta and Bangkok.

We had a week and a half to plan and sort out the trip and did not want to spend a lot due to the old credit crunch.

Got a reasonable deal on a Etihad flight from Heathrow to Bangkok via Abu Dhabi. The flights were great Heathrow to Abu Dhabi legs on A340-600, onward flight to Bangkok on Boeing 777-300. Onboard catering very good for economy, and good inflight entertainment. And Abu Dhabi has a shiny new airport so no more hanging round in a smoke filled terminal.

Got to Bangkok on time and awaited the Bangkok Airways flight to Phuket in their pleasant lounge. Glad we choose them over the slightly earlier Air Asia flight...as flight was cheaper and no excess luggage charges.

Hotel in Phuket - the Naithonburi - provided free airport transfer to resort. We have stayed here before and had heard the hotel had doubled in size. It has, yet somehow this seemed to make the hotel even better. The new rooms overlook parts of the village and the jungle clad hills at the rear. We had one of these rooms for 1700 baht per night B and B. Quite a snip for Phuket and for the quality of the hotel. The rooms are exactly the same (but newer) as the pool view rooms that were being charged out at 3200 baht and to be honest preferred the Garden view, as the birdlife was prolific. Breakfast (apart from the juice) was good as any hotel I've stayed in...including Marriotts and Mandarin Orientals.

Nai Thon the resort is still unspoilt - it still shuts down around 9pm. The House of Merit has had an upgrade from our previous visit, a sign of increasing prosperity perhaps. The only significant differences we noticed was that the apartments next to the Naithonburi were near completion, and new luxury villas were being built on the hill leaving the south of the beach - yours for a cool £1.5 million or so. And the beach was being used by a few restaurants in the evenings, including the new beach restaurant created by the Naithonburi. Weather was mixed we had a few thunderstoms that would last a few hours, but mainly in the evening. Only took one trip away from Nai Thon in the five days and that was to Surin Beach, which only made us realise how nice Nai Thon is compared to much of Phuket.

After five nights headed by private taxi transfer to Ko Lanta to stay at the Lanta Cliff resort, the intention here being to explore Lanta as we have not been before and visit outlying islands. The journey to Lanta via Krabi is an interesting even by road as the landscape is magnificent. Visited a cave temple on the way with the usual buddha images and monkeys. Then two ferry rides later we were in Koh Lanta.

Arrived to find our hotel had upgraded us by two room categories to a deluxe villa overlooking pool and views out to sea. Have to say this was one of the nicest hotels we have stayed in in Thailand. It was still on soft opening so we got a good price direct with hotel - some facilities like the spa were not operational but the setting more than made up for it. First night we took a samlor taxi to nearby Khlong Dao beach for a meal. Never seen so many kids on holiday in Thailand. Lanta is popular with Swedes and is very much a package destination for them. The beach was fun with people letting off lanterns and fireworks and sitting round campfires...a bit like Samui many years ago with a slight hippyish vibe. at on the beach that night at teh Piccolo restaurant.

Awoke next to find OH feeling ill and finding the need to projectile vomit, she slept most of the day so I explored on my own, visiting chao ley villages and beachconmbing. Next day was spent in hotel as OH felt weak. By the evening it was my turn on the big white telephone so next day was also spent by pool recovering. Our plans to explore were put on hold. We still meant to go one day to Phi-Phi as we have not been for many years, however on the day planned we woke to a tremendous downpour that lasted best part of the day. Our penultimate day on Lanta was spent exploring Saladan...takes about half an hour, beaching and returning to Saladan for our evening meal. It has some delightful restaurants in old wooden buildings that stretch out over the sea, we sat wolfing down a thai meal as we watched a lion fish swimming round th pier legs in front of us. So stomach trouble and the weather had conspired against us. Still we enjoyed Lanta and the hotel was fab so maybe next time.

Got back to find an e-mail from our hotel in Bangkok - the Navalai - saying that they had overbooked and were moving us to some other guest house nearby. Not on your nelly I thought...it had taken us some time to choose the Navalai and the guest house they were intending to move us to was nowhere near the same standard. So next day cancelled the booking (made on the hotels own website so no excuse for the overbooking) and booked some serviced apartments (Natural Ville) using the excellent latestays.com website.

Transferred by shared mini-van from Lanta to Krabi airport 200 baht per person for our Air Asia flight. Got a 45 minute delay, seems par for the course for Air Asia and got charged excess baggage over our 20kg allowance. As our bags had weighed 18kg each in London and we had not acquired anything else this came as a suprise. Too much like British low costs for my liking.

Taxi transfer from Bangkok airport to city cost 400 baht but left us wishing we had paid the extra for limousine service. Our luggage was strapped into an open boot, luckily it was a dry evening, and the taxi was hardly road worthy. Still the serviced apartments were fine and the booking I had made that morning was all in order. The apartments were on Langsuan a ten minute walk from Chit Lom skytrain and five minutes from Ratchadamri. We checked out the nearby Anantara serviced apartments which were very nice..they have a good soft opening offer on at the moment for anyone interested.

So we had two full days in Bangkok...after stocking upwith goodies from the nearby 7/11 we went in search of some serious shopping. This on our first day was centred around a visit to the Chatachuk market as chaoyic a ever and then onto Central World and Siam Paragon. Stopped for high teas at the excellent Erawan Tea rooms were the high tea now costs 220 baht for some 13 courses and unlimited Earl Grey, a bit like asian tapas I suppose. I thought Siam Paragon was big but CentralWorld we just got lost in it was so big. Then in the evening what was supposed to be a posh meal turned into fish and chips as we walked past a restaurant and could not resist the lure of Western food.

The next day we ventured to the river via central pier and up to go round Wat Arun via ferry from Tha Thien pier. Then back down the river to the Bangkok Marriott Resort and Spa just for the fun of the boat ride. In the evening we ventured out to the Suan Lum Night Bazaar, via a walk through Lumphini park dodging all the joggers. This was for a final bit of shopping and a meal at the Joe Louis Puppet Theatre restaurant which was actualy quite good and as the restaurants was full of Thais I assume quite authentic.

Next morning the long flights back to blighty having had a satisfactory holiday in the Kingdom. It was a toss up between Thailand and Tenerife...I know we made the right choice and even with the poor exchange rate Thailand is still VFM.