== Thailand's South-Eastern Islands ==

After the camera catastrophe in Bangkok we decided to change plans, skip the trip to northern Thailand, and head straight to the islands. We ended up visiting all major islands in South-Eastern Thailand: Koh Samui, Koh Pha-Ngan and Koh Tao

Koh Samui

This is the most popular tourist island on the eastern side. We wanted a quite secluded beach, so we went to the northern part of the island and found a beautiful beach named Mae-Nam. We stayed at a lovely resort (Mae-Nam Resort) in a wooden Bungalow on the beach front. Tali was very excited from the white sandy beach, but would not enter the sea due to the horrible blue jelly-fish which swarmed the waters (see photo).

Koh Pha-Ngan

This island is mostly known for the huge Full-Moon Parties it hosts. Basically all we did is have fun: Sleep, Food, Movies, Eat, Movies, Eat, Massage, Sea, Eat, Pool, Rest, Cards, Movie, etc.... you get the point. Oh, and we drank and danced at the full moon, of course. We met a lovely Danish couple named Anne and Kristian. The four of us rented a jeep and went on a trip to the far ends of the island, which really required a jeep due to the very bad and steep dirt roads (click for video clip - speekers requiered).

Typical poses we had on Koh Pha-Ngan

Koh Tao

This island is the most known diving site in the far east. There are many diving clubs run and staffed by Europeans that offer diving courses, diving trips etc... Unfortunately, Tali decided not to take the diving course, so Yoni ended up joining a couple of dives organized by one of the major diving clubs.
Next to Koh Tao is the Nang Yuan island which is actually 3 little islands connected by narrow sandy stretches. We chose to get there by a kayak, which turned out to be a real challenge for us non-athlete, not-in-shape couple. We rowed for 40 minutes through waves and wind, seeing ourselves drift away from the shore into the open sea on a very unstable and tiny kayak (click for video clip - speekers requiered). But seeing the view from the mountain top of one of the islands was well worth it.