We heard a lot about the big resorts in Ko Phangan and Ko Samui on our travels in Thailand, the gist was that the main resorts were South Asian versions of Magaluf or Kavos. As we come to the end of this 6 month whirlwind journey we just want to sit by a pool or on the beach and contemplate the meaning of life, so we headed to stay in a small resort area in the North West of Phangan, Haad Yao beach, where we found a gem of a backpacker resort, Shiralea. Wooden hut bungalows line the hill around a great bar and pool just 100 metres from the beach. The food is excellent and the British and Thai staff that run it are fun and chilled about, well everything (so much so that we had to wake Geoff, one of the owners, from his comatose state in a hammock in the bar to take us back to the ferry on the morning we left - he had only got back an hour before from a Black Moon beach party). They have a bunch of resident dogs, including a bright eyed white puppy that would come and lay on the Thai cushions watching TV with you, attaching itself to your trouser bottoms when you tried to leave. We barely ventured from the place, we just lounged by the pool.

Haad Yao is much more like the Thailand I imagined than Ko Tao, which is more of a rocky outcrop in comparison. From Haad Yao you can see tiny islands jut from the water in the distance, reminiscent of the scenes in the film "The Beach". The beach itself is a sweeping kilometre of fluffy cream coloured sand with a few resorts dotting its edges along with excellent seafood restaurants that offer candlelit tables in the warm sea breeze under bright stars. We found it a relaxing place set against the back drop of dense palm tree hills. A place to stick on the Jack Johnson and sink a cocktail or five. The major problem you find with a lot of Thai beaches on these islands is that they are so shallow, you have to wade out 50 yards to get to your knees but a least you are walking on sand in Phangan, in Ko Tao it was a challenge due to the coral and stones that you had to negotiate.

I took another dive trip this time with Reefers Scuba Diving. We headed to dive at Sail Rock, probably the most famous dive site in the Gulf of Thailand, 20 kilometres from the island or so. It was awesome. On dropping down on a very windy and choppy day but with good visibility the first thing we came across at around 20 metres was a 3 metre long whale shark. It just glided past me in all its glory with its greyish blue skin and white spots, at this size it is probably just an adolescent, whale sharks after all are the biggest fish in the sea growing to over 40 feet. I came across it twice more on the next dive, one time it swam a foot from me for about 5 metres, I was blown away. The site itself has beautiful coral surrounding a couple of large pinnacles that act as magnets to schools of different types of fish - angel fish, butterfly fish, squid, eel, barracuda even a few scorpion fish. It also famous for its chimney that you can enter and then swim up through for about 8 metres before popping out the top.

It is hard to believe that we jump on a plane late on Saturday night and head home. But these last few weeks our minds have moved back to domestic and work stuff. For me I am really excited to head back and see my family, friends and work colleagues. Just two more days. Ko Samui next.