Another week, another island. This week: Koh Jum, our third island since we started island hopping down the Andaman Coast.

Our first two were at the north end of the coast (Koh Chang and Koh Payam), then after a stop on the mainland so I could go diving*, we missed out quite a lot of the coast to get where we are now. We’ve been to Samui and Pattaya and know for sure that it’s not overdeveloped resorts like Phuket and Koh Phi Phi we’re after.

It’s very relaxed here. Most of the farangs are older than us, and the pace of life is possibly the slowest of anywhere we’ve yet visited. There’s nothing to do but swim, walk up the 2km beach and eat. But, just as we’re settling in here, enjoying the stunning sunsets, friendly bungalows, huge, empty beach and bathtub-warm sea water, tomorrow we’re off again!

Sixty days on our visas doesn’t go far when there’s so many islands to visit. So tomorrow we head south again, getting up early to catch a longtail to a ferry, then a ferry to the Krabi on the mainland, a taxi into Krabi town, then a bus to Trang 100km down the road. We’ll spend the night there, stocking up on essentials like peanut M&Ms and red wine, before taking minibuses, ferries and longtails out to Koh Mook, one of our favourite places from our backpacking trip 13 years ago where we will slow right down for another five days.

All very exciting. But right now, sitting in a beach hut watching my girls play on the sand as the sun dips slowly towards the crystal seas, it all seems rather daunting. Island life has slowed me down so much that just walking to the sea to cool off or to the restaurant for a fruit shake can take half the day for me to muster enough energy.

Still, frenetic bursts of travelilng interspersing the lazy weeks of beach bumming makes this part of our trip seem like a series of one week Summer holidays, a new one starting every time the last one ends. And how can that be a bad thing?

* That implies I went diving on land, I didn’t. I just left Janet and the girls there and headed of to the Similan Islands.