Hi everyone!

Im now in Hongkong writing this in a trendy cafe!

My 2 weeks with the girls was very much a holiday! Not moving on every couple of days was strange at first but i soon settled into do nothing on a beach mode - its not that hard!

I met Alex and Nicole in Bangkok and we headed straight to Koh Tao down south. We got to Hat Sariee the next morning - a fun beach with lots of cool bars and cafes with comfy floor seating. We soon found our favourite cushioned bar on the beach and ended up spending way too much of our time there! We took a long boat to a nearby island - NangYuan where we did some snorkelling (i enjoyed passing on the fish knowledge I learned in the Perhentians!). Me and Alex also managed to fit in a dive - no Whale sharks :-< but for alex who had only ever dived in the merky waters of England, the 20m visabilty and 30 deg waters made a nice change!

Then disaster hit! Nicole got ill with food posioning of some sort (we're still not sure exactly what) - she spent a couple of nights in the local clinic but coudnt seem to shift the bug and eventually decided enough was enough and had to go home :-< It was very sad and not at all how we thought the week would turn out. At least we had a nice first week together and got some amazing pics of Nicole's cartwheels + star jumps - shes so good!

Me and Alex spent the remainder of our time on Koh Phangan - the famous Full Moon Party Island - although as soon as we got there we wanted to be back on cute little Koh Tao and found Phangan a bit too clubby - but we made the most of it as you can tell from our photos (most being of us...partying!). We were lucky enough to go to a Half Moon Party - a dance festival in the Jungle which was amazing - neon Lights, crazy dancers and glow paint everywhere!

Thanks for a fun time girls, it was soo nice to hang out with you and share a bit of my travels with you. Its actually made me feel very homesick!

Another thing adding to my homesickness is probably the fact that i now wont be home for another 3 months! I have been lucky enough to get asked to go back to the Perhentians - Ive basicly landed a job as project facilitator for the Volunteer and Conservation work there. Its an amazing opportunity and as much as i want to come home i couldn't turn it down - i loved it there and really want to help the turtles! So i will now be back home in October! At least it will be autumn/winter by then - i dream about wearing a jumper and being cold!

Lots of love
Sophie
xxx