Dear all,

After a crazy time in Koh Phangan we headed to Phuket to recharge our batteries. We had an terrible journey with the most amount of bus changes so far, 6 altogether, sometimes we were only on the bus for 10 minutes before we were transferred to the next. After 10 hours we arrived just outside Phuket for our final change, people to Phuket Town on 1 bus and people to the coast of Phuket on another, what the travel agency failed to inform us was that if you wanted to go to the coast you had to pay another 150B, quite a few people refused to pay so we set off to Phuket town. We enquired at the bus station how much it would cost to get to the coast, 20B each but the buses had stopped running, it was now 6 o'clock and we had been on the go since 5.30. We were now stuck in Phuket town with not a lot of accommodation options so we decided to treat ourselves to a night in a posh hotel, luckily because it was low season we got it for half price, the beds were so comfy that we didn't make it to the coast until 3 days later. We didn't like Phuket, everytime we went out we had to run a gauntlet of the Thai's trying to sell you things, you really did need a stick to beat them off with, pity they couldn't sell us one.

Next stop was Phang-Nga. Phang-Nga is a tiny little town surrounded by the most amazing scenery. Here we caught a long boat to the James Bond Island, the scenery on the way to the island was similar to Halong Bay in Vietnam but not quite as spectacular. The James Bond Island was where the Man With The Golden Gun was filmed, it was quite small with lots of stalls on the beach selling Bond goods, Carlos asked one if they had a 3rd nipple but they didn't understand. We only stayed here for 2 nights as they was nothing to do at night except watch Thai TV and I honestly wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy.

From Phang-Nga we arrived at Krabi, we didn't do much here but we loved it, the people we so nice and we felt right at home.

Next we went to Phi Phi, by far this has been the best place that I've stayed in Thailand and the only place that I would go back to. No cars or motorbikes are allowed on the island, you either have to walk or hire a pushbike but considering you can walk from one end of the island to another in 20 minutes you don't need one. There are 2 beaches on Phi Phi of which both are amazing, the sand is so white and the waters so clear, the fish come so close to you and if you have your mask on underwater and stare at them they swim right up to your face and turn away at the last moment. At Phi Phi we went on a boat trip where you visit 5 Islands in one day, the 1st one we went to was where the film the beach was shot, again this was a lot smaller than we thought it would be but exactly as it's pictured in the film, apart from the masses of tourists that were there. Another Island that we visited was Bamboo Island, this certainly had the wow factor, it was postcard perfect. We snorkled to the Island from the boat and then we swam back to get the kayak from the boat and paddled round the Island for a bit, I finally found what I'd been looking for at Thailand here. We stayed In Phi Phi for 7 days and I was sad to leave but other places to see.

Next was Koh Lanta, this has been hailed as the cheaper version of Phi Phi, it wasn't. Didn't like it here so we only stayed for 2 days, although in these 2 days we did find an english cafe that did proper fry ups with eggs that you can eat, the Thai's really can't cook eggs, we had a buffet breakfast on the beach in Phi Phi and Carlos convinced the chef to let him cook the eggs, anyway it was nice to be eating decent english food for a change, as it was Sunday they were doing a Lamb sunday dinner, complete with yorkshire uddings and gravy, yes you've got it we went back!!

From Koh Lanta we went back to Krabi for a couple of days, we were there for Halloween and one of the bars had a party complete with a scary pumpkin outside.

We have now come to the end of our time in Thailand and are shortly off to Malaysia.

Love Emma & Carlos xxxxx