We left Hong Kong and arrived in Bangkok a few hours later. We were only staying one night so decided to head to backpacker central - Khao San Road. We found the cheapest room we could - cold shower, poor lighting, paint peling off the wall and as han closed the door of the bathroom the large vent at the bottom fell out! But the bedding seemed clean and the fan worked so we headed out for our first night in Thailand. I felt so excited! Loads of tanned backpackers eating phad thai from street vendors, drinking sangsom buckets in bars and getting their hair put into dreads on the side of the road. I felt as though I could buy it everything I saw in each market stall we passed - fake lacoste vests, shell bracelets, hello kitty pants, henna tattoos and hair extentions!!! I was in paradise! But decided to wait - to han's annoyance I have talked about hair extensions every day since lol!

The following day we caught a plane to Phuket on the west coast of Thailand. Once again the weather was not being kind to me - yet another typhoon greeted us! We spent two nights there amongst the girlie bars and pestering market stall owners and decided we had to get out - it was nothing like what we had expectied, so we headed on to Koh Phi Phi and had the best week ever!

As the boat drew closer to the pier me and Han knew that this was more like it! Gorgeous white sands, quaint huts and jungle behind them - our idea of heaven. We stayed in A frame huts made of bamboo on the beach with a hammock out the front. Very cute, but basic is an understatement! Literally just a double mattress on the floor and a fan, with a shared toilet/shower on the other side of the plot. They looked a little rickety but we were confident they would do the job...we were wrong lol! First night was fab - although we had to drown ourselves in mozzie spray to avoid being bitten my the mozzies coming in through the gaps in the hut, but we felt true travellers living the simple life on a beautiful island. The following night however a storm hit and as me and Han lay on our matress we could feel rain dripping on us and it felt as if the roof was going to blow off with the next battering of wind! Neadless to say the following night we checked into an aircon twin room with hot shower and most importantly made of bricks!! I'd never been so happy or felt so clean! But we didnt actually get to make the most of the room that night as we were going camping!

There's a fab bar that we discovered on Phi Phi called Hippies, and we went there every night! Its on the beach, they play cool music and they have fire shows every night (i recorded some on my camera and will upload them soon). Two guys from the bar (Beer and Amir) organised a camping trip to Phi Phi ley which is a small, remote island where they filmed the film "The Beach". About 25 of us met at Hippies on Saturday and got long tail boats over to the island. We were so excited becasue there is no accomadation on the island so its really speacial to spend the night there! We set up our tents, went for a swim, had some sangsom buckets and a bbq, some one got out a guitar and there was a bit of poi action too (two balls of fire on the end of chains which are swung around) and we spend the night under the stars! I just couldn't stop thinking that leonardo di caprio (the love of my life when I was about 15!) had been on the same beach!!!

The following day I was feeling a little rough after the night before and really wasnt looking forward to the boat home. But Han unwittingly made me feel so much better! We were sat in the boat looking out at the scenery when a big wave sploosed into the boat - my tshirt got soaked and I looked to Han to show her when I saw her looking back at me completely stunned because the wave had got her in the face! The phrase drowned rat definatly comes to mind lol!

I left Phi Phi with a heavy heart, but looked forward to our next destination - Koh Lanta. I'd read in our guide book that the island was more laid back than Phi Phi, with a hippie feel. However when we arrived we found that it was low season and there really wern't many people about at all, in fact most of the hotels were closed! I had a nice day by the pool and we had a drink in a bar on the beach but decided to leave the next day for the east coast in search of a more lively atmosphere!