Hello Again,

Phuket has been a bit of a rollercoaster as a few things have gone wrong and we have spent most of today trying to sort it! Basically we messed up our visas and had to visit immigration which was fun! Anyway its all sorted now and there is no need to worry!

We flew in from singapore yesterday and travelled down to phuket town where we are currently staying in the Phuket backpackers hostel...well let me tell you I was not ready for this hostel experience. I knwo you are going to laugh but I have confirmed to myself what a massive princess I am. I had a little bit of hysteria (not crying more laughing while saying ''oh my god is this really where we are staying!'') Sophie was there to sort me out and let me know exactly how ridiculous and pathetic I was being and I soon calmed down! After we had sorted ourselve out we went for a bite to eat and a few drinks. Our first bar was completely deserted but we put that down to the fact it was 6pm and thats probably quite an early time to start drinking. However we realised after a while that we were probably going to be their only customers all night as they bribed us with free crisps, nuts and even cold hand towels. However the bar itself was really well decorated but where they were going wrong was the music. They had ABBA of all things playing from this really authentic darkly lit bar with a back garden area that ressembled a small jungle...even dads dodgy tribe music would have been better!

we moved on from there and went on to a bar the Lonley Planet had recommended only up the road near our hostel. It was called tmber hut and was advertised in the guide as being a great little place for live music. We were told not to arrive before 9 as it would be dead. Well we arrived and it was empty but we figured it was early and we'd wait as there is nowhere else round here at all. We should have got the idea when they put a whole new world on from Aladin. However the band turned up and got ready to play...still the place had no more than 6 or 7 people in it...all thais...and I couldnt quite make out what the song actually was but I believe it to be celine dion done on guitar and drums sung by a soppy thai man! We left pretty sharply after that, bought some beers and headed back to the hostel where we met an austrian girl and a polish boy who were quite amusing!

After phuket we are off to koh phi phi and I will be glad to leave here I think. Koh phi phi is where the beach was filmed so the sites should be beautiful however it is expensive which is the downside but probably wont spend too much time there just be nice to see it. We have decided a new plan of action for the rest of the trip as we have realised the exchange rate is not working massively in our favour and everywhere we go in thailand the bank charges 3 quid to get money out so we are currently in the process of seeing if we can shorten the trip! We might miss out bits of malaysia and go to Oz early...instead of doing laos at the end we are thinking of heading up there this week and then coming back down to the islands at the end of december as they are really expensive to stay on and as its peak season they have whacked prices up everywhere. We have agreed it would be better to shorten the trip and do more than waste time worrying about the fact we wont have any left!

Anyway hope everyone is ok and would be great to hear from you. You can leave messages on here and I will respond whenever I can

lots of love

Charlotte