We were pretty tired after another tedious journey on the train 9the novelty of the sleeping berths had worn off at this point!) Gemma slept and I caught up on emails then we met nick and Chris for lunch in Ricky's café (aw Ricardo!!) I had feta salad and a papaya shake- delicious! Then gem and I caught a taxi to the shopping centre in Bangkok which has 8 storeys! To get to it we had to walk through the slums by the river and walked through some local peoples living rooms! They didn't mind! Later that evening we caught another overnight train to surat thani in the south. The night before we met our new group for dinner, they seem nice, there are 14 of us this time so quite a big group (7 girls 7 boys), I had vegetable and coconut soup with chili and lime which was lovely but quite sickly. We met Sabrina and Angola from our old group for the; last time as they were heading off down south alone. We will keep in contact with them though in case we get chance to meet in Aussie. The over night train was really fun this time as it had a party carriage with disco lights and music and a bar so we all played cards and danced! I think virgin trains should do the same! Had a terrible nights sleep though as the train was so hot and rickety to the point I thought it had crashed and there were loads of insects and cockroaches near the beds, I slept on the top bunk again but it was claustrophobic and my head and feet touched the ends as they are made for tiny Thai people not lanky English ones! We arrived at half 6 in the morning to surat thani where we had breakfast before taking a songathew to khao sok national park, the scenery was lovely with the mountains and lush forests. The accommodation was amazing once we arrived as we were staying in the jungle in quite luxurious bungalows with views of the mountains ands rainforest surrounding us. We had our own hammock on the terrace and could hear the sounds of the gibbons, insects and other animals from the jungle around us- lots of insects and geckos though!! Me and gem had lunch (coconut and vegetables with cashews) then we went paddling in the stream near our bungalow before going tubing which was a bit scary and involved floating down the river in the jungle for an hour on giant rubber tyres. There were 100s of huge fresh water fish I had to jump on in order to get on the tube which I hated and ended up clung to one of the Thai guides the whole time to avoid floating off! We saw a huge black and yellow snake in a tree above us as we floated by (you would have loved that eleen!) and then towards the end a water snake swam past with its head poking out of the water- I cried! The Thai guy thought it was funny; they seem to tease me as I get nervous about silly things and they find it hilarious as its nothing to them!

In the evening we had a group dinner, I had massaman prawn and potato curry with sticky rice and prawn crackers, I was getting a bit more adventurous with the food as have been pretty much veggie since ive been here. We had some beautiful cocktails on the terrace bar decorated with flowers and fruit hand picked from the jungle which surrounded us. I was quite sunburned from the tubing even though I was wearing factor 50 but until then I have been approached by several Thai women complimenting me on my pale skin as they are envious and think it is beautiful, the shops are full of skin lightening products that they use to make them selves look paler, just like when we buy fake tan in England! Im a bit browner now although the photos still make me look florescent!

The next morning we woke up late and had banana pancake and strawberry smoothie (im definitely getting my 5 a day here!) and then 4 of us wen for a trail through the national park jungle. It took us 3 and a half hours and we swam in the river and saw an otter which looked like my dog ebony, as well as a chameleon a colorful and probably poisonous spider and a heard of ants eating a giant beetle and a gecko strolled along and scoffed the beetle with its tongue which was funny to watch. The heat was searing in the jungle so it was nice to cool off in the water and we skimmed stones on the water. On the way home we had an ice lolly 9they sell vanilla ice cream here with sweetcorn in, I think you would like this Helen!) Also they sell seaweed ice cream and seaweed crisps- no thanks.

Some Thai teen girls asked for a photo with us felt like a celebrity but they probably just thought we looked like freaks! We had a couple of local beers on our friend's balcony and then onto meet the rest of the group for a bbq at a Rasta bar across the road (Jamaican style music which Helen and Ricky might have liked! Ye mon!)

It was nice as our old group were there with their new leader so we spent most of the night with them. It was so magical I want to live there! The largest flower in the world is in this jungle (the raffelesia) but it wasn't blooming so we didn't go see it but I would have loved to.

On Wednesday we traveled down to krabi, a gorgeous resort by the beach. Yesterday we had a private speedboat for the group which took us round all the phi phi islands one of which is famous for where Leonardo decaprios 'the beach' film was filmed. They were all amazing, ive never seen sand so fine or water so clear I was squealing with excitement like a little girl, our new guide (Rachel an aussie girl) was laughing at me. We saw the cave where bird's nests are collected to make birds nest soup and we jumped off the speedboat in phi phi bay and swam around with the tropical fish, snorkeled at Bamboo Island and caught squid and fish off the boat near Chicken Island, famous for being shaped as a chicken! The squid released loads of ink when it was caught! The driver of the boat threw bread near me when I was swimming so the fish were surrounding me and touching me- the Thai people are mean to me!! They are all so jokey and happy though, it's the land of smiles here. Everyone is like a child especially the women they just giggle all the time and are constantly smiling! I think we went to 6 islands in total; all unique but equally beautiful, cruising on the speedboat was so fun as it was very choppy and we were slamming against the waves and racing the other boats on the sea.

The previous night we had gone out for dinner for tom's birthday. The group bought him a cake and a present and card and paid for his dinner which was nice, im hoping they do that for me on Sunday when I turn 23 as I don't like the idea that im not at home for it, especially cos Andrew will be in Poland so wont be able to speak to him but I guess I cant complain being in Malaysia for my birthday! I have 2 cards I brought from home to open too which I am excited about! It was a seafood restaurant we went to on the beach and we had to pick our fish before they cooked it which was good, I had king prawns with ginger, steamed rice and salad but I also tried barracuda fish and shark which was sooo nice! The other day I tried jungle leaf too!

Last night gem and I went for an Italian in krabi as we had a Thai buffet for lunch as part of the boat trip on one of the islands. I think it was my favorite day so far on par with bamboo rafting- it was so breathtakingly gorgeous. Today I am ill with a cold and chesty cougt from the air conditioning, a head ache from too much sun and painful muscles from the rough ride on the boat and I feel nausious. It's pouring with rain outside so I am just having a day to get better. This is the 2nd time ive written this blog as the computer froze the first time which was very frustrating as it took me nearly an hour- lets hope it doesn't happen again! We had a traditional Thai massage before we left Bangkok, at first it was lovely, oils rubbed into my back and shoulders and all different techniques but then it got a bit more rough and he had me in all sorts of painful positions, my joints and bones were clicking and creaking but it does you good and relieves fatigue and improves circulation. At one point he got me under the arms and into a crab position over his knees and rocked me to stretch my spine, I felt rather uncomfortable and too heavy for him as he was a diddy Thai guy. I could hear gem giggling at the other side of the curtain when she was having hers done as she was just too ticklish! Two other random things which I thought id mention are that I saw fried chicken feet for sale at the food stalls in Bangkok and dried blocks of chicken blood at the market whilst shopping for the cookery course- I felt faint! Also our waitress on the first day was a lady boy! Ha-ha.

Our hotel in krabi is so nice, we have a double bed each in a massive room and the staff can't do enough for us. Been bitten a lot today though cos of the rain. Gonna try put my photos on now but I bet it doesn't work! Going to Malaysia tomorrow it will take 8 and a half hours on the mini bus and we either get a ferry across the boarder or go over a bridge- I hope it's the ferry, im such a water baby! Hope your all well missing you, cant believe its only been 2 weeks!! xxx