Apparently beaches on the West coast of the Island are the nicest, so after hiring mopeds again, we set off in search for our perfect sunbathing spot. The first place we stopped had really nice views, but unfortunately was a private beach for the beach hut residents. As we were walking back to where we parked, I heard a 'hello'- it had come from a bird in a cage! He also said 'Sawatdee Kah' (Hello in Thai) and laughed but didn't say 'hello Alice' like she was p...

I spent the morning being quite productive; researching the various activities we want to do in each country and booking our train from Brisbane to Cairns. Feeling restless, I woke Alice up at 2. We headed out for breakfast with the girls next door to us, but it took about 2 hours for all of our dishes to come! It didn't seem like they were cooking in a very logical way; Marianne and Linn both had pasta but their plates came out a long time between each other,...

Interested in the Dutch boy in our dormitories plan of going on a day tour round the island, featuring an elephant tour, visit to the Chinese temple, and going to a waterfall, we flicked through a couple of leaflets over breakfast. However Scott, the guy who runs the hostel, said he normally recommended doing it ourselves, by hiring mopeds for the day, which also meant we could spend as long or as little time as we wanted at each place. So we bit the bullet and...

You can tell by my rookie error of leaving my pizza in our room that I don't come from a hot country- there were loads of small insects also sharing by the morning! After breakfast, we went to the local beach, although the tide was so far up, there wasn't much shore to sit on. It was fairly empty and so felt almost like it was our own personal beach! Along the way, we had a look at some beach huts, although they weren't as nice as the ones the restaurant...

I was very angry when the Dutch (?) boys staying in our dorm were so rude as to come back from their night out, making absolutely no effort to be quiet, and even talking to each other in foghorn voices, and I didn't manage to get back to sleep after, although maybe partly because I was being sick still. This meant I couldn't go along with Alice, to do my final 2 dives which would qualify me as a PADI Open water diver. I was still determined to take the exam tho...