Ok, so this is our last entry written on the last day of our trip. I’m sure we should have added more entries from Thailand though the beach life has been far to hectic for that! This might be a bit rushed as my bahts are running out fast!

From Ko Lanta we headed to Ko Phi Phi - one of the more well known Thai Islands. We weren’t expecting to like it so much as it has quite a reputation for being over developed and expensive though were actually quite pleasantly surprised. Found ourselves a nice hostel for a good price and quickly settled into a routine of snorkeling and eating, spending the evenings watching local kids fire dancing on the beach . Went on a snorkel trip that included a stop at the beach used for the film “The Beach” which was all very nice.

From Ko Phi Phi we headed to a place called Rai leh on the mainland - well it was technically the mainland though only accessible by boat. This again was a spectacular beach with various bits of mangrove and massive limestone rock formation. Here the routine was more just beach bumming than snorkeling as the water wasn’t so good for that. The highlight for Naomi was a cave full of willies - apparently this is some lucky charm thing for the local fisherman - I personally couldn’t see what was so funny!

From Rai leh we booked a long tail-minvan-overnight cargo ship ticket to Ko Tao. The overnight cargo ship part was particularly fun as we (tried) to sleep on mattresses on the open deck. We got ourselves a nice bungalow by the beach to start with and again got into the routine of beach bumming/snorkeling/eating. The snorkeling here was almost as good as Ko Lipe as the coral was in pretty good condition - also had the added excitement of seeing reef sharks. From the beach bungalow we were going to head to Ko Samui though changed our minds as that would have meant going back on ourselves. Instead we treated ourselves to a night in a well posh hotel with pool, stunning view sky tv etc - didn’t feel to bad about this as still less than what I have spent on a travel lodge in Reading before. We then spent a couple of days on a more secluded bay which had really good snorkeling.

From Ko Tao we headed to our last stop here Bangkok. We were a bit apprehensive about this because of the political coup that was going on though actually its fine here. They are currently on a national holiday called Songkran - the Thai new year. Basically this seems to involve the whole city taking part in one massive water fight. Some places there are literally thousands of people gathered in one big water fight - apparently it has led 69 deaths so far! Impossible to walk the streets without getting soaked. Have nonetheless been able to see all the Wats and various sights. Anyway that’s about it, got to go get something to eat then sort out getting to the airport.

Thanks for reading our blog and see you all soon!!!!!