We woke up and decided to move on from Khao Lak and go to Phuket, again on a bit of a whim. We got up quite early to get the bus to avoid arriving in the mid day heat, we went outside Yupadee Fish Hotel and waited. No sooner had we taken our bag from our shoulder and I said 'what's that coming over the hill? Is it a monster?' it wasn't it was the bus, we were over the moon it had arrived so quickly as a touch of sunburn on both our shoulders was now hurting and the sun was gearing up for another hot day. We got on and were going great guns, we paid the man the 180 Baht and settled down. We then got to Phuket Town at about 11:30 and it was warm. We had to then get a Songuei (a bus/pick up truck with two benches down each side of the open back), we got in and people hopped on and off about every 200 yards and paid the fare of 20 Baht. We were going to it's furthest stop Kamala (Chris Kamara as I kept calling it), we then got flagged down by some locals who were just outside the local market, they all piled in and one family had an outrageous amount of food, I am talking sacks of rice, sacks of seed, huge bags of dried chilli's, duvets, fish (great big ones wrapped in bags), sweeping brushes and basically any other item you could imagine. It took about ten minutes to get them all in and one of the bags of seeds split as they put it on the roof and went everywhere including in Sarah's pants!!! This of course was funny. I counted as we struggled to get moving - there were 29 people and all this shopping (there were other families with shopping too) and the van was the size of a transit van, it was unbelievable (Geoff) you wouldn't believe it. There were six people at one point just holding on the back. Anyway hot and bothered we arrived two hours later (it was a fourteen km journey!) at Kamala beach. First job was to find accommodation, we darted in and out of all the places that said room to rent and they were all about 1200 Baht, that is literally four times what we have been paying. We finally found one for 900 Baht and it was surprisingly nice, still no idea what it was called but the room was big and it had a tele, air conditioning, a little kitchen bit and a hot shower. We settled down even though it was more than we had been paying, we showered and went to have a look round. The beach was the best and worst we had seen on this trip as it was white sand with clear water stretching around the bay and out for about 100 yards but then the sand was like Benidorm packed and I mean packed with sun loungers and umbrella's. We took an instant dislike to the place because of this but Phuket is the most popular destination in Thailand so I don't know what we should have expected. We walked up the beach and then back through town and the shops were similar to the other islands. There were blokes shouting 'taxi' and 'Tuk-Tuk' and flogging us suits. We headed back to the room a bit annoyed that the most expensive place we have found was the worst, anyway I summed it up walking back and realised that everyone else was at work and we were moaning that this tropical beach was slightly crowded, smile cemented back on our chubby chops we went back to the room. There were two more things on my agenda for today 1) get the Sarah a Valentines Day Present 2) watch the all important televised Forest Vs QPR top of the table clash. I said I am nipping out a minute, this was odd as for the previous 44 days we had only spent a maximum poo time apart and Sarah's in and out like a flash anyway. I set off, I knew what I wanted and had given it serious thought taking mental notes as we were in previous shops when she was 'oooooh I like that' and the one thing I thought would be a guaranteed smiley Sarah was a Sky Lantern ( a big paper balloon, they look like those cheap Ikea light shades, you set fire to a thing and it flies into the sky and everyone can see it) in Khao Lak they were everywhere and Sarah kept seeing them in shops and in the sky saying 'oooooh there so romantic, we must do one before we go home', I went up and down that high street and could I find a bloody Sky Lantern... NO! I was giving up hope when I saw an item of clothing Sarah would of liked (I knew she would have liked it because she had the same dress from New Look that went down to her ankles, I believe it's called a 'maxi dress' in the trade, she wore this dress to the beach and always had to hold it up to her thighs so it didn't get wet and this was the same but shorter). Anyway I had been gone for an hour and a half so thought I would barter away and get this dress, 'how much is this please? Not for me! For my mrs' (I didn't want him thinking I was a wooly woofter English lady boy), he typed in his calculator 350 Baht, I respectfully told him this was far to pricey, he said 'how much you give me?' I said '200 Baht' he said 'no 250 Baht last offer'. I walked out, then I realised the only thing I could get for Sarah for Valentines Day I had just turned down for the sake of a quid. What was it to do, I remembered that earlier on I had seen a stall selling fire works for people to let off on the beach and on the previous island those same people had Sky Lanterns, I found them they were still there, 'do you have any sky lanterns?' I could tell by the blank expressions they didn't have the foggiest what I was rockering on about, then the arms came out and I was making the shape of the lantern and fire with my fingers and floating around, all the time explaining my actions, I was about to walk off when one of them said 'balloon?' 'you will do for me kid' she went out the back and pulled out a whole assortment of 'balloons' I bought a red one and manage to blag a free lighter from her as well. I was a happy bunny I just had to wrap the bloody thing now and as it was the size of a bin lid and I couldn't find any paper this was no easy task, I was walking to Seven Eleven to get some bin bags when I caught the paper balloon on the exhaust on a moped - my heart skipped a beat. It's o.k! I muttered to myself, thank god it didn't rip. Bin bags were bought (20 of them!) now Sellotape was needed, our reception had some. I wrapped the lantern and attached a chocolate in the shape of a rose to the front. It was perfect even though Sarah had sent out a search party. We treated ourselves to a pot-noodle!!! And ate it in the room. I then alone set off for the Forest match as Sarah was feeling a bit under weather, the bar was only around the corner. I set off, I thought this bar would have the Forest game on because it had the Everton Vs Bolton which was on the same channel straight after. I got there and ordered a beer, I asked about the football and they checked every channel for me and it wasn't on, I was sad, the tears rolled down my cheeks. Just kidding, I was pretty miffed though. Oh well I started to drink my beer. I noticed that there was a dart board in the corner so I headed over to chuck a few, they were like throwing banana's at the board but it was fun. I paid and went back to the room. On the way back I passed three other bars and got accosted by the women outside the bars 'hellloooo welllcccooommmee' in whiny Thai voices, I then got to the last bar and one of the girls moved with her back to me and blocked the path, no problem I moved on to the road, she then stepped (still with her back to me) in the road, I tried to walk around and she blocked me, her mates at the table were in stitches. I smiled and laughed a little at her efforts she then grabbed my arm I screamed 'rape!' and ran, o.k the last bit didn't happen. I managed to keep walking as she pulled me back. I got back to the room and knocked at the door, I had told Sarah to make sure it was me by speaking to me before opening the door, I heard nothing, I knocked again, oh god she's gone to sleep. Turns out I couldn't hear her trough the door and she was saying 'Rick is that you' in the end I said 'Sarah it's me' and hey presto the door opened. After waiting around online for the Forest result to roll in we went to sleep.