Hello again!

Thanks for all your messages on the message board - keep them coming! - and for words of encouragement!

Although we're actually in Ao Nang at the moment, I'm just going to go back a few days to Bangkok seeing as I havent had much of a chance to get to the internet to do anymore posts.

By the time we left Bangkok I had really warmed to it and felt like a local. I even knew the sky train routes off by heart practically. For those not familiar with the sky train (sorry I go on about it but it really is wicked!), I'll explain to you why I took such an interest and why it's easy for an english person to remember! Here are a few examples of the stops and oh what a giggle we had each time we heard them announced! - On Nut, Thong Lo, Chit Lom (pronounced s*** Lom), Mo Chit (Mo s***) and my personal favourite Phloen Chit (Full On s***). How fantastic??!! I'd move there just to hear them announced by a sweet Thai every day!

We didnt get a chance to do everything we wanted to do in Bangkok before we left for Ao Nang, so we are going back a few days earlier than anticipated to do more. Hopefully we're going to go to Khao Yai National Park to see elephants (although randomly we did see 2 walking down the road in the middle of Bangkok City!) leopards, tigers etc and stay in a hopefully cute little lodge overnight and go off in safari type vehicles looking for wildlife and taking in the sites. I also want to go to Ocean World which is underneath a shopping centre in the city which looks good fun and you can even walk with sharks, and we want to go to apparently the most plushest of cinemas ever which costs about 2 quid. After that, its a 9 hour overnight flight to Sydney on January 30th.

Back to Ao Nang. After an hour flight to Krabi with Thai Airways, who served a lush cake thing and tea on the way, we arrived at the airport and was met by the brother of the owner of our next 'hotel' who led us to his vehicle. Well, you should have seen our faces!! I'm sure most of you are imagining a tuk tuk, or some sort of bamboo made, donkey drawn contrapment (well that's what I anticipated!) but no, we were met by a white Toyota, pimped out beyond belief. This thing had a base in the boot, LED lights everywhere, bucket racing seats, the lot! We get in the back after many giggles with the driver about his 'ride' to find the seat belts had been removed, possibly for 'coolness' and a gap between the back seats and the boot all lit up! We asked how long the journey would be to which he replied "20 minutes. 40 during the day but 20 at night" (it was 9 o'clock at night). What he really meant was 40 minutes for normal people, 20 minutes when you drive like Lewis Hamilton! The funniest part was the fact that after all this he turns the stereo on and out blasts Westlife, Ronan Keating and Richard Marx!!!

Anyway, so we arrive at our next new abode, Lakeside Bungalows, after seeing gorgeous pictures and paying over the odds because that was the cheapest rate going according to our friendly tourist office helper (who obviously got a nice backhander) thinking it was going to be lush! We were led by the lovely owner down a dark bricked path to our 'bungalow' for 2 nights and actually it wasnt too bad. At least this place didnt have the shower in a glass wet room like the last one! It had a double bed and a single bed for our bags and a seperate 'bathroom' with a loo, a basin and a shower head just about clinging to the wall. Now remember, I'm completely new to all this so some of it is still coming as a bit of a shock, but I'm actually quickly learning to love it!

Oh yeah, forgot to mention on our way into the bungalow I nearly had a heart attack because I saw possibly the biggest, most disgusting spider imaginable in the middle of a web, I'm not kidding, the size of a living room rug, attached to what I thought was going to be our bungalow. Thank god it wasnt, but I did have to walk past it every time we went into and out of our bungalow. The last time I saw it it was munching away on a bug half it's size!! Anyway, I digress.

The first night we took a walk down to the main road in Ao Nang, wasnt that enamoured as it reminded me of a mini Ibiza or such, and I couldnt really see the appeal. We had dinner and a stroll and headed to bed. The next night was kinda cool as Lakeside Bungalows was just next to quite a big Kick Boxing arena which has events every Friday and Monday night. Kav used to lots of kick boxing so this was a must for us on Friday night and it turned out to be amazing. We saw 2 fights with 7-10 year old kids and then some brutal 'men' fights, with the last 2 ending in KO (that's Knock Out for those not used to the lingo!). We'll upload photos soon hopefully and you can see the arena. It kinda reminded me of a rodeo arena, very rural and old school, and obviously a must hang out for locals as all the tourists were completely out numbered. Also a lot of gambling going on which was amazing to watch.

Yesterday we moved accomodation to a nicer but cheaper hotel and much closer to the main town, and it has a pool so today and yesterday have been spent horizontal on a sun lounger with the occasional dip in the pool to cool off. Last night we had dinner at Hippies, just down the road with an awesome fire show where the 'waiters' dance around with sticks and dangling pots (the only way to describe them) are on fire. Pretty amazing actually, until the woman next to us got burnt and then I got nervous!

Tomorrow we're getting a long boat to see a few islands and also heading to see Koh Lanta and Koh Phi Phi over the next few days. Note: Have already learnt a few Thai works including Koh which means Island.

Must go now as my hands are starting to seize up as I'm out of practise in typing for so long!!

Love to all of you and I'll write in a few days when we're done lots more!!

Me xxxxx

PS - I'm also loving this travelling malarky because I've lost weight already!!