So backtracking a few days - I spent Thurs evening, friday, and Sat in Bangkok! Did lots of sightseeing - and drinking! lol. Met a few people on Friday - some of them Thai - who spoke really good english - tought me a bit - v. hard to spell so won't bother! Got shown around a lot of Bangkok - such an amazing place!

On Saturday evening we had our welcome meeting to the Intrepid Malaya Basix Trip. Everyone is really cool on it. Think will be making a couple of good friends from it. There is a guy from OZ, a guy from NZ, and everyone else English - all of us a diverse mix of people, and we (so far) get on really well. Our group leader is also fab and from Oz and knows loads of the cast from Neighbours! - V. long story she is best friends with Karl Kennedy (Alan Fletcher) and Libby (Kim Valentine)! Will tell you more another time.

Yeah, so we left Bangkok on Sunday evening and got an overnight train to Surat Thani (12 hours) - an amazing experience in itself, you realise on this train the gap between the rich and the poor. We had overnight beds which were made from the seats, and a bed on the top rolls down, local Thai people were sleeping in really bad carriages - which were packed further down the train - 2 year olds sleeping on newspaper on the floor.

On a more positive note - it wasn't long after we got on the train and we were on the bar carriage! We had plenty of Sang Som and coke buckets between us - some of us were a little bit tipsy?!?! or maybe very drunk! Arrived at Surat Thani at 6am - all of us not looking or feeling great - we all keep laughing about it now! After having brekkie (some of us!) we travelled to Kao Sok National Park in Song Taews - (pick up trucks with seats either side) v. cool! Two hours later we arrived at our accommodation which was fab - Arts Riverview Lodge - http://www.paddleasia.com/khao-sok-river-bungalows.htm - this is a random website just so I can show you what it was like - photos to follow soon!

So we stayed there for two nights - right on the v edge of the jungle - massive contrast between the Kao Sok National Park and Bangkok! We went tubing, elephant riding, walking and swimming. Really really good hospitality - defo reccomend it to anyone - brilliant - good cocktails!

We left the jungle today (Wed) and travelled by minibus for two hours to Ao Nang on South East Coast of Thailand! Been here a few hours - and seems really cool! Lots of internet access - so sat with some of the group now emailing....

.... hey, its been 3 days since I tried to finish this email... so it's now Saturday evening and I am determined to finish it this time! We are now in Penang - North Malaysia - just crossed the border today. More on today in a bit!

So we spent 3 days in Ao Nang - really nice place - its right on the East Cost - and was hit by the Tsunami last year - it is amazing how well they have re-built it. After not finishing this email on Wed, some of us went to the beach - very relaxing - and sea the temperature of bath water - we just couldn't cool down.

The most fantastic thing is we were staying in Ao Nang during Songkran - Thai New Year - and was just crazy! As part of the celebrations on New Year's day the streets are full of people throwing water and talc powder at each other. On the Wed evening we went out for dinner, and then headed on to beach street and went to a few bars there - and the water fight had already begun. We had all bought supersoakers - as many locals and tourists had done too, we all had blue head bands - made from a sarong! We attacked people and they attacked us - it was so funny - we all got absolutely soaked. Some of the locals were throughing buckets of water over on to us and other people. We ventured over to a late night bar, where they welcome the new year with fire works and more water fights. Some of the water was made even colder by the bar staff using ice. There were water bombs everywhere too - let's just say we were all pretty soaked on Wed night!

So Thursday morning the fun began again - a whole day for the local Thai people of water, drinking, water, talc powder, water and did I mention water? We spent about 2 hours in the morning attacking everyone as group wearing our home made head bands and constrantly filling our supersoakers! Even the police get soaked - literally everyone is never dry on Songkran day in Thailand.

Before lunch we went to Railey beach on a long-tail boat - and had lunch there. Not much water spraying going on there, so we gave our supersoakers a break. We spent a couple of hours on the beach - really hot - we are all slowly starting to go brown now, as the bright redness fades away. We got long-tail boats back to Ao Nang, and expected the celebrations to have calmed down on the streets - but know it was still going crazy. We'd all had enough - and just defended oursleves walking back to the hotel.

On thursday evening we all decided to eat on the hotel roof top, which Carol the group leader knows about and no one else ever uses it. We had a night off from Thai food and ordered pizza. We had the delights of a spectacular lightening show for a good couple of ours - drank a bottle of Southern Comfort between us that James (Ozzie guy) had bought for us to drink at the start of the trip - and had been carrying it around Thailand for the first week! - We'd just never have time to drink it?!?! (Yeah, I know crazy). It's true though there is just so much stuff to do and not enough time, and I have done so much in 8 days that it is taking me so long to tell you all about it!!!

Friday we all went on a speed boat day tour around the local islands, which included Phi Phi. Did some open water snorkelling, sunbathing, buffet lunch. Saw the remains of the Tsunami devestation on Phi Phi - awful! Friday evening we went for a final Thai dinner! Had a few drinks, and some of us stayed out for a bit too longer!!

Today - this morning - after getting to bed at 3am and up at 6.30am, we hopped on a minibus at 7am for 11 hour drive south to Penang, Malaysia. So we have had a very long travel day today, lots of stops - crossing borders etc. etc. We have just had dinner, and each having a reasonably early night tonight. We haven't seen much of Penang yet, but have many things lined up to see, we leave Penang on Monday morning and head down to Melaka.