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I know, its not good enough. I've let myself down, I've let Gem down but most of all I've let all you loyal readers down. I should have posted a journal ages ago but due to a combination of extortionate Internet prices and sheer laziness on my behalf I haven't so.....sorry.
Thailand is fairly difficult to describe. We spent our first few days in Bangkok which is the weirdest city we've ever seen, its complete chaos. Its filthy, its smoggy, there are beggars everywhere but the shopping is great so Gem loved it. I was more than happy to leave after a few days but not before we'd been to see the Grand Palace and some of Bangkoks many Buddha statues, they were alright.. if your into that type of thing.
Having left (escaped) Bangkok we took an overnight train down to Surat Thani which is the gateway to Thailands Eastern Islands. From there we island hopped first to Koh Samui - which is a bit like Benidorm but cheaper. Then we went to Koh Phan Ngan which is famous for hosting the full moon party. But being the cultured people that we are we opted for a quieter part of the island and it was beautiful, I think Gem filled our cameras memory card twice over with pictures of the sunset so I apologise in advance if you are forced to sit and look at them. From there we went up to Koh Tao which is a little island that is famous for being a diving resort. So 'when in Rome....' we decided to bite the bullet and do our scuba diving qualification. It was BRILLIANT. Our course leader, Claus, was and is the only German we have met to date to have a sense of humour and it goes without saying that he ran the course with ruthless efficiency. The dive sites were fantastic, the coral was beautiful and we saw millions of funny looking fish. We even saw pilot whales on the way back from one of the dives. Still haven't seen sharks though which is a bit of a disappointment. So we're now both qualified scuba divers which should come in handy in the crytsal clear waters of the River Mersey.
We left Koh Tao on an overnight ferry which was in fact just a boat that had one enormous mattress on one of its decks. So we spent the night huddled like refugees whilst sharing our bed with approximately 50 other people, very cosy. We then spent a fairly hot and sweaty day crossing to the other side of Thailand to get to where we are now, Koh Lanta which is one of the countries Western Islands. From here we might go to Koh Phi Phi which is the island where "The Beach' was filmed and then it will be pretty much time to pack our bags and fly home. Doesn't time fly when your having fun.
Hope everyones well and we'll see you all very soon xxxxxxxxx
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