Last day in Bangkok - Waking up hot and sweaty in November is just wierd! We headed straight for a breckie next door and managed to book the next leg of our adventure at the same time...the coach would be leaving at 17:30 that evening...the island of Koh Phi Phi our destination!!! Just a shame we wouldn't be arriving until 11am the next day Yes, that's right...an 18 hour coach and boat journey south, loverly!

After breckie (a Thai take on the fry up - close yet so so far off!) we put our weight in storage and headed round the corner to Koh San road, ready to barter for our lives! 2 bracelets, 3 t-shirts and a small bag later (all reduced especially for us - they really know how to make a customer feel special) we were done! All that hagglin was hard work, so we had a little sit down at our fave bar for some food, drink and people watching.

5 O'clock rolled around quickly meaning it was time to move on. We were told to meet at the bar near where we were staying, so we grabbed our bags, packed the straps away and were ready to board the bus. When a small Thai chap came in shouting Phi Phi, we pointed him to the toilet....actually we didn't, we followed him, Tom carrying both rucksacks as we though the bus was close...oh how wrong we were. Very heavy bags with no straps in hot humid weather = tres sweaty!! To help Tom out I took my bag and struggled, but not for long....luckily a Fabien Barthez lookalikey (and he was French) offered to carry my bag as he was on the same coach, what a star!!

Our coach was ready and waiting, although it was sometime before we actually boarded. The whole time we were waiting the doors to the coach were open - when we finally got on it looked OK and we thought perhaps the VIP status we were informed about might just be, however as we sat down and looked around, to my horror I (sam) could see lots (100 or so) of MOSQUITO'S!!! I had hardly seen any until now; in fact having just 1 in the taxi we got from Lebua hotel to Koh San a few days ago caused a mighty cufuffle (no thanks to Tom or the driver who just laughed at me!) So you can imagine how I was feeling sat on the coach knowing I would be stuck there for hours! Needless to say out came the Jungle strength repellant and on went trousers and jumper with hood up! I had covered every inch possible in order to protect myself from being eaten alive - it worked and Air Con meant I didn't die from overheating! On a more positive note, shortly into our journey we burst into hysterics when we saw a tiny little lad pushing a Tuk Tuk down the road (fat mum and dad sat on board)!!! I think it had broken down and seeing the little boy trying with all his might nearly brought a tear; he must have been no older than 4 at the most!!!

After just 3 hours or travelling, the coach made its first stop of many (stopping every 2hrs, even if nobody got off). We all got off for the loo...what an experience indeed...a hole in the ground with concrete around, a bit you are supposed to stand on (I think) and no flush, just a pale of water beside. After that experience we chose not to use anymore loo stops! We were told to get food but after seeing what was on offer, with no translation, we decided to use the shop for cheese biscuits, oreos and crisps - this selection accounted for dinner and breakfast the next day! By 6am the coach had reached its destination (we though from here we'd be getting on the boat, however we were only at Surat Thani, on the East Coast of Thailand and still needed to get over to the West side). We had to wait 30 mins for another bus, which when it arrived wasn't big enough for all of us and a girl had to sit almost on our laps, 1 guy got left behind! This tiny van/bus took us down the road where we then had to wait for yet another bus. Bizzarly, in this remote town and tiny shop thing there was a massive flat screen TV showing the Transformers film - it was in English and also subtitled but very badly, pretty much telling a different story! We were entertained until a coach arrived for us, not long after setting off it stopped in what seemed like the middle of nowhere, next to another coach which we had to move to. Thankfully this was the last coach of the journey! This coach took us through rural Thailand, where we saw some amazing sights; shabby shanti towns, homes, school children having some kind of outdoor assembly, trees, trees, trees, mountans, mountains with trees on!! The views were quite amazing!!!

Somehow we made it to Krabi dock with 10 mins to spare, boarded the boat and after just over 1 hr, arrived at Koh Phi Phi island...wahoo! We made it! he sight of the twin islands made the 18 hrs of bum numbing travel totally worthwhile!