concrete paradise!

arrived in phuket a couple of days ago and its a big shock to the system! neon lights, trashy shops and ladyboys.... certainly not what i expected! the past few weeks have flown by...

we renewed our vusas by just going over to Pulau Langkawi in Malaysia. According to the brochure, its the island of mythical legends and duty-free status! Had a really cool little room right on the beach which was lovely. A few too many hotels and stuff on the island but we hired a car, and found some gorgeous beaches, a waterfall and lots of monkeys!

we came back into thailand and headed over randomly to an island called ko bulon. had a bit of a scary moment when we were out at sea and smoke started coming out from below deck the whole length of the boat. think becky and i were about to jump overboard but luckily the crew seemed to be able to handle it all with a chisel and hammer... anyway, it was a bit of a relief to arrive, looked amazing- like a proper desert island, and we had a bit audience as we were getting off the boat! seems like the kind of place where people come and stay for months on end- defintely a few too many freedom trousers there. unfortunately the weather turned a bit crazy, and we spent a lot of the time in the cafe looking at the rain, and playing spendygams, cards, making coral mobiles and endless 'who am i?' such a nice island tho, huge trees fallen down all along the beach and pure white sand.

from there we took another interesting boat journey on a longtail boat to ko lipe. was a bit of a storm which was quite interesting, but the guys who run them are sea-gypsies-chao ley- and live their whole lives on the water... impressively, we seemed to be surfing the waves the whole way!

ko lipe is amazing- the water is crystal clear and there coral just by the shore. we stayed in multi-coloured little huts on the beach, which were wicked. took a fantastic snorkelling trip- the whole day cost us 2 pounds each! saw lovely purple and pink soft corals- like flowers! one beach was so amazing- you just snorkelled along a rope and there was so much variety and fishies! saw tons of little nemos and all sorts... then we were off to another beach, and the guy went off and caught us some fish. then came back, lit a fire, smoked the fish, and we ate it off leaf plates with our fingers- delicious! marc also managed to sit down right beside a deadly stonefish, which was lucky really- 'beside' was defintely better than 'on'... i also did a dive on lipe which was awesome too. its the best place i ve been to for that sort of thing- you can just see so much all around you- think it was about 20m visilibity- its great!!!

then we went to another couple of islands in the same area which are the national national park. ko adang was very quiet, and we had the coolest tent set up ever- well at least to look at. was a little thatched scaffold, with a proper tent strung up inside. unfortunately the bamboo floor was rock solid and very bumpy, it rained all night and it wasn't waterproof at all! it was stilll really cool tho! the other island was ko turatao, which was very different and beautiful. all craggy rocks and wide open beach. we camped there too. this time in normal dome tents but right on the beach, with great trees for our hammocks! we did a couple of masssive walks there which nearly killed me. this time i escaped from leeches, but becky and marc both got one...only chris has missed out so far!

on one walk, we'd come 12 k along a road to the other side of the island, then walked around an old prison for an hour or so, and by the time we were setting off home it was 4pm. was a terrible prospect- i had blisters, we were all knackered and the road was so hilly....we d got about 4 k along and it was starting to go dark, and suddenly a little bus came and stopped for us. joy! we jumped in and it was full of thai thai teachers who were all so excited by us. they made us sit in between them and asked us loads of questions, and were taking photographs of us! hilarious. then they were telling us to come with them to their home the next day. crazy, but such lovely people. felt like a celebrity! and we got back before dark! such a relief and very funny...

from the quiet and calm beaches of the south, we arrived in phuket- concrete monstrosity. the tsunami hit here really badly, i think, and thousands killed. theres not trace of any of that tho, and the beach is bumper to bumper deck-chairs the whole way along. its like the costa del sol times 20! defintely a major shock to the system, but quite funny really. the others are doing a dive course starting today and i am amusing myself... so i ll go now. hope everyone is well...sawadee ka till next time
xxxx