After a lovely few days in Ao Nang it was time to do some island hopping, so onto Koh Lanta we went! We were taken along the stunning Andaman Sea coastline to Ao Nang port (? may not be the correct term) to catch our boat over to Koh Lanta. The scenery along the way is absolutely stunning, beautiful islands scattered everywhere, the area has around 130 in total, according to the book, and stunning limestone cliffs. After a lovely, hot, journey we arrived in Koh Lanta and were pleased to see that the guy in the travel agents hadn't been fibbing when he said there would be loads of people waiting to offer accommodation! We arrived at our lovely bungalow complex 'Lanta New Beach' within half an hour of arriving, great!

Our accommodation for the next 4 days was lovely little semi detached bungalows. The complex itself had a lovely pool and an okay restaurant with sea views, cant ask an awful lot more for less than 5 pounds a night. Our time on Koh Lanta were not overly eventful as it appeared that you need a moped to get to most places and as I have been forbidden to ride such things we mainly stayed on the resort, which was lovely. As everything that was advertised on Lanta was to do with trips to Phi Phi we decided to leave Koh Lanta a few days before meeting the boys in Ao Nang and head towards Koh Phi Phi.

Had a slightly stressful moment trying to get to the boat on the morning of our departure due to the driver from the hotel having to wait around for a guy who worked on New Beach resort to arrive for his lift, with his little bird in an ornate birdcage to arrive, only in Thailand!! The journey over was pretty quick, a little over an hour and again we were pleased to be helped with accommodation on arrival. As Koh Phi Phi is more expensive than anywhere else, for everything from a bottle of water (triple) to accommodation we had just two nights booked there. We stayed in pretty basic but charming bungalows, set on very, very, steep steps. Quite amusing in a denim skirt! We were very glad of the guy from the hotel that came to pick us up at the pier and wheel our bags in a trolley up to the accommodation, the island is so tiny, and the roads so small in the main area that the only transportation is on foot, or push bike. The hotel, although set on a hill, is in perfect distance to loads of shops, restaurants and bars which suited us perfectly!

We decided to book in a trip around the island for the second day which left hours and hours of glorious sunbathing time that day. We made it don to the beach, which again had the stunning limestone cliffs almost surrounding the beach out into the Andaman Sea. Plenty of photo opportunities here! The only problematic thing was the almost overwhelming smell of petrol from the long tails, if you would imagine it wasn't present the beach would be paradise! The following day we set off on our boat trip around the island. We had booked on a longtail boat trip, our first, very exciting! The boats are really rather amusing to try to get in and out of, if anyone can pull of a graceful exit and entrance to a long tail I would be amazed! There were 12 people on our boat and we got chatting to them straight away, they were all really friendly! We head off along to our first stop, 'Bamboo Island' very pretty with gorgeous sand and views of the perfect sea and islands surrounding it. I had chosen to sit in a prime tanning seat at the front, big mistake, water flying at me from every angle and hair everywhere, looked like I had been put through a spin dryer, I exclaimed that I had chosen 'the worst seat on the whole boat'- Joey also felt the same way, she was rerally drenched too ;)

We then powered on, at a rather slow pace, not sure what engines these things have but I am thinking lawnmower, to a few more bays, lagoons and snorkel points to see some lovely or 'disgusting' fish, depending on if you are Joey or Soozie ;) before heading to Maya Bay, the beach from 'The Beach' film. It looks nothing like the beach from the film, seeing as they altered it so much for the film with extra sand and waterfalls etc but was lovely. The sand is so white and we enjoyed watching the boats bob about for an hour or so before taking in more gorgeous scenery before heading back with the sun setting in the background! Such a wonderful day!

Next stop, Ao Nang to see Mike and David!!