Hey everyone!

Just sitting in an internet caffe in Bangkok waiting for the bus to Chang Mai, so thought we'd fill you in on what we've been up to! So after a 14 hour travel day from KL involving a 5:00am start, a taxi, a bus, another bus, a plane, another bus, a torrential rain storm and a ferry, we arrived on the beautiful island of Koh Tao- our first stop in Thailand :) After a good nights sleep and a day's recovery on the beach (where we both got horrifically sunburnt :S) we started our 4 day dive course and are both now certified PADI open water divers! We had such an amazing time, our dive group were lovely and we had a really good laugh trying to get to grips with all the scuba equipment. The first couple of days were spent learning the theory and practicing with the equipment in the pool, and then on day 3 we had a theory exam (eek!) which we both passed and then we hit the ocean! There were loads of amazing fish (we found nemo!) and on our penultimate dive we were attacked by a trigger fish! Not big enough to hurst us but still quite a scary experience. However our last dive was the best: whilst underwater our instructor started waving madly and us and got us to follow her as she suddenly swam off. Confused, we all rushed to follow her just in time to see a giant whale shark swim past right infront of us!!! So amazing! When we came up everyone was so excited and one dive instructor said she'd done over 300 dives and that was the first whale shark she'd ever seen- we were very lucky :)

The next day we left Koh Tao and headed for Koh Samui where we were staying in a nomads hostel which we'd pre-booked through STA. We'd heard that nomads hostels were everywhere and very popular with backpackers, so you can imagine our shock when we arrived at a 5 star resort with 2 swimming pools and a gym!?! Definitely not the 'roughing it' experience we were expecting! However while this seemed great at first the hotel was basically empty apart from us, and it felt like a bit of a ghost town. It seems Koh Samui is more a resot destination for families and couples, but we still kept ourselves entertained by getting our first thai massage, exploring the beach and hiring a jet ski! We'd hired the lowest powered one as it was cheaper, not realising that it still shot of at 70 mph! So funny and we both went flying off into the sea at one point (Anna fell off twice due to Carlyn's crazy driving!). On the 25th we got the ferry over to Koh Phangan for the full moon party which was so much fun! We got ourselved painted in neon paint as soon as we arrived and then bought drinks (sold in buckets :p) and danced around on the beach. We met some great people and had a really good laugh (despite a momentary drama where Carlyn cut her foot on broken glass and we had to get her over to a clinic to get it cleaned and bandaged up! Although it didn't need stitches and she's ok now). When the sun came up the next morning we went and got the 7am ferry back to koh samui, absolutely shattered but such a great night!

Next we flew to Bangkok where we headed straight for the Khao San Road and found ourselves the cheapest hostel we could- although at 3 pounds a night we got what we paid for! It was down a little backstreet with a broken staircase, rock hard bed, broken windows, no AC and so much noise it was like trying to sleep in a sauna/night club. The next day, despite not much sleep, we headed off to explore the Grand Palace which was beautiful and a temple called Watt Pho which had a giant statue of a reclining Buddah, and while we were there there was a Thai Health festival going on where there were lots of stalls with herbal medicines, free thai massages and free food! Then we headed off to catch the end of the weekend market at Chatuchak and then went back to sleep in a different hotel this time! Bangkok's been great, the colours atmosphere are incredible and the cheap street food is second to none!

Very excited for Chang Mai!

Lots of Love,

Anna and Carlyn xxx