So here I am... Back in Bangkok agaaaiiiiin! - Kinda worrying with what's going on - the centre of the city going into shutdown! I mean... where I am its almost as if nothing has changed but i keep seeing snippets of TV news showing the violence that's just 20 mins away.

So i've now come to the end of my Thiland Hike Bike and Kayak tour - which has been incredible. When I booked the trip all the time ago i never thought I'd be on a VIP pampered trip. Throughout the trip we literally had Banquets for meals prepared for us by some awesome chefs - curries, noodles... fruits... the works. And now (if i haven't already metioned - the Mangosteen has taken the top spot for my favourite fruit!)

After the Falls in Kachanaburi, we made our way back to Bangkok, straight to the international airport to katch our flight to Krabi - a town and province on the Andaman coast in the south of Thailand. A short 1 hour 15 mins burst in the air gave me the chance to see some of the Thai islands with a birds eye view - it was something - My airplane window became one of those postcards you see of perfect little islands with crescent moon beaches. As we started to descend, we flew over a vast mangrove river system with tiny little tributaries cutting dark snakle-like patterns amoungst the green trees. I remember thinking that they would be perfect for kayaking - about half an hour later, after collecting our bags, I found out that our first day kayaking would be completely focussed on the river system I'd been staring at! There was a mini-van waiting for especially for us when we got out of the airport (everything was done this slickly on this trip) and it took straight to our guesthouse in Ao Nang, Krabi. I remeber the journey really well because I planted myself at the back of the van to stick my head out the window as we went :D It was also the evening and before we'd reached our guesthouse it had gotten dark - helped by an incredibly violent and LOUD thunderstorm which I watched all the way. The change in landscape was incredible too - Either side of the road was lined with huge sheer Karst limestone cliffs topped with dense forest some of which had actually begun to drop down the cliff edges.

The next three days were spent kayaking - although each day of kayaking was only really a half day - 3-5 hours. The mangrove riversystem was fun to paddle through - I saw families of monkeys and was told that often they'll jump onto the kayak - no such luck this time however. We also saw a few baby Monitor Lizards swimming across or sunbathing on the rocks. The rock formations here were also amazing - still karst limestone but this tme also with stalactites and stalacmites that made the cave walls look like they were melting. Even the tree roots could be seen dropping down to the water from inside the rocks where they had tunnelled down from up to 30 metres above!!

After that - we left our big luggage at the guest house, to spend 2 nights camping on a Koh Hong - an island 1 hours boat ride away from Ao Nang which was severely hit in the Tsunami. This would be our base camp for our sea kayaking over 2 days. The island was almost worthy of something out of 'The Beach' (which i'm actually reading at the moment.. and thoroughly enjoying!) despite the fact that most of the coral close to the shoreline hand been killed by the Tsunami. Once we arrived I was hoping I could find a free hammock to spend most of my time in, reading 'The Beach' - but I couldn't find one - instead I found a well shaped tree branch to lay on - however as soon as I'd revealed this perfect spot - as soon as I got up.. it was stolen >:(I have a picture to remind myself of it - :D Sea Kayaking was awesome - and it took me by surprise when I discovered that we were paddling thorugh an army of HUGE jellyfish - bigger if not twice the size of my head - pink and white ones. I was told to be carefull when I swam but that the sting is nothing too serious - well... I found out first hand - ignorantly letting my feel float in the water while I paddled the kayak - my foot went straight into the hrat of one big fat jelly! The sting wasn;t so bad - exactly like wiping your foot in loads of stinging nettles - it was just the feeling of the gloopy jellyness that my foot had sunk into... EUGHH! I had to use sand from the bottom to scatch all the jelly of my foot. Ahh well - life ex[erience - ots definately one of those things that has to be done at some stage - i mean what sort of man are you if you havent been stung by a jellyfish thats bigger than your HEAD! :D

As ever/.. the food was AWESOME! - but the nights sleep did not match up - We did get a fork lightning thunderstorm out to sea to watch as we has a beach fire - but that brought the rain - and in turn that brought the mozzies - I didnt count but I must have had about 25 bites on my back after that night - without any sleep beuse the guy next to me would stop snoring and rolling over onto me in his sleep - eventually i got angry and back handed his arm away and rolled him into the other side of the tent - I was tired of having 2 feet of space while there was 5 on the other side! I got out fo the tent at 6 am because I couldnt stand my bites anymore... went into the sea for about 45 mins which helped to numb them. Beno was in a bad mood that day......... :P

Ahh well... we got back... visited Rai Leh beach which is climbers heaven! explored and acrambled around and then cought a train back to Bangkok - on which I was woken by mum!! :D haha! no worries - i slept well on the train - as ever actually.

But now - after saying goodbye to people.. i have 4 more days to myself in Bangkok before I fly to Hanoi to see Kate on the very early morning of the 20th. I now only have 1 of the T-shirts I started out with - having stained the other ones and accumulaed new ones. I also got rid of my army shorts yesterday to a guy that seemed only to posses 1 pair of ripped shorts and a lighter - with nothing to light... The ONeil T-shirt went to someone else - I like that one - but it had one too many iodine stains :P cool to think that people round the world are wearing my clothes tho haha!

Over and out.... xXx