Monday 3rd December

It was all entertainment today! Our transfer arrived on time at our guesthouse & we were last on the bus meaning no 2 seats together. It wasn't long before we were at the travel agents office & changing buses so at least for the majority of the journey we got to sit together, even if it was hotter than the sun & more confined than a battery hen.

We arrived on Koh Lanta, 2 minibuses, 2 ferries & around 4 hours later. The driver took everyone to their individual hotels as he asked us where we were staying when we boarded & again when we arrived on the island. Unsurprisingly to us we were the last drop. Once the bus was empty the driver said to us 'You get taxi - it's 10km back way we came.' So I said, in a roundabout way 'on your bike son'. He wasn't happy but turned the van around & stopped at a cafe 30 seconds later & tried ushering us to a tuk tuk that he claimed was free. I asked the lady in the cafe & she said that we must pay. So I grabbed my bag out of the drivers hand, threw it back on the bus, sat back in my chair & told him in no uncertain terms to take us to our f#cking hotel right now. We argued back & forth but he could see that I wasn't going to move, plus he was about 5'5" & half my build.

He eventually drove us to our hotel, we may as well have flown because we were travelling fast enough, overtaking lorries on blind bends, beeping at everything, swerving in & out of traffic, undertaking & anything else he thought would scare us. It did Carly I think, but everytime he looked round I just grinned back! When we got to our guesthouse, it was about a 30 second walk from where the ferry dropped us an hour before so I told him he's a f#cking idiot & other things & he refused to give me his name so I couldn't leave feedback with his company.

The island itself, is fantastic from first impression. It's peaceful, laid back, the weather is amazing, our guesthouse & the hosts, King & Chumpoo are equally brilliant & we immediately booked in for an additional 5 nights on top of the 5 already booked. We took a walk to the closest beach on the evening & grabbed a bite to eat at a waterfront restaurant, which was a perfect end to a stressful day!

Tuesday 4th December

We decided to hire a moped for the day so that we could do some exploring. King, the guesthouse owner, explained all the places that we should check out while we're here & how best to reach them. It's basically 2 roads on the island that run for 25km from North to South.

We drove to a quiet little beach near to us & sat here for a half hour or so before moving on. Each beach that we checked out was equally as quiet, strange for a large island but we prefer it that way.

We continued on the same road until we came to the 'Viewpoint' restaurant, where we downed an ice coffee & took in the incredible view back towards the Thai mainland.

From here we headed back to the coastal road & found a gorgeous beach with more resorts than tourists on it. For high season, it's almost eerily quiet. Like I said before though, we prefer the quiet life. We arsed about in the sea, battling against the waves, sunbathed until we could smell our skin cooking, then grabbed a much needed beverage & lunch at a beach bungalow resort on the next beach along.

After lunch we continued riding South, to the National Park entrance at the most southerly point. We spotted elephants & monkeys along the way & almost crashed because Carly made me cry with laughter whilst riding. It went something like this from memory:

We passed a few battered old shacks right on the beach & assumed they were destroyed by the tsunami in 2004. Even though I was driving I was still looking at the ruins, imagining what it must have looked when the water rushed in, Carly had averted her eyes back on the road, as maybe I should. Suddenly she spots a cluster of potholes on the bend ahead & screams 'Pot Noodles, Pot Noodles!' which caused us to start crying our eyes out. How she got confused between the 2 is beyond both of us & it's not like it's easier to say.

We took a leisurely drive back in the afternoon because my arms were burnt to a crisp & did a bit of a drive by at the beaches we hadn't stopped at in the morning just to see if they were worth re-visiting.

On the evening we watched the sunset at the beach, had a cheap but very tasty dinner & beer before getting an early night.

Wednesday 5th December

Suzanne & Brett arrive this afternoon so we agreed to just take it easy, top up our tans at the local beach & then meet them at the pier when we see the boat come in.

Sitting in the shade doesn't make you immune to UV for some reason, we were burnt badly by the time we got bored of reading our books & watching the crabs dig out their new homes on the beach. My back was red but Carlys face wins the prize for reddest thing of all time. It wouldn't have looked too bad, had she not have worn sunglasses all morning! S & B arrived in the afternoon & we took them for a walk around the surrounding streets, had some dinner, a few beers, a couple games of scrabble & then bed time because we were all shattered.

Thursday 6th December

We hired a moped per couple today & took off on the same road that we travelled 2 days earlier, to show S & B the sites. It was an almost identical day, only with company & we also stopped at a gorgeous cliff top bar for sunset, which was amazing. I have a few pics on Facebook already if you're interested.

We managed to avoid all the pot noodles today & returned the bikes safe & sound. A guy in our guesthouse wasn't so lucky though, he crashed his bike, directly outside the shop, hitting another bike in the process, costing him £140 & he had to surrender the bike that he'd already paid to have for the day. He was a bit embarrassed but luckily it was only his ego that was injured.

Friday 7th December

S & B kept their bike today to do some more exploring as they aren't staying for as long. Carly & I had a chill out day, read our kindles, updated the blogs & generally recovered from our sore throats that the fan in our room has given us.

Saturday 8th December

We had a 4 island snorkelling trip booked for today & our transfer arrived on time & the longboat left the pier on time, Thailand is probably the best time keeping nation we've been to so far!

The boat had about 15 tourists on board, German, Finnish, Danish, Swedish, Welsh, Chilean & us. Nobody really mixed but everyone was friendly enough. We cruised for about 90 minutes before our first snorkel stop & it was great. Directly under the bat-infested cliff of the first island, we saw thousands of fish, so much variety & pretty good visibility. The only downer was that I broke my snorkel clasp as soon as I got in!

We had about 30 minutes before we headed off to the next spot, just around the otherside of the island. Here it was deeper & clearer with even more species of fish. The captain from a neighbouring boat was feeding fish directly above our head so we were surrounded by thousands of fish, so cool.

Our 3rd stop was to visit 'Emerald Cave', pretty much the reason we booked the tour. We arrive at this island, it has a cave running through the sea with about 3 feet of headroom to swim through. At first it seemed straight-forward enough but we didn't realise it was over 50m long. By the time we were 20m in it was pitch black, couldn't even see your own nose. We both managed to clobber some Korean tourists heading in the opposite direction before spotting the guides torch far off in the distance. 20m later there was natural light coming through from the other side.

It led to a beach in a near perfectly round 100m deep crater. Absolutely stunning & surely unique. There were a lot of tourists of course, we put that down to it being the weekend though. Check our pictures & use your imagination & you should get an idea of its awesomeness!

After navigating back through the cave, kicking the wall & getting a flipper to the teeth we headed for our lunch spot - Koh Hai. Definitely the most picturesque setting I've ever seen. White sands, palm trees, turquoise waters, islands littering the distant landscape & glorious sunshine. The food was pretty good too! We spent an hour on the beach chatting to the guide about Liverpool & Brendan Rogers (the manager) & swimming before heading back to the pier for our transfer back.

By now Carlys cold is getting pretty bad, she's on the Halls Soothers. We check out the sunset at our local beach which was gorgeous, grabbed dinner & had an early night.

You will have another installement in 5 days time, we still have no idea what our plans our after Koh Lanta as we will still have 6 days until our flight from Kuala Lumpur to Perth.

Lots of Love Matt & Carly x x x

Sunday 9th December - Sunday 15th December

Not a great deal of interesting stuff happened to report back! We spent a week just chilling out, sunbathing, eating, drinking, met up with S & B again at the beach resort they moved to, played some Scrabble & said our goodbyes for a 3rd time on Monday 16th.

Modes of Transport so far - 3 planes, 2 Taxis, 11 Tuk Tuks, 6 VIP Bus, 3 shared taxis, 6 minivans, 3 speed boat, 2 slow boats, 5 ferries, 3 pickup trucks, 6 sleeper bus, 1 kayak, 1 moto

Countries Visited - Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam

Beers Sampled - Chang, Tiger, Leo, BeerLao, Namkhong, Angkor, Anchor, Klang, Green Saigon, Red Saigon, 333, Larue, Caroune, Hanoi, Singha, Acha

Miles Travelled - 11,853

We're currently in Kuala Lumpur & fly to Perth on 19th December to spend Xmas with Nick & Helen in Bunbury & New Year's too. Our Skype access should be a lot better from there so we will speak to you guys then. xx