After all my travelling I was feeling shattered so decided I needed some chill out time in Thailand. I had never visited the west coast and saw this as my perfect opportunity to go and explore and meet up with Kate again who I met earlier on my travels.

I flew to Phuket and after a couple of hours delay finally reached the airport where Kate was waiting for me. We had a transfer also waiting to take us to our hotel at Karon Beach. We arrived very late so headed straight to bed. After waking up at midday the following day after some much needed sleep we headed to the beach to chill out, followed by a couple of lovely cocktails and food in a local bar.

The following day we had another much needed lie in and another afternoon spent on the beach chilling out and catching some rays!

After a couple of days of doing nothing we decided to catch a boat to Ko Phi Phi! I knew as soon as we arrived in the harbour that I was going to love this place - it was stunning! We had treated ourself and decided to stay in a more expensive hotel, right on the beach, with a swimming pool! It was lovely and worth every penny and the views were amazing! As soon as we arrived at our hotel we met a couple of girls Sam and Laura who we ended up spending most of our time with, starting with a very drunken first night drinking buckets and partying on the beach! Then spending hours walking round the island trying to find our hotel. The downside to partying with younger people though is that the next day they feel fine and you feel very hungover! It was far too hot so I spent most of the day recovering in my room, only venturing out for pizza and to watch a film in Banana Bar in the evening.

While on the island we arranged to go on a boat trip to visit the island where the film The Beach was filmed. The sea was really choppy so we could not access the island the normal way and ended up having to go the 'back way' the consisted of the boat stopping in a bay, all of us jumping off the boat, swimming to a cave, climbing through the cave in our bare feet over sharp rocks, walking along a footpath on the other side and then finally reaching 'the beach'. It was stunning, but because of the way we accessed it we were unable to take our cameras to capture the moment. And the whole time we were there we could only think about having to get back to the boat and climbing back through the cave! Once eventually back on the boat (a few bruises and cuts later) we went to a bay where we could snorkel. We headed back out toward Ko Phi Phi and across the rough sea to monkey beach where we stopped to look at all the monkeys, before arriving back.

While on the island Kate and I had decided that we wanted a traditional bamboo tattoo, so we started talking to a tattoo guy and doing our research and ended up getting him to design a tattoo for us. After a few days thinking about it I finally got mine on the inside of my foot, a Thai translation of 'live life like there is no tomorrow'. He took over an hour doing it and I really love it. The view from the tattoo shop was also amazing, so every time it hurt I just focussed on the view!

After coming for only a couple of days and spending a week here we decided it was time to leave, we had spent enough time just chilling and lying by the pool. We got a boat to Koh Lanta (after recommendations from people) and as soon as we got there we wished we had not. Our hotel were meant to pick us up from the port but did not turn up so we had to get a tuk-tuk. When we got to the hotel we were the only ones there and tey had shut the restaurant and bar. They put us in a hut, the furthest one from anything! We decided to head to the beach and there was no one on the beach. So we decided to go find some food in town, everything was shut and the place was empty. So we made the decision that even thoiugh we had booked and paid for 2 nights we would onyl be spending 1 night on this island! We went back to our hut and it was full of wasps and I managed to get stung! We then found a frog in our room and could not get it out so decided to change rooms. The second room seemed much better but the fan would not work! But we thought it is only for 1 night so we would just put up with it. We did not even dare have a shower and decided to sleep with the light on. We did not even really sleep and kept hearing footsteps outside and then about 5am the room was full of wasps, so we made the decision to just get up and sit and wait in reception until we were picked up at 7am! We could not wait to leave the island. After a long bus journey and ferry we arrived in Krabi, checked into a nice hotel and had a long hot shower.

We explored Krabi during the day (although there is not a lot to explore) and headed to the night market to get some dinner in the evening. We enjoyed our last Thai food, as in the morning we head to Malaysia. I think I am finally ready to leave Thailand!