Happy New Year everyone! Sorry to hear work has started again.

Rainy this ones dedicated to you...... After Phi Phi we got the ferry to Krabi where we had planned on staying but after arriving we weren't impressed as we didn't realise it is not close to the beach so we quickly skimmed through the lonely planet and chose another island to go to. We decided upon a small island called Railay but didn't realise the mission ahead of us to actually get there. First we got a taxi about half an hour south of Krabi to a beach town called Au Nang then we were told we had to get a long tail boat (like in the picture above) over to Railay. Unfortunately the guys who drive the boats will only make a trip if there are more than 5 people so we sat and waited and waited. After an hour we started to worry slightly as no other backpackers had turned up at the pier it was just us and a few thai people waiting but as there was now enough people we got the nod to go and there was no turning back. We arrived in Railay about 15 mins later into a small bay, we were a little confused as the driver stopped the boat about 100 metres away from the shore and everyone jumped out and began wading through the sea to land. We struggled to follow with our backpacks but were quite excited at the thought of discovering this remote place which must be spared of package holidays as you could only reach it by a small boat. Once on the shore we were directed to the cheap accomodation across the island to the west side, it was so small you could walk the width of the island in about 2 minutes. From the west side we had to take yet another tail boat along the coast to another bay called Hat Ton Sai which was where all the backpackers headed to for the cheap bungalows you could walk to it but only when the tide was out. The island really reminded us of 'Lost' as the beach backed onto a massive forest which was surrounded by cliffs. The bungalows were built inside the forest so we were completely surrounded by nature, the view from the toilet was amazing we also shared our bungalow with a few friends one of which tried to steal our toilet roll and our soap in the night and take it into a hole in the ground, this animal must have been in need of a few luxaries. So we spent 3 nights in Railay which was even more chilled out than Phi Phi most the people who come there are rock climbers for the limestone cliffs, we felt a little left out as you weren't cool on this island unless you had a harness strapped around your waist and a chalk bag on your side. The scariest part about Railay though was the crazy american woman who has been living there for 12 years she wore millions of clothes and talked to herself all day. She came over to us to tell us that she doesn't like too much butter on her toast but we just smiled and nodded then she went onto shout at the sun to stop burning her, craaazzy!!! Getting out of Railay was little easier than arriving there, we decided to go to Ko Lanta so a long tail boat took us out about half a mile to sea where a ferry boat arrived and they slowly moved next to each other. We had to swap boats by climbing up onto the deck while carefully timing our steps to the bobbing of the waves so the boat took you up to the edge of the ferry. We are staying at long beach in Ko Lanta now for a week to kill a bit of time and save money until the Browns carl and Eor get here. Should be quite easy as the weather is not good at the moment so we have just been watching movies everyday and reading books.

Anyway think we gonna go watch another movie as it is still raining, hope you are all well and the resolutions are still going strong.

Love and hugs Ruthy & Burts

p.s will put a few pics up soon we havn't done much but suppose its good to have a picture to go with the stories, sorry we didn't get a pic of mental maggie though!!!