If we were asked wat was our favourite part of the trip so far, we would definitely say the liveaboard that we have just done in the Similan and Surin Islands. It was fantastic. Lets first explain how we got here.

Last time you heard from us we were about to cross the border into Laos, which we did. We were just wandering about and feeling bit fed up and tired of the constant travelling, so one evening over a beer (actually I think it was wine) we made a plan. We are people that prefer to be by the sea so lets just go. We ony had 3 weeks until we are meeting Alice and Jim in Singapore so we thought there is no point in sitting on buses for about a week attempting to travel around Laos, so instead we booked a flight and went to Phuket in Thailand then went up the west coast to a small island called Ko Phra Thong. It was the best decision we have made. We bascially had the whole island to ourselves. There are only 4 places to stay on the whole island. Our lovely place run by Mr Noo had only 4 wooden bunglaows right on the beach, no electricity (apart from between 6.30pm and 10pm). The generator is acually put on as soon as the crickets start up as that means is dusk. It was beautiful. It was living like Robinson Crusoe but with service. They had no menu, you just tell them what you fancy eating, fresh fruit of mango and pineapples galore. Another bonus is that I only got one or two sandfly bites, no problem compared to my previous record. Since the record sandfly bites, I can handle mosquito bites no problem, I don't even mind getting them any more.

I have discovered something new about Shaun on this trip, his hatred for spiders. We shared our bungalow with some monsters, the first one we named 'Aragog', we always told him that we were friends with Hagrid so that he would be nice to us. The spiders were like the size of my fist and Shaun took lots of pictures, one even got in his bag and he claims 'jumped out towards his face' although I am sure he was just over reacting. There were also frogs, one snuggled itself in a jumper of mine, and plenty of lizards and geckos. There was absolutly nothing to do on the island. One day I walked from the bungalow to the main hut and did not move all day (apart from the toilet) and just chilled out and read my book. It felt so good. Shaun wandered around and went swimming which I suppose is his version of relaxing.

After our island getwaway we went south to board our favorite part the liveaboard. It was 4 nights and 5 days around the Similan and Surin Islands. We were doing 4 scuba dives a day!!! it was very tiring but amazing. We have lots and lots of pictures from our underwater camera. The highlight was seeing a manta ray, and it actually stuck around as well. I was the first person to spot it, although being 4 metres big I am sure it wouldn't have been long for everyone to see it. I was in such shock when I first saw it that I nearly pulled out dive instructors leg off getting is attention. There were 18 of us on the Queen Manta III boat, unfortunatly this was made up with alot of Americans, but led by the funniest Welsh bloke that made up for it. We did 14 scuba dives in total on the trip and saw so much stuff, eagle rays, blue spotted rays, a variety of moray eels, trigger fish, barracuda, massive groupers, huge balls of glass fish being hunted by tuna and trevallis, nudibranchs, and many many more. During the night dive we saw an Octopus. Our dive instructor took us through lots of swim throughs in the rocks which were quite scary. I have now done 49 dives, our instructor had done roughly 2000 and the welsh group leader 6500!

We only got off the boat yesterday, my body however still thinks that I am onboard and I'm very wobbly and my ears need to pop.

Shaun had an additional reason for loving the liveaboard was their bottomless biscuit tin. It was constantly full despite shauns best efforts!

We are now in Phuket. It is like the complete opposite to our desert island. Fat red men in thongs on the beach, women going topless, and tourists EVERYWHERE. We are only really here to do some washing, catch up on sleep and work out where we are going next. We have 5 days until we meet Alice and Jim in Singapore so we are going to do a little island hopping to Phi Phi and Koh Lanta we think.

(Shaun's footnote). Aragog was not the size of Carols 'fist' it was roughly the size of my head! I'm sure if it had its evil way and jumped at my face his legs would have touched at the back of my head! One night I thought a wild boar had got into our hut and started running about, but it was just Aragog trotting across the floorboards. He was big!