Hahaha! Hello everybody! We're still here, just been busy busy busy!

Well, I think we left u in Koa Tao in November, and since then we've been kidnapped byPhi Phi (a group of 6 islands to the west of mainland Thailand) and WE LOVE IT!!!!!! We have however committed ourselves to leaving tomorrow, boooooo, so thought I'd spend my last day in a bad mood on the internet! Only joking! It's about time we did a blog, me in particular.

So the overnight boat trip on November 30th from Koa Toa to this wonderful beasty place was amazing!!!! We literally slept all night - they had mattresses on the floor, couldn't believe it-it was like a massive backpacker sleepover! Some travelers, those obviously more prone to better standards of travel, we're looking a bit wary tho', in particular 3 American lasses whom were all tarted up and wearing their sun glasses at night, like u do. Ha! Bet we looked like a ship full of refugees to them all led on shabby puke stained mattresses!

We landed at 6am and hung around at a tour office for the bus at 8, where they served toast and jam and cups of tea! And to top it off, they had '40 Year old Virgin' playing on the TV…was great! We didn't wanna leave! Obviously we did, and the next bit of the trip was scary!!!! When we'd set off on the bus, this Arab looking guy stood up in the isle and started saying his prayers, and no-one took any notice, but he looked a bit weird with 2 t-shirts on, a vest, this leather rope bound around his arm, and a box-thing strapped to his head! Next he starts nodding to us all and then sat back down for a minute before standing back up to smile at us all one by one and kiss his prayer book! I was well scared, almost on the point of crying and making Chris leap out of the window and escape what I thought was a suicide bomber! Chris told me to stop being daft, even though he admitted it was all a bit weird, and luckily, when this Arab guy reached into his backpack….he pulled out a pack of Pringles!!! Ha! Was soooooooo relieved, the weirdo. Might not have been as paranoid but we were aware of terrorist attacks on westerners in south Thailand, and seen as our bus had a smacking colourful picture of palm trees and fish on the side, I thought we looked like an obvious target! Anyway still here!

So we made it to Krabbi, which is the coastal area, and onto the ferry by lunch time. The journey then was quite hilarious as I was euphoric that I wasn't dead, and we'd both had a good sleep along the way for a change, so we were bursting with energy! However, we tired ourselves out and began to read…..and consequently MISSED THE ENTRY VIEW INTO PHI PHI!! Looked well smart from behind, all the islands and what-not. Oh well! When we boarded off the ferry, we were so excited because it was belting hot with clear blue skies and the water was all turquoise and sparkly! Our friends from before, the 2 aussies and the irish, met us at the pier and took us to the bungalows they were staying at as the island is expensive and has no roads!! Quite nice to not be run over by motorbikes or tuk tuks for a change! The island is 27km squared so walking was the way forward as it is so small! Think we just slobbed that day and Chris played football on the patch of grass in front of our room with the locals. That night we all got takeaway pizza and had a few drinks - the others were so hungover from the night before, Michael apparently fell asleep on the beach instead of going home and still had sand in his ears, and he somehow lost his little toenail from climbing a palm tree he thinks (wasn't a nice sight), and Jess couldn't stop throwing up! We were glad to be sober for a change!

The next morning we all went for brekkie, taking with us two more irish lasses the other three had befriended, and it was funny! Jess ordered cheese on toast and asked for tomato on top and was given a full plate full of tomatoes, Chris ordered poached eggs on toast and they tried to give him a t-bone steak?? (can see the confusion there?!) and I ordered muesli and got cornflakes! When we got the bill we spent another hour telling them we'd not ordered a curry or 3 bottles of water!

Anyway, after that, sadly we lost a member of our new family as Paula, the hilarious irish, left Phi Phi for Oz that afternoon. The next day, the others all left for Malaysia too…..so we were on our own! Sad times after traveling with them for 3 weeks! We managed to have a last night out with them all tho' which meant we got to bed for 8am and didn't rise until 2.30!!! Michael didn't bother going to bed at all as their boat left at 8.30 for the start of their 26hr trip - what a plonker!!!!! He's 32 as well, travelers these days eh!

So for the next few days me and Chris, sorry, Chris and I, felt a little lost and so spent our sorrowful lonely days on the beach! After we were getting too hot from soaking up the rays, at the end of the week we got a taxi-boat to visit the famous Maya Bay where Leonardo De Caprio's 'The Beach' was filmed!!!!!!

Was amazing!!!! Well, we did almost die on the way there to be honest, chose a really choppy day and I made Chris pass me a life jacket half way through for fear of being tipped into the sea by the massive waves! Didn't help that we were in, how can I describe a long-tail boat……a large canoe, with speedboats whizzing past and leaving us flying through the air off their waves!!!! Not joking. But we made it and the sight of 'The Beach' blew us away. Was full of tourists though, but we can't grumble at how they're destroying the beauty of the place 'cos we were there too, but to be fair, there were far too many speedboats on the shore (can u tell I now hate speedboats?). We spent a few hours snorkeling and exploring, and sadly it was time to leave! The film must use clever camera tricks to make the beach look big, and obviously they've filmed different parts of the world for the clips as the beach was, well, just a bit of sand…but the best water EVER!!!!!!!Check the pics! Some people have been disappointed by it but we had good weather so the place looked stunning no matter how u expected it to be. We made it home in one piece, but got absolutely soaked from sailing into the wind, and were glad to put our shaky legs back onto land!

Right, what else have we been doing? Well, to be frank, the weather turned pretty crappy after that, overcast and rainy at times. So glad that we went to 'The Beach' that day! So if I recollect correctly…we went out on the lash every night!!!! It's such a good island, loads of small streets with night stalls and bars and restaurants! In particular, we lost a lot of our time and money to a favourite of ours……the infamous 24hr Hippies Bar - Hippies, we love u and u will be sadly missed!! They've got free bbq buffets for backpackers, acoustic music sessions - the entertainment guy playing 'My Girl' with his guitar and such - they have party games like musical chairs (u don't even wanna know how that went, lets just say there was lots of excitable backpackers, lots of whiskey, and the sea!), they even have parties on the beach and everyone gets wrecked and dances around in the sand listening to dance music 'till all hours! Amazing times! What else have they got….oh yeah….how could I forget! THE HIPPIES FIRESHOW!!!!!! These were on every night 10-11pm and they forever drew us into the cabaret atmosphere even though we'd decided not to drink that night! WE LOVED THEM!!! Proper smart sight to see a fireshow on the beach with everyone sat around drinking and listening to metal and rock music as the fireshow guys did their thing (check the vids if they've uploaded properly). Aaaaah Phi Phi!!!

Seriously recommend that everyone visits this place, we've seen loads of families as well as stag do's…it's the best!!! The locals are great, u get pancake stalls, and the sea's unreal!!! Me and Chris walked out in the sea one afternoon (probably clearing a hangover) for what must have been about mile and the water was only shoulder deep and you could still see your feet!!! And it's really warm as well! Amazing! We're very lucky young 'uns! Anyway, we started taking full advantage of this little paradise in the second week as I was getting a bit burnt on the beaches. One afternoon I made Chris walk with me to the top of one of the island's peaks, was quite an incline I must admit (we entertained ourselves making jungle hats, see the pics!) but the views were well smart and when we got down the other side we'd ended up on one of Phi Phi's famous beaches the 'longbeach', literally a long beach! We had an ice cream and then clambered over rocks along the shore back to our house for sunset to read Harry Potter! Can I just add here that we've got an excellent room for very cheap, from the sound of everyone else's complaints we've done pretty good, but it's situated behind a bloody mosque and next to a rooster patch!!!!! Just had to mention it cos two and a half weeks later, we're still not finding the wails from the mosque at 6am onwards or the cock-a-doodle-doos funny yet!!!!!

Anyway, this blog is turning into a dissertation, best crack on…plenty left to tell u yet! So, we spent the second week rather busy as we booked trips and organized days out as there's so much to do here! What did we do first? Oh yeah, we went on a sunset trip, quite funny as it was raining on and off all afternoon and there was no sun visible, but we'd been waiting to do it for days and kept suspending it 'cos of the weather. The trip meant that we could re-visit Maya Bay, as well as look at the Viking Caves and see Monkey Island! This was immense, u had to jump off the boat and snorkel to shore where you were greeted by some very evil monkeys that inhabited the island! The tour guide warned us about them, but some tourists were feeding them and were getting too close and being chased into the sea! Was so funny to watch!! Women shrieking left right and centre as tiny baby monkeys jumped up and down! Ha! We did some kayaking as well around blue lagoon, seriously smart, lime cliff islands popping out of the sea which u could float between, it was like going down a jungle river in a weird way! And to top it off, u had to have three people in the boat and we got stuck with this 60year-old retired navy sailing specialist from Sweden who instructed Chris to row LEFT RIGHT LEFT RIGHT!!!! Ha, was funny! I was just sat in the middle of them both taking in the views and laughing at Chris cursing the marathon sprint kayaking!!!! We were the first back to the boat naturally, so spent some time waiting for the others by snorkeling! I tested out the underwater camera we'd bought (not good pics, give me a few months to perfect it b4 we put the pics up) and found myself surrounded by hoards of yellow and green fishies all coming up to my mask and having a good look at me! Indescribable!

The next day we'd booked ourselves onto a discovery dive…..was immense! Our first ever scuba dive! We were naturals at it, quite surprising as I was dubious cos I've got dodgy ears, but Chris was well after doing it, so we spent 30quid each and headed out at 7am with Londoner Simon to explore Phi Phi's amazing coral!! The guy was great, he got us into our wetsuits, taught us how to use our oxygen etc etc and PRETENDED we were just gunna dip into the sea a few metres down to see if we liked it. He said we'd feel a bit claustrophobic and strange, and that we'd have to practice equalizing (where the water pressure means u have to pop ur ears every metre)….but he tricked us, and we didn't resurface for 45mins!!! We loved the fact that he did this cos we just dealt with it all and got on with it! Some of the sights were out of this world! We found nemo, and Dori the stupid fish in 'Finding Nemo', and loads of other bright coloured stripey fish! They all buzzed around us having a look, it was unreal! Just like u see on TV! We were all doing the scuba hand signals to say we were okay, that our oxygen was plenty etc, and then we spotted what I thought was a sting-ray on the sea floor, so I went to have a closer look. Later when we were back on the boat, Chris and Simon were chatting excitedly about seeing a shark, and I was like, "what shark, I didn't see a shark, oh no, as if! But I saw a sting-ray!" and they were both laughing cos the supposed stingray was a bloody leopard shark!!!! I went about a foot away from it when I was checking it out, wouldn't have done that if id've known it was a shark for gods sake!!! They took the mick for ages, but to be fair, I later found out that stingrays are in the shark family, so nerrrrrr!!! Apparently, we were really lucky to see a shark on our first dive, its usually on ur 5th/6th dive that u see them! Lucky….Yeah, alright then!

We had dinner on a secluded beach in between the islands we were diving around, well good chicken and cashew nut with rice, and headed back to the mighty ocean for a second dive! I didn't really want to go again, knowing the first one was too good to be true, but once we'd thrown ourselves off the boat and descended into the water…..I LOVED IT MORE THAN CHRIS!!!! Think it was because the sun was out more so the water wasn't as murky or as cold. This dive was one where u looked up at the coral wall, was so dream-like to see the sun bobbing around on top of the water through the bubbles! This time we saw the spikey lion fish, but no turtles ('Simon says' we were that good for our first time we might've spotted them!) but we did see the puffy fish that blow up when they're scared! We didn't scare them though, cos we're PROFFESSIONALS! Towards the end of the 2nd dive, Simon got us to stand on the sea floor and showed us his watch-thingy…and we'd dived 12metres! If ur a certified diver u normally go 12-18metres, check us out!!! What a morning!

After that we went to bed for the afternoon, hard life u know, we we're shattered! And that night, in-keeping with the sea theme….we had seafood!!!!! Bit tight we know after seeing all of Phi Phi's marine life in action. Only cost us a fiver and we shared a massive basket full of mussles, clams, rock lobster, crab, and seabass! Suprisingly, we loved it! Thought we were gunna end up walking away from there still hungry, but mum, dad….I ate lobster! Quite tasteless but we'll try proper red lobster in Oz! The mussles were a surprise, looked minging but tasted great! Was well impressed! Chris was a bit jubious about cracking open the massive crab and sucking it's leg muscles out, but was all good!

The next morning, we were up again at 7 to go……..drum roll please….SHARK WATCHING!!!!!!!!!!! This was absolutely amazing! Unreal! Would like to swear to describe it properly but I wont. Basically, we paid about a tenner to swim with jaws!!! They were called black tip reef shark and are completely harmless. They ONLY eat small fishies. They look like mini great whites, proper shark viewing, but they only get to 2metres….but try telling Chris that! HA! He was a little uncertain to say the least. The tour guy was the founder of this programme as he found the sharks 6 years ago, bit of a tosser (sorry) asking if we'd seen his name in books and stuff, but he gave us a good hour-long lesson on how to behave, so we were ready for the buggurs!!!!! We thought we'd just swim on top of the water and see shadows beneath us if we were lucky, but oh no, we got our wetsuits and flippers on again and quietly snorkeled around so as not to frighten the sharks away with any splashing, and there they were!!!! Like 3metres away from us, just circling around us trying to work us out. The pro guy took us in two's to the main area while the other 4 waited with another instructor on the outskirts, and it was so scary! The water was a bit murky and the guy gave us hand signals to stop moving cos two sharks were straight in front of us! I got a cracking view, as the water ranged between 2m-4m deep, and the sharks were eye level, and this mother shark was right next to me! I completely stopped breathing! Tried to take a photo but u cant see anything on it! Real shame! Would have been epic! The scariest thing was that these sharks were 10m off shore from longbeach, and there were swimmers all around unaware they were in shark territory, harmless things like I said, but still! We were rock climbing and going thru the water there last week!!!!

By this point we were all getting aches and pains from swimming against the current and getting cold as we had to move only very slightly now and then to remain undetected by jaws and co. By this point it was 9.30 and boat trips were arriving and scaring them off anyway, so can't really say anything else on that topic…. can't find the words to describe it anyway!!!!. U know, we just swam with sharks!!!! Ha!

Right, trying to rap this up now, sorry it's so long, so much to tell! After the shark session we had a beer and a bacon butty from the sports bar and Chris went to bed for an hour, I know. (probably too scared to stay conscious any longer, hehe! Only joking!) When he awoke, with aches in our legs we decided to walk to the top of a cliff, like u do, to spend the afternoon viewing the island! When we finally got up the 3,000 steps, we saw the two beaches that are parallel to each other and separated by the centre of Phi Phi 'town' (see the pic if u don't know what the hell I'm on about) and it was so weird! The tsunami completely wiped this middle bit out and we were aware of all the construction work on the island and locals wondering around still in the donated redcross t-shirts, but to see it all from way up high brought it all home a little! Quite a tragedy the Phi Phi's went through! You can see plaques in all of the bars, dedicted to a lost friend or family. Very sad.

That night (Thursday) to our great delight, we found a cracking bar! We were just chilling out watching 'Jackass' the movie in Tiger bar with our bucket (the infamous Thai drink - literally a bucketful of alcohol) when we heard live music next door! So we rolled into the 'Rolling Stoned' bar, quite tipsy by this point, and enjoyed the Phi Phi rock/metal band blasting out Metallica, System of a Down, Radiohead, Oasis, Guns n Roses, Stone Roses etc! Chris was elated! They were brilliant! The bar was heaving, like an old barn party sort of fell to it! We went to bed rather late the next day!

Over the weekend we basically read our books and chilled out, played bat and ball on the beach around the other side of the island where all the bars and restaurants are, and waited for sunset! Slept quite a bit too! We even spent our hangovers in the 'Little Britain' café…..I know, how funny! Here they served PROPER Full English breakfast with real Cumberland sausages, back bacon, Heinz baked beans, and Tetley tea….Mmmmm!!!! Frosties' and chedder cheese on toast also became a fave the more times we vistited. And, u could watch even watch 'Family Guy' on the TV!

At night we found ourselves eating spaghetti bolognaise at a classic Italien and then wandering back to the live music bar. Seriously, it's a place that makes you play air guitar even when sober and want to start wearing a metal stud belt half way down your bottom!So, CAMPING!!! -Chris here now- What a joyous experience!!! On Saturday we met up at hippies bar where the ten people going were ready and waiting, we got all our stuff together and jumped onto the speedboat! After about a 20 minute hellish journey bouncing about at about 70mph, we landed at Bamboo Island! What a stunning place possible nicer than Maya Bay, but unfortunately the weather was a bit crap so the pics don't do it justice!!! We set our tents up and got stuff organized and then started on the booze!! We grabbed a couple of beers and went for a wander to the other side of the island to watch sunset and watch some locals crab fishing!! Again because of the weather the sunset wasn't too spectacular but still smart! When we got back to the tents we grabbed some tea and then the real boozing started. We just sat in a circle round a fire on the beach for the whole night playing drinking games and listening to live acoustic music!!! I'll say just a few things about the night…. TEN bottles of Samsong (thai) whisky, TEN people, ALL finished by morning!!!! I lost my memory at about 9.30!!!! Debs had to fill me in on the nights events the day after!! Some of the group didn't go to bed - luckily my more sensible half (debs) took me to bed at 3am because I was still doing shots!!!! Can I just say Chris, that I was also doing unearthly shots until that hour but im obviously well 'ard - must be the irish in me! WELL HARD!!!! The next morning we were up at 6 and feeling s***ty and headed to do cliff jumping and other ridiculous activities you don't want to do with a hangover - we stayed on the boat and had a sleep!! All in all a great night and we met some really sound folk!! SO THAT'S THAT THEN! What a beast of a blog! Having a ball as u can tell.We hope you're all looking forward to your Christmas holidays, are feeling festive and have got your turkeys in the freezer and the stockings on the wall! We won't talk about Christmas trees and snow and the good films on TV, with brazil nuts at your side, and the fire blazing in front of the settee too much though 'cos it gets us down not being home at this wonderful time of year!

Heading off to another island tomorrow, Vicky - we're spending xmas on an island where they have a 30,000 people rave for the Full Moon party (we've already witnessed a Half Moon party here, and they're wild!!!!) So that's good.Okay then……Have a great time and we'll catch up with u all next year! Oh my god! It's almost 2008!!!! MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!!!!Bye bye! Debs and Chrisxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx