Now then people,

We have arrived to the lazy part of our trip, the south islands of Thailand, and its every bit the paradise we've been expecting. White sands, turqouise water, bars on the beach.... the full works!!!

We left you in Siep Reap, Cambodia so i'll start from there. We got a day bus to the Thai border, and it was jam packed (see the pics) even the bags were stuck down the isle so when you went to get off the bus you had to climb over everyone's bags!! Plus the roads were completely cambodian so we were just bouncing all over the place for about six hours! When we arrived at the border we queued for about an hour and eventually got through. We had just missed the connecting bus to take us to Bangkok so we waited about for about two hours there. We got chatting to three others who were in the same situation as us... two Aussie's (Mike and Jess) and an Irish lass (Paula). We ended up sinking a few beers and chatting about our trips and stuff! When we eventually got a bus we all quite merry, so we grabbed a few more beers and spent the next few hours on the bus to Bangkok drinking and chatting (luckily this bus had a toilet so we could quite happily drink without worrying when we could next use a loo!!!)

We arrived in Bangkok and went to a hotel that paula knew from previous visits - was a touch expensive but it had a swimming pool on the roof! We got showered and changed and headed straight to Khoa San Road to get some tea and then out on the drink! This was the night England were to play Croatia so we knew it was going to be a late one as the game started at 3.30 over here! Although England lost (and im not even going into that) we had a good night nonetheless, after the game we carried on drinking until it was breakfast time - got some breakfast...... and carried on. It was around two in the afternoon when we eventually fell asleep, me and debs had checked out of the expensive room we never slept in and lodged in with the three others. From that point we all slept for about eighteen hours until the next morning. All in all a crazy few days!!!

The day we awoke from a huge sleep and our three new pals booked tickets to head to Koh Tao in the south islands of Thailand. Me and debs stayed another night and booked tickets to the same place one day laters as there was a few things we wanted to do before heading out of Bangkok..... namely shopping!!! So we headed to the shopping district of Bangkok, after picking Deb's new bank card from HSBC and were overwhelmed at the sheer size and futuristic style of the shopping centres...... they were really smart and absolutley huge! After getting lost in the MBK and having a browse in the Siam Centre and picking up bits and bobs we wanted from both we headed back and got ready for the overnight trip to Koh Tao.

This bus journey was quite comfortable after some of the other trips we have done. Thailand is pretty good for bus journeys, big comfortable double decker buses with toilets on board and stuff so we were quite happy. We arrived at the port where we were supposed to leave to get to the island but it was broken so we got onto another bus and headed further south to another port. So another couple of hours later we got onto a boat and headed out to sea. We went past both Koh Samui and Koh Phangan (two island we'll be heading to later on our trip) and after 22 hours travelling from bangkok we arrived at Koh Tao!!!

WHAT A PLACE! It is stunning - im sure you can see from the pics, it really is nice. It's on 21km squared so its a tiny place but there is plenty to do. The island is completely geared around scuba diving but we were told it isn't the right time of the year for it here - but over at the other side of Thailand (Koh Phi Phi) it is perfect timing - so were heading there tonight, gunna do some diving there, and then head back here in January to do some diving here aswell!

Anyway... when we landed we got a hostel, well a little bungalow about a metre from the beach and headed to meet Mike, Jess and Paula. We found them and had a few drinks, lazed about on the beach, had a few drinks and got some tea! That night we went out had a few drinks and then got an early night ready for a full day the day after. The next day we got up relativly eary and had some brekkie and went and hired some moterbikes as you can literally drive around the whole island in a day and check out the beaches! We got ourselves to a place called shark bay - which has a brilliant beach and some really clear waters!!! There are sharks there but we didn't see any (again it's not the right time of the year for seeing the marine life!) After chilling on the beach at Shark Bay all day we headed back to Sairee beach - where we were staying - took the bikes back, went out for tea and we all were completely knackered so went to bed early again as we were up on a boat trip the next day.

This was a quality day! Was basically a boat trip all the way around the island stopping at about 5 different snorkelling sites. The whole island is surrounded by coral and marine life (even though it isn't the right time of the year it is still a real sight to see). We again stopped at Shark Bay but this time it was between the beach and Shark Island - so we were really expecting to see something remotley resembling sharks but none of us saw anything!!!!!! Was thoroughly dissapointed - we saw some barracuda and other smart stuff but unfortunatly no sharks!!! Don't get me wrong we were terrified at the thought but still - it made it more exciting!!! We headed to a few more snorkelling spots and then, just off the North West point of the Koh Tao we stopped at a tiny island called Nang Yaun Island!! See the pics ... it was gorgeous. An absolutley beautiful little island with some stunning coral and some huge fish. Me and Mike left the girls and went as far out as possible - the visability here was brilliant so you could spot all sorts. Me and debs are gunna but a cheap underwater camera in Phi Phi so we can show you all some of the sights underwater they really are spectacular!!!!

When we got back to our apartment we got quickly showered and changed got some tea and got ready for a BIG night out - and that it was!!! The atmosphere on this island is brilliant so we were chatting to anyone and everyone - having a good drink and dance - i've completely forgotten the details (due to the bottle of Somsang whiskey Mike bought us before we went out) but i do remember it being a bloody good night!!!

For the last two days we havent done too much just relaxed and gone swimming. We are heading to Ko Phi Phi tonight (the place where the film 'The Beach' was filmed) as the weather is usually pretty bad but for the next month or so it is ideal so we don't want to miss it!!! Gunna get some proper diving done there so we'll update you on that when we can!!! We'll also get some more video's up asap!!!

Hope all is good at home and everyone is ok - JUST 25 DAYS TILL CHRISTMAS!!!!!

Lots of love

Chris & Debs xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx