(21 November)

I got up at half 6 to shower and be sure that I was ready for the pickup to the pier...and proceeded to wait until 8.15 before the van came. It wasn't too bad as i got lots of new music downloaded, but still wasn't very impressed...about an hour into the van journey it looked like we definitely weren't going to be dropped at the pier and I realised that we must be DRIVING to Ko Lanta...which is an island. Pretty raging at the woman in the hostel, she definitely said it was a boat...Thai transport is not always all it's cracked up to be! So what should have taken about 3 hours turned into an all day trip. I had managed to get in touch with Hollie and Silvio the previous night and they were still on Lanta for one more night so I had arranged to go meet them. Silvio had said he would come and get me from the pier at 11 which is when i was told the "boat" would get in...at half 10 we had our first rest stop and luckily I got chatting to a girl who had Internet or I wouldn't have been able to get through to them to let them know I would be much later! Need to start getting more phone numbers haha. So that was a seriously long journey, with a typical Thai stop in the middle - where our van dumped us at some random spot with hordes of people who had been similarly dumped, where we were stickered and told to wait until a van came that fancied going to Lanta! It's mad like. Got there eventually though, and on the plus side I did get dropped at the bungalows where they were staying which was really far down the island!

The other 2 were staying at a place called Charlee Barleys which would probably have been fine in lovely weather...unfortunately it wa chucking it down, and I was still feeling so rubbish that I wasn't in the mood for a really basic bungalow with holes in the walls, a door that didn't close properly from the inside, and no sink never mind flushing toilet! The beach was lovely, but again, not much use in the rain! I said hello to H & S and then unpacked my bag, convinced I could throw loads of stuff out, only to conclude that actually pretty much everything would probably come in useful at some point, and repacked it all again in a different order! I skyped Les which was good cos I was started to feel pretty homesick because I was feeling so iffy! The connection was pretty bad but it was better than nothing! Then the others had left so I went and found a travel agent and tried to figure out what to do with my life next lol. Eventually I decided I might as well go to Malaysia, there was no point sticking around Ko Lanta on my own in the rain, as the others were leaving the next day. I ha a quick look for hostels and saw one with a fully equipped music room for £3 a night and was sold, booked my ticket to leave the next morning!

I went back to the bungalows and found the others to go for dinner. We went to a restaurant practically on the beach which was really nice. I ordered a burger to try and be safe but it was seriously weird looking when it came and didn't taste right, so i left most of it! After half a beer and dinner I was feeling really unwell again, so just had an early night and left the others to it.

When I was getting ready for bed I found 2 cockroaches in my bed!! It was so gross, I managed to throw them in the bathroom without even screaming haha but it was not fun, and then prayed that they wouldn't come back in! Didn't help that there wasn't even a door to the toilet lol. I slept with the light on all night hoping it would deter the cockroaches - don't even know of that should work or not! It wasn't my best nights sleep...this was turning into a pretty bad week! Found myself cursing myself for staying on Phi Phi for Oli's birthday because it all seemed to have gone downhill from there!