So… we left the beautiful Perhentian islands heading for Koh Samui in Thailand. We took another speedboat over to the mainland, taxi to the border at Sungai Kolok and said goodbye to Malaysia. Small issue with my visa as it got caught under an air con unit which leaked last year and it washed away some of my stamps . They seemed to think I might have a prob entering Thailand but it was fine. We then lugged our bags up to the train station and got on our train to Surat Thani. This was a day train and a pretty awful experience but very funny to look back on. The seats were really uncomfortable and it was a day train so we were just reading/drinking/tying to amuse ourselves all day! All these little thai men kept walking through with all kinds of random food/drinks/cigarettes/magazines/stinking ming dried fish and all sorts! As soon as it got dark the mosquitos came in and bit us to pieces! When we eventually arrived at Surat Thani (train was late but we’ve come to expect at least an hour delay now on any train in Asia!) we were exhausted and just wanted sleep. We had missed the night boat to samui so got a hotel in Surat which was lovely actually! Really cheap and a nice clean bed and our own toilet which was luxury for us after the perhentians!! We got the first boat in the morning and found some Chalets on Lamai for 400 Baht per night between us called Magiq Bungalows right next to the beach.

We spent a few days just chillin and sunbathing – met a load of people on one of our benders that we arranged to see at the full moon party. We set off some fireworks on the beach one night too!!! Hahah!!

Nicola arrived on the Monday and I went to meet her at the airport. She was so excited bless her! So me, Za and Nic squished in one little bungalow! It was very cramped with all our huge bags but funny!

It was Ged’s birthday on 26th and so Sar and Ged went to stay in a posh hotel for 2 nights called the Sarann. They had some huge seafood feast on the Sunday night and felt fine the next day. So we all went out for Nic’s first night and Ged’s bday night on the Monday – we had dinner and literally within 2 minutes of each other Sar had fainted in the toilets and Ged collapsed in the middle of the restaurant!! It was awful and I was just so so so worried. I got them to call an ambulance straight away but I thought I could recognise the symptoms immediately – bloody food poisoning!!! We got them to the hospital and indeed it was food poisoning. The doctor said ‘when you haa seafooo????’ so it’s almost certain it was that. Poor Ged got it really bad – they think it was the white snapper as they thought it tasted funny but Ged ate lots of it and Sar, only a bit. Ged had to stay in overnight and Sar stayed with him so me Za and Nic went back to their lovely room with a jaccuzzi bath and all that but couldn’t enjoy it as were so worried about them! I went straight up the next morning with some clothes and they were discharged but with a hefty bill (no insurance … oops). Rest assured… they have insurance now!!!!

On 28th July we booked a speedboat over to Koh Phagnan for the night for the full moon party, the last boat back was at 7am which we thought would be more than enough time! We all got ready in our bungalows in samui and got to the pier ready for our speedboat with our hair all done and ready to party. Then the heavens opened and it started pouring with rain!!! On top of this, we got stuck at the back of the speedboat and got absolutely drenched with the spray! You can imagine what we looked like arriving on the island in the middle of a thunder/lightening storm soaking wet and make up all over our faces!! We stopped for some food and then decided to stop moaning and embrace it! So we just drank our buckets and danced with thousands of other people on the beach all night! It was brilliant!! Went up to Mushroom Mountain (but no shakes for me!!! Hhaaha!) and met up with the lot from Samui on the beach. Sar and Ged were still recovering from their food poisoning and left around 5 but me, Za and Nic decided to stay for the last boat. Only we bloody missed it and ended up stranded there! We stayed with our Samui mates and had to get a boat over the next day but had run out of money and couldn’t actually get one until 4pm. We arrived back in samui drenched – it was STILL raining, and completely exhausted. Sar and Ged let me go in their bed that night and set up some films on the laptop but I think I just conked out straight away and slept for AGES!

Carrying on from our Full Moon Party escapades on Koh Phagnan, we returned to Samui (eventually) and had another couple of days there chilling and getting over our massive hangovers. We went to a thai boxing evening in Lamai which was great but I’ve never really been a fan of watching people get beaten up so left after only a couple of rounds back to our favourite bar – Mynt – for some pool and jukebox tunes!!!

Me, Zara and Nic went to a lady boy cabaret also in Lamai which was soooo funny! Got some good pics to come!!

On the Friday we hired a jeep for 800 baht for the whole day!! That’s £16 between 5 of us! Bargain!! We went straight up to Bo Phut to see Big Buddha island. I’ve been there before but it is a pretty amazing sight and right at the top next to the Buddha there are some beautiful views of Samui. We then drove right around the top of the island and down through the middle to Namuang where we went elephant trekking up to a lovely waterfall. The elephants seemed to be treated very well which made me very happy  I don’t like to see them in shows or paraded around the streets when they look distressed. They had the seats on the back but our guide let us sit up on the elephants neck (poor thing!) and threw us little fruits to feed him with!!! After that we went to Wat Kunaram, a temple where they have a mummified monk which has a pair of sunglasses on!?!? Random!! He died like 20 years ago and you can still see the hair on his head! Very strange. We then sat with a monk who blessed us and gave us a little band each for good luck. Apparently you should just let them fall off as it’s bad luck to take it off yourself. They were pure white when we got them but it’s turned a nice shade of brown/grey after a few night trains and a mammoth 2 day journey with no shower!! Haha!

On the Sunday we did a day trip to Ang Thong National Park which was really beautiful. It is approx 2.5 hours from Samui and is made up of 42 islands with limestone cliffs, tropical beaches and dense jungle in the middle. A stunningly beautiful place! We trekked up to a viewpoint over Thale Nai – an emerald salt water lake on Mae Ko and I’m not joking, I’ve NEVER sweated as much in my entire life! We were in a real mess!

So after a couple of weeks in Samui Zara left us to head for Singapore  and me, Sar, Ged and Nic got on a boat heading for Koh Tao. Oh my god I LOVE that island! We looked for somewhere to stay on the main beach, Sairee, but everywhere was way too expensive so we ended up staying down in the south on Ban Chalok where the people we had met in Samui were staying – Kieran, Chris, Lyall, Scott, Joe and Catliyn. We met up with them at the full moon party too so we spent about 3 days there chillin on the beach, drinking in Rasta Bar (the most chilled out bar ever!) and went to the Castle party and a beach party with fire twirlers and all that! We had such a good time there and it was so sad to leave and I was gutted that I didn’t get around to diving here too.

We had a few visa problems when leaving as we were a little unorganised with our timing! We suddenly realised that we didn’t have enough time to make it to a border in time for our visas expiring (me sar and ged were only granted 15 days as we crossed on a land border – if you fly in you get 30 days)!!! Bad planning. We could have done a visa run to Burma but it would have meant 2 days travelling and a lot of money to only stay a few more days in Thailand as our flights from KL are on 11th and 12th Aug. So we embarked on an epic travelling adventure heading initially for Langkawi on the east coast of Malaysia! It went like this… taxi to the pier on Koh Tao, boat to Koh Samui, taxi to a different pier – Nathong, boat to Surat Thani (mainland Thailand) which we VERY nearly missed and resulted in a dangerously fast taxi ride and literally us running for the boat – Ged and Sar with all the backpacks and me and Nic trying to quickly buy tickets – the boat left about 30 seconds after we got on and was the last one of the day!!! Very close!!! This boat journey was great, the sun was just setting and we plotted on the deck with a few changs just watching the sun set and chatting – I had a proper travelling moment here!! Anyway – then it was a coach to town which picked us up in the middle of nowhere as we somehow got a bit lost!!! We had dinner and then got a taxi/tuk tuk to the train station where we waited for about 3 hours with mosquitos buzzing all over us for our night train to the border of Malaysia at Songkai Kolok! This train wasn’t one of the best train experiences I’ve had on my travels but there weren’t that many bugs and nobody had anything stolen so that’s all that matters!!! We all woke up and trekked down to the border in the scorching sun… never sweated so much in my life and never hated my backpack so much either!!! SO heavy! We had to go straight to the police when we arrived to tell them we had overstayed our visa and we had a massive wait whilst they took our passports and filled out loads of forms etc. A bit scary! We got charged a fine of 500 baht per day (bout 10 quid) and then sent on our way! Easy! Then we decided we had been travelling for way too long to do another day and get to Langkawi so headed back to the Perhentian Islands!!!

More to come on the Perhentian Islands, we're here now but leaving for KL tomorrow on a night train and i'm doing a wreck dive at sugar wreck in the morning!! SO excited but v nervous!!!

Miss you all loads!!! Lots of love from hot and humid paradise!! :) xxx