Where do we even start! Oh these past five nights have been eventful, traumatising and hilarious!

It started with the palava it took to get here (that should have been a sign!). We first of all got hurled into a kind of tuk tuk, except this angry little old man didn't understand that carrying an 85 litre backpack on your back, and a large rucksack on your front, didn't allow for ease of jumping in and out of wagons, which is what it literally was! "Cattle get transported better than this", which is no lie! We clung on for dear life once we managed to get on to the darn thing, it was pouring down with rain, it was all open, and therefore we got a tad wet. A Scotish couple were also in the same boat, and we exchanged cautious, weary smiles at eachother.

Along the way, we stopped off to drop two big containers of what we though were water, and pick up another two. The little old angry man was shouting at us all, we think to pass the containers to him, but trying to move around in the back around all our bags was not easy - he didn't care or understand. The Scotish couple got off first at what seemed like a bus depot of some kind, and as they left, they wished us good luck for the rest of the journey; not our entire travelling trip, just this wagon trip!

We were now alone and got dropped off at a completely deserted shack, where we were told we had to wait 45 minutes to get picked up. Once we were picked up, in a different 'wagon' but of the same quality, we drove back to the same bus station. The past 45 minutes in the deserted shack seemed like such a pointless trip but none the less, we presumed there must have been some reason (we later discovered there actually wasn't) and got onto a proper mini bus this time, which we thought would be taking us straight to the port. Nope. Wrong again. We went round in circles (literally) about three times, passing the same buildings. A warning sign came on in the bus, which the driver had no why, so proceeded to ignore it until his facial expression suggested he thought he should maybe stop. Ten minutes later waiting at a garage we were off on our way again. Stopping another two times, for no apparent reason.

To say this driver would have been classed as a bit of a 'boy racer' back home is an understatement! It was as though he could not stay behind a car, it didn't matter that we were on a blind corner, or that the driver infront was going at the speed limit, he was intent on over-taking everything and anything, which resulted in an interesting drive!

After two car ferries and a Lewis Hamilton wannabe, we arrived safely by some miricle in Koh Lanta.

The place we're staying at is rather impressive. Pefect for a 'getaway' break, right on the beach with amazing views, a pretty good restuarant and a lovely cocktail bar :-) We have our own bungalow, which is on stilts in the lagoon surrounded by greenery.

The first night we arrived, halloween, there was a sudden blackout, which we weren't informed was a regular thing. It was actually pitch black. We couldnt even see our hands infront of our faces. Unfamiliar surroundings coupled with 'jungle' noises didn't bode well for a good nights sleep! We've kept a torch by the bed every night since.

Theres been a blackout every single day. We've kind of got used to them, when we're in our bungalow that is.

One evening when we were walking along the beach taking some pretty pictures of the sunset when Candy decided to start poking a hermit crab who was happily minding his own business just sitting in his shell. This would be a move that she would regret. Emma did say to her to leave it alone and it wouldn't appreciate someone trying to lift up his house on it's back but curiosity had clearly got the better of Candy and she poked it again. We then sat down at a table along the beachfront and ordered some cocktails - can take the girls out of Essex... So anyway, we are drinking our drinks and talking when all of a sudden Candy looks down to her side and to her alarm, spots the very same crab she had earlier disturbed. He had come looking for her. He had walked all the way over from where he'd been to her seat (which for a little crab was an impressive distance). Candy was alarmed to say the least. Emma had warned her that he would get his revenge and now he had come to get her back. We went to back to talking and drinking (we're good at that you know!) when Candy looked down again and saw that the crab was actually climbing up the leg of the bench she was sitting on. She decided at this point to vacate the area and Emma swapped places with her. "Emma he is after me!" was repeated several times over the next 20 minutes and Emma was ready to throw herself into the sea.

After that evening Candy was always on the lookout for the secret army of hermit crabs that were (obviously) out to get here and they would (obviously) stop at nothing so she had to be on guard at all times.

We have to walk across a large bridge to get to the restuarant at the hotel and one evening looking out across the water we saw what we still believe to be, a small crocodile. It was too large to be a water snake and it had a wide middle - from the distance we saw it from, it was definately too big to be anything else. This lagoon that we saw it in is the same lagoon that runs right past our bungalow. Great.

The next day when Emma was sitting out on the decking she looked up and saw an eye. Then realised the eye belonged to a head and the head was that of a very big lizard. And we mean big. No exaggerations. She called out to Candy to come and see it (Candy ran as quick as she could as she was now an avid hermit crab and crocodile look out) We tried to take some photos but we think it knew what we doing so it got back into the water and swam to the other side. We had missed our chance for a photo - for now...

The following evening Candy was in the bathroom when she shouted to Emma she "erm... didn't know exactly how we were going to handle this one". Instantly Emma thought there was a spider in there and knew she wouldn't be able to get rid of it but then Candy opened the door and proceeded to show Emma a gecko on the wall. It was a white/pink colour and quite big compared to some of the tiny one's we had seen. We both don't mind lizards - we just didn't think it would survive in our bathroom with no food.

So we called through to reception and explained that there was lizard in our bathroom. We had to repeat this several times & then were told that someone was coming to our room. Few minutes later & the lady from recption turns up asking what the problem was. We pointed to the bathroom & again explained. "Oh..." she smiles finally understanding us "You have crocodile in your bathroom?" Erm.... yeah thats right - we have a crocodile in our bathroom & we are calmly calling reception to let you know. Just for a heads up. Can we just say here - if there was a crocodile in our bathroom, trust us, we wouldn't be within 100 feet of the room! Emma said again that it was a lizard but the lady clearly didn't understand. At this point Emma remembers there's a sticker on the back of one of our books from 'gecko books' and there's a picture of a gecko on the label. She grabs the book & points at the cartoon drawing of a lizard (desperate times call for desperate measures) and the lady finally got it! She then radio'd over to someone asking them to come over (we're assuming anyway as she spoke in Thai) 5 minutes after she left two maintenance guys turned up...

We both didn't want to the lizard in the bathroom, we wanted it to be set free outside. We didn't want it to be killed. Emma tried to explain this to the two guys that turned up at the bungalow. They seemed to understand and Emma showed them where the gecko was (behind the mirror at this point). However, one of the guys clearly had not understood Emma as he started to whack randomly around the lizard with a stick. Emma started shouting at him to stop, this started in a typical British fashion - "no can you please not kill it, we just want it to be put back outside" then it started to get a bit less polite... "no can you not do that, do not kill it" then... "no do not kill it" until finally... "NO. DO. NOT. KILL. IT!" at which point the other guy seemed to understand (that or he just was alarmed by this woman shouting at his colleague, clearly not happy about what he was doing) and he grabbed the stick off him and they ended up grabbing it with their hands. They then took it outside - alive. So it was free!

Just after lizard-gate, we got ready to go have some dinner (and after that ordeal possibly some drinks!) We were just stepping outside when we had yet another powercut! All the lights everywhere went out & it was completely pitch black. Bearing in mind we were already on edge, this would have been quite scary anyway, but couple that with the sound of something in the water literally going mad and splashing the minute the lights went out, it is safe to say - we were more than a bit scared. Emma had already walked down the steps to the path but Candy was still on the deck. Candy started screaming & put our her hand for Emma to grab onto to bring her back onto the deck aswell. After clinging to eachother in the dark (good survival strategy there) Candy started walking towards the emergency lights along the pathway near us whereas Emma thought it was better to get inside and get a torch. All of this was going on whilst this mysterious splashing was still taking place in the water - remember we had seen a crocodile and a large lizard in there. And before anyone reads this & thinks 'scared of a bit of splashing? come on girls get a grip' - this was PITCH black. Candy luckily had her phone on her so we used the light from that to unlock the door - this took some time because, as we all know, when you're rushing to get a key in a lock the stupid thing never goes in! Once inside we scrambled for a torch only for all the power to then come back on. What a fun 10 minutes that had been! We decided to keep the torch with us just incase the power went again. When we went back outside we had a look in the lagoon for the source of the scary splashing - yep, you guessed it, there was nothing there. But there HAD been something there. It was no fish making that noise. We stand by this to this day. There was definately something in there big enough to make that sort of noise. It will just be one of life's little mysteries as to exactly what it was...