Well hello!

It has been a hectic last few days and I thought today I would sit at the computer in Ming Shou Guest House and use a proper keyboard rather than type one fingered on my iPhone to catch up on my blog. It's Friday morning on 29th November and I have just had my laundry returned. It cost me 60p to have my bag of washing done and pressed- bargain!

I have just had breakfast and said goodbye to my wonderful companion for the week - Steph. She has been amazing and great company and is now continuing with her travels. She is spending Christmas and New Year in Bali - so good luck Steph and have a great time on your travels!

Since I last blogged I have done so much and hardly had time to catch my breath so it will be nice to sit down and relax in Ming Shou. The Guest House Owner is a lovely man. He's half Chinese and half Thai and was born here. He has worked hard and owns this guest house and another business and also walked me round to show me his new BMW which he is extremely proud of. He has named this Guest House after his only son - Ming Shou. I haven't seen Bun since the weekend so maybe she does only the weekend shift - I hope I see her before I leave Phuket Old Town tomorrow!

I will start with where I left off. Tuesday 26th November, myself, Steph and Ellen took the local bus to Kata beach for the day. The bus cost 35 baht which is 60p and takes about an hour. Not too bad! The beach was very hot and I spent most of the time in the sea to keep cool. It wasn't very relaxing as the waves were quite big but it was quite good fun riding the waves and I did go under alot. I dont know how Ellen lay on the beach in full sun for most of the day - I said to her "You're not human!!

We had lunch at a beach shack - I had some sort of seafood noodle dish which was really nice and a dragonfruit shake.

We caught the last back bus to Phuket Old Town and arrived back at 18.00. Showered, changed and went out for something to eat. I was fairly tired so went to bed about 10.00pm and finished off my book on the e-Reader before heading off to the land of nod.

Wednesday the 28th November the three of us decided to hire a taxi for a few hours and we headed out to the Sea Gypsy Village at Koh Sirey. For any of you that don't know Koh means 'Island'. Phuket is the largest island of them all and the Koh has been dropped from the name over the years. Our taxi driver was called Bird and he agreed a price of 450 baht for the three of us for the few hours we needed him to drive us around. On the way though he took us to a shop which sells touristy things so he could get his card stamped. Apparantly the taxi drivers are on commission with certain places and when they get their cards stamped about 10 times they can then get free fuel. It's a bit like our way of stamping coffee cards when you buy enough you get one free!

We stopped off just after the bridge at a monkey feeding point and bought a bunch of bananas and some nuts. They are clever little things and peel the bananas themselves! I stupidly left the bunch on the table and one monkey swooped in and had the lot before any of us had time to blink!! He was a very naughty monkey and Steph's photo shows him looking rather contrite, but I guess the guilt didn't last long as he scoffed the whole bunch!

We then carried on to the gypsy village and spent half an hour wandering through their village. It was quite dirty and some of the people lived in terrible looking shacks but did seem happy though and most of them waved and said hello to us as we walked on by. Apparantly they have their own unique language which they speak to each other but they do know a little Thai too. The beach was very dirty and had lots of old rubbish washed up which was a real shame and I have taken a picture. There was also a row of headless birds(??) hanging up in the sun - I wonder if they eat them or wear them round their necks!!

Our taxi driver then took us to another part of the island where we had a seafood lunch and sat under a tree on the beach. There was no other tourists there but there was an ex-pat US soldier sitting higher up on the grass bank who came and talked to us. He said his name was Mike and that he was 64 and he served with the US army. He came out to Thailand a number of years ago and made his home here as he said this was the nicest part of the world he has seen and so laid back that it suited him. He told us some really good stories, for eample, about how he smokes weed with the local policmen around 7pm every evening and about the time he was nearly shot by 2 local thai men on a scooter. Oh, and when he crashed his scooter going round a sharp bend but didn't have any life threatening injuries. Great tales to hear but I'm sure they were everso slightly exaggerated!

We left early afternoon and Bird dropped us off at Ming Shou. We agreed for Bird to come back and pick me and Steph up at 7.30pm to take us to the Simon Show which is a caberet of song and dance starring the Ladyboys. Ellen couldn't make it as she had a Skype appointment.

We had showered and had a quick bite to eat when Bird arrived promptly in his taxi. We jumped in and headed off to the Simon Show. We arrived 10 minutes later at the......wait for it..... "Aphrodite Show" and Bird got out and opened the door for us. I said this is not the right one, this is not the Simon Show! Bird said this is a good show, you will like...it has nice Ladyboys. I then realised that Aphrodite show is a place where Bird can get his fuel card stamped!! I told him off for being deceiving and he then put us back in the taxi and took us to the right one. We got there with seconds to spare and seated ourselves in a good place. Steph and I really enjoyed the show as it had a mix of all sorts of song and dance and left the theatre about 9.20pm. All the main stars of the show stood outside where you could have your photo taken with them for 100 baht each (2 pounds).... I cant find the pound symbol on this keyboard!! I had one photo taken with 2 of the ladyboys and thought they were absolutely stunning. I looked rather dowdy in comparison I thought!

Bird dropped us back to Ming Shou in his taxi and sped off when Steph realised she had left her Samsung phone on the back seat. We used the guest house's telephone to ring Bird (luckily he had given us his phone number) and he came back 10 minutes later. Steph opened the back door and there it was lying on the back seat. Phew!!

I went to bed very tired after a very action packed day/eve.

Thursday 28th November was overcast and I thought it was more comfortable heat wise. Steph and I had booked a trip to James Bond Island so we were up early and the bus came to pick us up at just after 9.00am. We left Phuket Old Town and drove to Patong to pick up eight other tourists. What a dump Patong is - it's like Benidorm (so tacky!) I'm so glad I wasn't staying there. I asked the Swiss couple what they thought of Patong and the one word he used was "horrible"!!

The itinerary for the day was:

Visit Suwankuha Temple (Monkey Cave) with big Buddha in Cave

Arrive at Surakul Pier and take a longtail boat to Panyee Island (Muslim sea gypsy village) and have a Thai set lunch

Stop off at floating Gypsy Village for Seafood lunch

Visit James Bond Island (Khao Tapu) a needle formed from limestone rock which featured in the film The Man with the Golden Gun

Take a guide driven canoe around Talu Island

Arrive at Sarakul Pier and take a visit to Sarasin Bridge (the bridge between Phuket and Phang Nga) to take photos of the sunset.

Transfer back to hotel by minibus.

This was a great day but the photo opportunites were not great at James Bond Island becasue of the overcast skies. The young guide on our 30 minute canoe ride was great and he took us into a really high opened top cave which was so beautiful. On the way out of the cave he took us under a really low bit where Steph and I had to lie on the boat as we went under. It was litereally centimetres above me and I thought the rocks were going to scrape my face off - luckily it didn't!

We arrived back at the hotel about 8.00pm and had a quick bite to eat before heading off to bed completely shattered at 9.00pm.

Friday 29th November

Here I am typing up this blog whilst drinking free coffee compliments of Ming Shou. I have also been given a free fresh prune juice but luckily I dont need it for the reasons you think! I think Mr Shou feels sorry for me working so hard at the computer and wants me to keep hydrated. Steph has left me now so we have said our goodbyes and I am sorry to see her go. She has been a fantastic travel companion this week and it was great to share some of those moments with someone.

I am going to have a realxing day and pack my room up ready to meet the GVI coordinator tomorrow morning at 10.00am at the Phuket Backpacker Hostel. I will write soon to let you know that I have settled in and what my co-workers are like. Enjoy the photos of the last few days and speak soon. Take care x