After a crazy day of travelling - from Hua Hin (7 of us in a minibus with the most random snacks we could find from the 7-11 to keep us sustained (pickiled mango anyone?)) we arrived in Bangkok for MASSIVE MONDAY! After lots of Chang, rounds of "happy birthday", buying and trying on hats and roses we eventually crashed and had a few hours sleep. Then it was onto the airport for a flight down to Phuket and for us 4 girls the public ferry over to Ko Phi Phi. (The boys were still being flash so they left us for a private transfer.)

Our 3 and a bit days on Ko Phi Phi were spent catching up on some well deserved sleep, swimming in the beautiful ocean, and sunbathing on the white sandy beaches... The evenings were spent mostly catching up with the Fishes (Richard, Poum, Hannah and Suzie) and the others staying in other places on the island, eating lots of yummy food, drinking "buckets" and cheering on the boys in the Thai boxing ring at the Reggae Bar! Luckily none of them sustained any lasting damage, but we did see a number of people on the island with black eyes! In fact the worst bruising Rachel sustained attempting to tightrope walk in the Bohemian Bar (totally sober I may add!) Her leg is now matching Georgie's that she injured in a car accident on the way from Bangkok to Hua Hin!

Rach and I hiked over the island one day, braving the snakes, wild monkeys and evil mosquitos, to the viewpoints where you could see both sides of Ton Sai. From there it was very clear how easily the island was so badly affected by the 2004 tsunami as the wave came from both sides engulfing the main town of Ton Sai. There is little evidence now of the tsumani - other than well marked evacuation routes, photographs in many of the resturants showing how they rebuilt and a memorial garden. We carried on our hike to the Relax beach resort where T and Sally were staying and T and I went out for a snorkel. Although the visability wasn't fantastic, we saw loads of tropical fish and our particular favourites were the shoals of tiny flying fish that leaped about around us. We spent the afternoon at the Phi Phi Island Village where Tom, Rols, Nev, Fish and Poum and a few of Fish's friends from Qatar were staying... drinking champagne in Fish and Poum's villa's own infinity pool did feel pretty extravagent!

Yesterday we bade a sad farewell to the relatively chilled island of Phi Phi to get the ferry back over to the craziness of the island of Phuket for a night with 4 in a double bed in the Good Nice Guesthouse in Patong... cozy! In the end it didn't matter too much as we were barely in bed! Had a fun night in a Mexican place on the seafront - table for 9 with Georgie and Fiona joining us afterwards, then onto a club and finally ending up on what I think was called Happy Street. Probably highlighted the worst side of Thailand - old sleezy men eying up the young Thai girls dancing on the bars...

This morning was final farewells - Fish and Poum are staying on in Phuket for a few days before their honeymoon in the Maldives; Nev should now be back in Woochi, China; Rols and Tom are probably still in flight back to London and work tomorrow morning; Sally and T have a few more days in Thailand checking out the East Coast islands and Rachel and I are now in Jakarta!