As you may or may not have noticed , we are quite a way behind at the moment with our blogs, SORRY!

This is mainly due to poor internet facillities (mmmm?) and a good deal of lazyness on our part. So we bounced into Bangkok from Sukhothai navageted our way through the worlds largest bus depo (ive been to smaller airports!) and found lady luck smiling on us again, the bus to Trat the gate way to Koh Chang left in ten minutes!! We were lucky it was actually late as it took us fifteen minutes to find the terminal it left from, we jumped on board our luxuary coach for the five hour bus trip (which would be the end of another twelve hour day traveling, see its not all fun and games!) to realise we were both starving as neither one of us had eaten all day, we fished around in our mary poppins bag to find crisps and bread, sweet, how well was this day panning out, little did we know the air con began to condensate inside the over head locker, out came the i-pod and books and we settled in for the trip. An hour in to the trip the bus brakes were pushed a little to hard and niagra relesed itself from above, not over us but in front, we both laughed at this "near miss" (where was the mary poppins bag?? on the floor??) The trip sailed by with little to no intrest untill we reached Trat then the soaking wet bag at our feet was discovered! Whos fault was it the bag was on the floor?? Who had left it in such a daft place?? Turns out it was probably the elves as we swore blind it was neither of us. We trolled round Trat for a short while looking for digs for the night when a 'very helpfull aussie' appeared (sounds a bit like the shop keeper from Mr Ben?) on his motorbike and offered to give me a lift to a guesthouse he knew that was just round the corner and dead cheap "just tell them pete the school teacher sent ya!" for some reason i got on the bike leaving hev and all our bags in the well lit busy... ish market place, (yeah ok looking back on it WHAT THE HELL WAS I DOING!!) The place was a five minute bike trip away and was a dump, i then had the thought of WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING, and sprinted (which those who have seen me sprint will agree its a magestic sight) back to where i found hev looking bemused at her big sweaty husband lumbering down the street to her, after the appologies for being daft, which neither one of us thought we were untill i left on the bike, we began on foot in the dark to search for some where to stay. After fourty minutes we had settled on the best of the worst options avalable to us, clearly Trat is not expecting tourism to take off any time soon, its a stop over for Kho Chang, and thats what we did, that night we feasted on seven eleven toasted sandwitches and wine, and made plans for the next day.

We rose with the lark to get to the ferry terminal as early as poss, as of dessert islad called to us, we even skipped breakie!! Ariving at the ferry termianal with our pissed taxi driver (he clearlt felt hard done to) we discovered the next boat wasn't for a hour so we sat down to a thai full english, same same ...but different (hot dog sausages and crispy bacon with watermellon fried eggs and toast, still it taste good) the taxi driver told us he would get us on the way back as there would only be him waiting, which still sounds like a threat, but since we had bus tickets, bought with our ferry ticket, back to Bangkok we let it slide.

The ferry ride over to Koh Chang was nice the sea was calm an flat, there were few people on board with us it almost felt like a private charter, apart from the trucks and cars parked down stairs. When we arrived on the island we found out the taxis was going no where untill he was full, sadly there wernt enough people on our boat to fill his taxi (a pick up truck with bench seats in the back) so we had to settle down and eat some chicken on sticks, its the law!! After the second boat arrived thirty minutes later and no one got off the driver reluctantly told us we could leave, on ward to lonley beach, via the other ferry port where we sat for ten minutes for the boat to moor and the taxis to fill up, then on to lonley beach, up the steepest sharpest hairpins ive ever been up, that was an uneasy car ride.

We bailed out of the pick-up asking the way to tree tops (where we had seen and looked awesome on the web site) after quite a while of searching through the wrong chalets we found the tree tops, which due to a land dispute, no longer had bungalows, or chalets or any accomadation at all, awesome!! After ten minutes of head scratching we carried on down the coast to siam beach huts, where we set up residencey for the next sixteen days.(we were only suposed to be there four or five days, but hey!).

The first couple of days revolved around the beach a couple of drinks and free bar-b-q, (every night there is a party held by a different bar, cheap drinks and free food) then one night we met Bree and Gee, they were staying at a different guesthouse and after a great night out, they surgested we meet them at there guesthouse the next day. This is where things get messy and why we stayed so long, we met Minah, Apple, Mint and the one who no body knows her name, that night i was paid with beer to dance on there bar (im a performing beer monkey), then on to the party for buckets of samsong and a crate load of dancing. This is how we spent the next thirteen days, waking up late lounging on the beach, meeting up with the gang and partying till the sun came up (litrally on a couple of occasions) We did manage to sneak off to do a bit of sight seeing at the fishermans village, where we went fishing and Hev caught crabs....with a hook line and some prawns. We also rode the full lenght and breth of the island on one of two fabulos flying machines we rented, the second of the two was a dog...the fule gauge didn't work, so when we ran out of gas two k from the nearest petrol seller we were less than chuffed, the fact that there were half a dozen hills so steep you thought you might need climbing gear (i aint even joking check out the pic) that was the best work out i think ive ever had!! We watched wild monkeys play on phone and electrical cables, all though we never fed them because we didn't want them not to be afraid of people and to think of us as a food source, the locals on the other hand were more than willing to sell tourists food to feed the monkeys and start on that slippery road from cute monkey, to monkey raiding your bins and robbing food from tourists, oh well that development for you. WE also found two waterfalls one that was closed??( wild cats come at sunset and are dangerous, we learnt later)When you get told a waterfall is closed the first thing you need to ask is how do you CLOSE a WATERFALL, did you turn off the water?? Of course the local who speaks little english can only replie, is closed, much fun was had at the idea of two men every night turning off the waterfall to save water!! The second waterfall, the one we paid to see, we wished was closed as it was crap, and whilst water falling is a waterfall, we still think trade descriptions should pay them a visit.

The sixteen days on koh Chang were awesome, like a holiday we both should have done at eighteen, the people we met we unreal, from Minah and the girls, to Rayn, shirley and sonya (the three most fantastic lady boys on Kho chang) and the unembarassable, brutely honest and Absolutly fabulos Damlie (another lady boy) These people along with Bree and Gee are the reason we stayed so long, which just made us miss or friends back home so it was time to leave before we turned yellow, we said good bye to all our new friends and trecked off to Bangkok, then on to the Islands in the south!

That will have to wait for another day

so untill then

"beautifull morning sargent major"

"Who made you the god damn weather man"

Love and miss you all

the shoe string two