Hey everyone,

Im currently in Koh Phi Phi,an island off the west coast of Thailand.

On my last day in Sappa, Katy and i spent the day with one of the village girls, instead of going on an organised tour. She came and met us at our hotel in the morning, took us to the local food market and brought ingredients for our lunch. We then trecked down the mountain for about 2 hours until we reached a tiny path off the side of the road,which led up to her house, on the edge of a corn field. The views on the way down were amazing, we were walking alongside rice paddys,and you could see down to the valley at the bottom. Her house was a wooden shack, surrounded by all sorts of animals, dogs and children were running around with chickens, there was a buffalow and some goats, and really tiny pigglets which were dead cute! she cooked us lunch on a fire and we ate with her mom and dad, who couldnt speak a word of english but still chatted away to us all through lunch as if we could uynderstand them! the food was amazing, she made tofu cooked in tomatoes, with loads of herbs, morning glory, which is like chewy spinach, and ALOT of rice. It was so tasty. After that we walked down to the valley where she pointed out loads of interesting things about her village. Her enlish was amazing, way better then the people who work in the guest houses, since she spent all day talking to tourists.

The next day we got the bus back to Hanoi, which was better than the journey there. We met two guys on the bus and we all split a room when we got back to the city. Mainly cuz we arrived at 5am whe nothing is open. We sat on the pavemenet for 2 hours waiting for a hotel to open. As they did, they all said they were full, the boys found one that had what they said was a twin room with 2 double beds so we all decided to squash in together. After luggin our bags up 5 flights of stairs, we found the room was 2 single beds but we were so tiered we took it anyway.

The next day Katy and i got up at 5am to start our mission down to the islands. The flight from Hanoi to Bangkok was quite eventfull...Katy couldnt stop throwing up befor we got on the plane, then when we did some guy starting screaming at me cuz i asked him to get up so i could get to my seat! The whole plane was staring at him in Shock, iv never had anyone be so rude to me as he was. The air stewardess came over and gave us new seats so we didnt have to be anywhere near him. i was so angry that i burst into tears as soon as id sat down. The steward came over and told me not to worry that he was obviously crazy...that made me laugh. After a bus and a boat, i finally arrirved in
Koh Samui 30 hours after setting off from Hanoi. It took me an hour of truggin up and down the beach to find somewhere i could afford to stay and ended up moving the next day to somewhere nicer for the same price. I cought a horrible cold whilst on the bus and felt like total crap when i got to Samui, but since Katy was now in Koh Tao, i had to go out to make some friends. I went to a bar and sat down and after attempting to talk to 2 people who just ignored me , 2 girls came over and invited me to their table.
they turned out to be really nice and i ended up meeting up with them on Koh Phangan a few days later too. I stayed on Samui for 3 days, spending the days at the beach, or in bed since i was sick, and at night going out with the girls.

The morning of my birthday i took the boat over to Koh Phangan, where id booked a beach hut for me katy and ashleigh (a girl we met in Vietnam) to stay in. There was some confussion as they thought they were meeting me at the peir, so I went to the beach and they walked for 2 hours to get to the peir, but they went to the wrong one and we totally missed each other. i turned up tot find none at the accomodation so spent 2 hours sitting on a diserted beach, not a great start to my birthday, but they eventually returned with a chocolate muffin with candles in it, a tube of my favourite sweets and a bottle of gin! so all was forgiven. The hut we stayed in was pretty nice, by hut standards, and we were the only people staying there, so although it was quiet, we had the entire beach to ourselves and our hut was litterally on the beach, so it was amazing. There was a massive beach party on my birthday night, so we went down to that, meeting up with the girls from Samui and katy bumped into some friends from home too, we had an awsome night.

The next night we went to a resort called Coral which has weekly pool partys, we met some really cool people and i met a lovley guy called Tom who im now travelling with. The next night was the Black moon party, which turned out to not be that good and we only stayed for 2 hours, it was fun though.

Leaving Koh Phangan we had formed a little group of 6 who were all heading off to Koh Tao, so we all hung out together there. On our second day we all decied to rent motorbikes and ATV's (quad bikes) i went for an ATV since it had 4 wheels i thought itd be safer. On the roads i was fine, but going off road to get to the beaches was really hard. I made it to the first beach. the scenery was stunning, the water was so clear and warm we went for a swim to cool down. Driving to the second beach i kept getitng stuck and after ending up in a ditch 3 times(dont worry mom, didnt actually come off just got the ATV stuck) i decided to take my ATV back and spent the rest of the day working on my tan whilst the others explored the island. When i got back tot he hotel later that evening i bumped into one of the guys who said that katy was in hospital. I thought they were winding me up and that theyd all just been in the pub, but it turtns out shes actually was in hospital after totalling her ATV and being thrown off it. By now she should be just about arriving back in sunny England, on crutches, she didnt brake anythig amazingly but has damaged a ligament in her leg. (get well soon katy!!)

The next day i spent the day diving. The water was amazingly clear and i saw huge stigrays and loads of Trigger fish, which are extreamly aggressive and will attack humans if you get too close, really beautiful though.

After a boat and a bus i arrived in Krabi the next day and met up with Tom. We spent the next day at Ralee beach. It was really beautiful, even when it started to rain. We nearly got stranded there after our boatman failled to pick us up, and the last boat back to krabi had already gone, we managed to get onto another boat to a different part of the mainland, but were still miles away and there werent any cabs so we had to hitchhike home, i managed to hail down a truck who gave us a lift back to Krabi town.

We arrived in Koh Phi Phi yesturaday morning. Its so beautiful here, but way more buit up than i expected it to be. Its pretty bust though which is good, as Krabi was so dead there wasnt anything to do. We went to a beach party last night. We'd collected loads of flyers throughout the night and at certain bars for 10 minutes each hour you can get a free drink with a flyer, so every hour we'd run a to a differnet bar to collect our free drink. At one point a guy asked me what time it was (he was obviously on the free bucket round aswell) i didnt know the actual time so i just shouted 'bucket o'clock!' and he ran off to the bar to get his free drink!

We are stying in a really cute hut up in the mountains, its a really steep climb to get there but the views are amazing and you can see to both beaches from our balcony. this morning i woke up thinking that some one was doing construction work, then realised it was monkeys on the roof! there were 6 monkeys on our balcony at one point, eating the fruit skins out of the bin, that id put outside so as not to attract ants into the room.

Not sure what the rest of my plan is yet, im havaing a nightmare trying to get hold of virgin atlantic who have surposedly sent me new tickets 3 weeks ago but i still havnt got them, im thinking of moving my flight forward as theres not much left for me to do here, but cant do that tilll iv got my new tickets, will keep you all posted though.

Congratualations to Jo and Nat for passing there exams, il celebrate with a cocktail for you!

Missing you all,

Lots of Love

Karen

xxx