Well the sun finally arrived in Phuket on Monday - hurrah! We spent Monday and Tuesday enjoying the weather, Jon went surfing and we met up with Dad's cousin who lives and works on Phuket. We also booked up a trip to Phi Phi island for Wednesday (yesterday). What a great day we had! We had an early start (compared to the last few weeks) and were collected from our hotel at 8am. After a minibus ride to the "port" which was basically a load of speed boats lined up on the beach we boarded a big speedboat with about 20 other tourists. Although the tour guide (who came out with the predictable tour guide jokes all day) told us the sea was a bit choppy, nothing prepared us for the bumpy rollercoaster type ride we were in for. Phi Phi actually consists of two islands: one small one called Phi Phi Leh which is uninhabited and can only be visited for the day and Phi Phi Don, the larger and inhabited island. I spent most of the hour-long journey to Phi Phi Leh clinging on to Jon's arms and legs in an attempt to stay in my seat. For about the first ten minutes everybody on the boat was trying to play it cool but after that out came the grimaces and screams!! I still can't decide if the boat ride was fun of just plain scary but when we got to our first stop, Maya Bay, I decided it was well worth it!

Maya Bay is where the film The Beach was filmed and if you have seen it you will probably recognise the pictures (except the bay is not completely enclosed as it seems in the film but is entered by a gap between to limestone cliffs. as you can see from the picturs, Maya Bay was absolutely beautiful, we spent about an hour there just soaking up the relaxed atmosphere and taking pictures. Then onto Lo Samah bay, another small bay on Phi Phi Leh for some snorkelling. The fish were beautiful and so brightly coloured.

After that we went onto Phi Phi Don (the larger island) visited Pileh Cove, a beautiful cove surrounded by huge cliffs. The water here was so clear that we fed the fish from the boat and could see them all in perfect detail. Then onto viking cave to take pictures. this is allegedly where a viking boat sank and the vikings took up residence in the cave. Next stop was Monkey Beach which we didn't realise until we got there was so-called because of the monkeys that lived on it!! We got off the boat and fed the monkeys with watermelon, getting some great pics, but were careful not to sit down on the beach as we were warned that this makes you seem the same size as the monkeys and them more likely to attack you - great!! I had already been attacked by one monkey in Thailand on the streets in Ko Samui - I was not about to risk a second attack so spent the ten minute stop standing tall (and behind Jon!!).

After giving the monkeys their lunch we went to get out own dropping anchor in a beautiful beach and having lunch at a restaurant there. The tour guide was telling us how badly Phi Phi had been hit by the tsunami with more than 635 people losing their lives. To see it now you wouldn't know such an awful thing had happened here. The natural environment was apparently more beautiful than ever as the tsunami had washed away much debris from the beaches and the buildings on Phi Phi Don had been rebuilt or restored. We were told that the tsunami had given Phi Phi the opportunity to scale back on the commercialism there putting restriction on the number of beachfront bungalows to be built there.

After leaving Phi Phi Don we went to a tiny island called Khai Nok which was so beautiful. We stopped to snorkel again and you can see all the beautiful fish in the pictures. Again we sat and soaked up the breath takingly beautiful scenery and relaxed on the beach for an hour, talking to an Australian and South African couple we had met on the trip. they had some interesting stories to tell of where they live and the Oz couple put the wind up Jon with their stories of the spiders and snakes we are likley to come across when we are in Australia!!

We arrived back at the hotel so exhausted from our day and expecting to ache alot this morning from our time on the speed boat. We had a lovely meal and a few drinks before collapsing into bed!

As predicted we can hardly move this morning!! It is our last full day in Thailand so we are going to stay out of the sun and get a massage for our aches!! The thought of three flightsduring the course of Friday and Saturday is bad enough without the addition of backache and sunburn,so a days TLC is what is in order we think!

We have had an amazing time in Thailand seeing some beautiful and wonderous sights, we feel like we should be sad to say goodbye, which in a way we are but the excitement of going to Australia soon kicks in!

It seems so strange that usually by this time in a holiday we are winding down to come home! We feel like we have been away for ages yet we still have 3 months to go!!! The reality of it still hasn't kicked in so I am not sure if it ever will!

Hope all is well with everyone at home. Lots fo love and kisses to all,

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