We touched down at Phuket airport around 2pm and got the shuttle bus that was said to take around 40mins to Phuket town, this was proven to be wrong as it took us around 2 hours to get there. We found a nice guest house and sat outside and had some beers, why not when they were less than a pound, something we could get use to. We didn't do much that night apart from get something to eat at a hotel. J had an opportunity to have his first real thai green curry and Rachel had the traditional pad thai. J wasn't sure what to expect as the last thai green curry he had was at home, which turned out very lemony! But this time it was very spicy and I think more what it should be like. We had booked on to the ferry to take us to Koh Phi Phi for the next day, which we were really looking forward to firstly doing our diving course and secondly soaking the sun up and relaxing on the beach.

We hadn't booked a room before we arrived at the island which could have been a mistake as we were walking round for 2 hours in the blistering heat looking for a room but everywhere was either full or too expensive, luckily we did find somewhere which was a reasonable price with aircon etc! Which is a must have in this heat!! We went to Baracuda Dive School and talked to them about what the PADI course involved, and we booked up straight away, so that would be our first 3 days taken up. For the course we had to do a bit a theory which we completed that evening and did our exam the next afternoon. That morning we did a confined dive where we had to practice skills. We both completed these fine so could move on to the 4 open water dives. We were meant to go back to the dive shop at 9pm to find out when our open water dives would be the next day but that evening completely forgot whilst chatting to 2 guys from Basingstoke in a bar in town. They were doing the same trip as us but the other way round so are just at the start of theirs - lucky b*****s!! We only remembered about the dive shop when it was too late so the following morning we got there for 8.30am just in case we were on the morning boat but we had missed it by half an hour. It wasn't a problem though luckily and went on the afternoon boat. On our first 2 dives we saw turtles and lots and lots of fish!! On the first 2 dives we only went down to 12m, practicing some skills we had learned and then had a short swim around. The second day we did another 2 dives this time going deeper to 18m, again we had to show we could do some more skills and then had more of a swim on the dives, hoping to see some sharks but we never did. So now we are both certified divers and can dive anwhere in the world! AWESOME! That evening we went out with our diving instructor, JJ. He kindly treated us to dinner at his favourite restaurant 'Anna's' which did do really tasty food! We then went to DoJos for a couple of drinks but ended up in the Rolling Stones bar which is really cool. A thai rock and roll band play there every night and are able to perform any song you request. We didn't stay out too late though as JJ was diving the next day and we were exhausted from diving.

It was quite nice that we had done our course the first few days and got it out of the way with and we think we chose the best days to dive as the days after were much more sunny. Perfect for the beach. We thought we deserved a holiday, as travelling is quite tiring sometimes! The next few days consisted of the beach, drinking, eating, going back to Anna's usually and then going to a few bars and even chucking in the odd drink at the thai boxing bar, where they get 2 people from the crowd to fight each other for a bucket. J had a massage on the beach 1 day and then we both went to the 'Fish Doctor' sticking your feet in fish tanks and then the fish eat away your dead skin. It is very weird feeling at first but then you kind of get use to it.