After one last great day in Cairns, spent walking around the city and swimming in the Lagoon, we flew back to Sydney. Mark and John had a fun night out (courtesy of Fijian Bounty rum, of course), and then it was time to fly out on the 26th. Before our afternoon flight, we stopped on our way to the airport at Dan and Kate's place to help celebrate Australia Day - complete with festive hats and shirts. Then, at 5pm we were on our way to Singapore.

Usually, our rule is to have a night booked wherever we land, so that we have a place to go from the airport. For Singapore, we broke this rule, thinking we may be able to catch a train that same night and give ourselves a bit more time in Malaysia. With having changed our flight to be around for Australia day, we had only given ourselves 2 days to get to Krabi, to catch the ferry to Koh Jum, where we had reservations with Aunt MJ and Uncle Randy for the week. These next 2 days of travel passed by in a blur of exhaustion and gravol.

We landed in Singapore ahead of schedule, just after 9pm and knew the train would leave, from across the city at 11:30pm. That should be enough time get hop the subway and get across the city in time to catch the night train. What we didn't account for was the fact that the Woodlands subway station was not at the same location as the Woodlands Train station. Once we popped out of the subway, we had to catch a bus to the train station! We arrived about 11:45pm and the train had already left. By the time we walked around to figure this out, it was after midnight and the subways were now shut down. So, if we wanted to spend the night in Singapore, we were at the mercy of the taxis. We talked to a security guard who told us we could take a bus across the border to Malaysia and there may still be a night train from that station, if we hurried. Figuring this our best choice, we did just that. But he was wrong, and the train station was quiet and deserted in the Malaysian city of JB. The next train out was not going to be until 5am. By this time, it was 1am and we weren't sure we wanted to hunt down a hotel to sleep for only 4 hours. So, a first for both of us, we cozied up on the metal benches and prepared for a night of sleeping in the train station.

At 5am, we were woken up and got in line to buy our tickets. When Mark got to the front, he was informed that the next train wouldn't, in fact, be leaving until 9am. We could've had a full night's sleep in a hotel after all! We waited, finally bought our tickets and hopped a 5 hour train from JB to Kuala Lumpur. Once we arrived there, we bought tickets for the next leg of our journey - we would take a train leaving at 9pm that night from KL to the Thai border, which would arrive at 8:30am the next morning. After clearing customs, we would hop another train to the city of Hat Yai, where we would find a bus to Krabi. This all worked out as planned, down to the tiny beds of our sleeper car that we had from JB to KL. Arriving in Hat Yai in Thailand, we were hot, exausted and both not too happy to be in Thailand. We then had to take a 5.5 hour mini bus ride to Krabi. It was so cramped and uncomfortable, I wasn't sure we'd survive! But, arriving in Krabi as the sun was setting, we were helped to find a cheap hotel and booked our ferry tickets for the next morning. After a shower, a fresh change of clothes, and a tasty thai dinner, we were fast asleep in our luxurious bed.

The next morning, the world was a totally different place. Krabi was beautiful, we had a long sleep and a great breakfast to boost us up. We were dropped off at the ferry docks and immediately spotted MJ and Randy! All was right again with the world. A smooth ferry ride took us out into the Andaman sea, were we jumped from the ferry to a long boat mid-sea in the bay of Koh Jum.

Our home at Ting Rai Bay is beautiful - an island paradise with our own little bungalow up the hill from the beach with a wide view of the ocean. We've spent the last couple of days just relaxing, either on the beach or on our covered veranda. It's great to have happy hour with the Cooks and just sit around and chat away the afternoon. We've been trying to learn a bit of very basic Thai and speak with the extremely friendly staff here. We promise to get up to something more exciting soon, but for now, laziness is bliss.