I am getting so brown now!!even jess has a tan. Its very discerning how jess has slipped so easily into beach life, she can sit quite happily for five hours straight and finish an entire book, wheras i think i have ants in pants and keep having to go for walks and swims!! she must have been a beach bum in a previous life. I'm so relaxed now, its so nice doing nothing and sleeping lots!!

Yesterday we went to the aquariam here which is the biggest in malaysia apparently. lots of ingenious photo ops which i shall try and download for you! quite alarmingly it is our third aquariam so far! this one was good though we saw the biggest snake ever!it was huge and fat and could swallow goats, and i've no doubt humans!!

On our first full day here we became so childishly excited about a bottle of wine for twenty ringgits (3 quid ish) that we didn't even realise we pay the same at home, and it was disgusting!! it's finally dawning on us we may have to start drinkin beer and look forward to visiting some ozzy vineyards. we ate at the nicest restaurant that night though. i remember it from when i came with my family eight nine years ago. its just a beautiful setting, like being in a lake in a jungle with frangipangi flowers floating around everywhere. we shared a seafood platter, which had the best squid. think im getting quite addicted to squid now!!

On our first day on the beach, we met a guy called Bingo. (think malay bob marley!?) he drives the boat for the paragliding and stuff and i went on his boat with him for a bit which was quite fun. we had a few drinks with him last night and he said he'd take us around the island. taxis are soooo expensive here!! and we want to go to the crocodile farm, so all we have to do is pay petrol. i'm getting the feeling that everyone who works in these beach resorts gets a tad bit bored, especially now. it's quite quiet and me and jess are getting used to being the only non-couple!! so thats really nice of him although jess worries this means she might have to talk to another human being, and i fear my overcompensating looks like im flirting!!which i'm not!

today was awesome, we were lazing on the beach as per usual and Bingo said i could paraglide for free!! (he'd been trying to persuade for ages but i wasn't really sure-free is another matter entirely!!) what i didn't realise until i was fully strapped in was i think i was being used as test bunny! bingo had told us earlier only him and his boss could drive the boat, and he'd also said his boss was out for the day and bingo was definately not in the boat!!!!! it was surprisingly ok though, i went up easily and it was so peacefull being in the air. it didn't feel unnatural at all. my only cause of alarm was seeing the jelly fish in the water from that height. they are huge, the size of tyres. apparently brown ones are safe and white ones are extremely dangerous. so i was a tad worried when i started to go down and there was a massive brown one beneath me, but i didn't land there and then I noticed to massive white (!) ones. i was scared s***eless and thank god only my feet hit the water and he managed to get me back up. from then on I had the fear and luckily i had a safe dry landing! would definately do it again, just not in jelly infested waters!

We're plannig on staying here till Monday and will be getting the boat over to Satun, Thailand then. wanted to give the land borders a miss!

Its quite funny here, all the internet places (and there are a lot) are full with kids on computer games, Im sure they must spend hours in here!!

ash and jess