After our stress with bus tickets the day before we luckily managed to hail down a lovely taxi driver who delivered us to the bus station the next morning and bundled us on to the correct bus bound for phuket, this was after telling us all about his 6 kids and the fact he was 45 years old - me and katy were absolutely gobsmacked since he only looked about 20 and rather attractive with it!

So 12 hours and a rather uneventful bus journey later we rocked up to the bus staion in Phuket, hostel address in hand only to be met with rather a large probelm - the locals could not read or understand our english and despite our obvious natural flare on the language front (!!!) we just werent quite able to translate! So ... in one of Katys more intelligent moments she very cleverly suggested going to the big fancy hotel oppsite and gettting him to sort us out. This he did and soon we were presented with a nice friendly tuk tuk driver . . . who didnt have the slightest idea where he was going! After much discusion with some random guy on a motor bike he finally decided he knew where we were going and (with the man on the motorbike leading the way) off we went only to pull up at the wrong place. Finally between about 6 people and a map our destination was found and a route was planned. We finally rocked up at our hostel and the worlds hottest room about 2 hours after we should!

Next morning we tried to be organised and headed out early to book our bus up to Bangkok for the next day and head to the beach to work on our tan. After a long walk in the blazing heat and a mammoth bus journey across town the bus was finally booked and we were heading to the beach. By this time it wasn't quite as hot as it had been so we sat on the beach and took in some of the sights - 80 year old men in speedos, 80 year old men with young thai women, 80 year old men in speedos . . . you get the idea! After a while though the storm clouds rolled in an the rain that we'd brought with us from Oz started pouring down monsoon style while we hunted in vain for a bus only to be told that they stop running at 6 so tuk tuk it was for the 45 minute hourney back to our hostel!

Next day it was up nice and early for our bus to bangkok although it was worth it fo some of the views particulalry the men driving their little carts full of coconuts with a couple of gibbons hanging on to the side for dear life! All was going well until about 5 o'clock when we pulled up at a restaurant for our compliemtary meal, a meal that consisted of rice and some seriously hot curries with a selection of fish and unidentifiable meat. After swallowing downb all we could we then made a quick bee line for the drinks section to cool our burning mouths before braving the local toilets - a logistical nightmare and returnign back to the safety of the bus! A few hours later we rocked up in Bangkok and aried at our hsotel which was run by a lovley man and was really nice.

The following morning and it was time for a whistle stop tour of Bangkok begining with a lovely boat ride down the river to see all the houses on stilts in the water before being dropped of pour first temple of the day! We wandered around for a while trying to secretly snap pics of the monks in their robes and admiring the mosaic decorations of the temple walls. After dragging Katy up a nice steep set of stairs we took some more pics before heading back down to explore the markets, Next up it was time for us to catch the ferry across to the other side of the river for some more market shopping and a look in another temple - this one housing the biggest reclining budda in Thailand which turned out to be absolutely huge and pretty impressive to see. We wandered round the rest of the temples dropping coins into the pots and taking yet more pics before we called it a day and, after Katy bought some further souvenirs headed for some food and to book our train for the next day. We finally made it to the train station only to be told by people who work for the train company that we should get the bus instead becuase the train gets really busy and we woud have to stand and that it can be unsafe - not what we had heard. We finally managed to get them to tell us the time of the train so i guess we shall see whether we make it to Cambodia or not!