What a weird and wonderful week we've had since I last wrote on this!!

I'll start with the journey here; I think I said last time that it was about to start raining which turned out to be a complete understatement! It literally poured buckets all night so after trying to dodge the rain by hiding in bars on Khao San road we gave up knowing that we had to be up at 6 the next morning to get the bus anyway. Thanks to a combination of loud German neighbours and the sound of the rain we got very little sleep so getting up that early was quite painful. We got on the bus and had to change seats about five times to avoid the leaks but it wasn't too bad, at least it was quite comfortable really. I slept for most of the 6 hour journey to Trat anyway only waking up occasionally to tell Lawrence he was in my way! When we got to Trat we had to hang around for a while to sort out the ferry tickets and whatnot and we were then put in another taxi type thing to get the ferry. Because I had a stupid big bag mine was the one left on the tailgate of this thing and was very precariously balanced the entire way there so we were mostly just waiting for it to fall off and explode pants and whanot everywhere which I think I would have laughed at at first and then probably cried a bit!! The weather was still pretty bad on the ferry so it felt like it took ages and we then had to get another taxi for about 50 minutes to the hotel. It was all worth it when we arrived in spite of the weather as the hotel was very nice. Although when we were unpacking I discovered that literally all of my clothes were soaking wet from the rain nd a blue top had run and dyed everything that was white with blue patches. Had a bit of a sulk about that but put them all in the laundry in the hotel and they all recovered! That night we had dinner in the hotel and went to sleep pretty early. The next morning when we woke up it was beautifully sunny so we were driven by the man who owns the hotel down to the beach and just spent the day sunbathing and swimming and then came back and had a beer in the hammocks before going out for dinner. Bliss! The next few days seemed to follow alternating rainy and sunny days so we mostly either went to the beach or hung out around the hotel playing with the puppies that live there!

On Saturday we were upgraded for free in the hotel!! We were promoted from a fan room with no windows to an airconditioned one with windows and a mini bar! It was a happy day! In the evening we went out for dinner down the road from the hotel and despite drinking coke with dinner because I didn't want to drink, somehow ended up having a cocktail afterwards. And then another. And another. We then decided to go to a bar just down the road from the hotel and it was a slippery slope after that!! Including running out of money and thinking it was a better idea to go back to the hotel for more money and come back out again rather than being sensible and going to sleep!! The next day was a complete washout and we just spent the day sleeping/sunbathing in the hotel. Monday was pretty similar to all the other days, we went to the beach in the day only the man who normally drove us there in a van had gone off for the day so we were taken on the back of two scooters, I was clinging onto this poor Thai boy for dear life practically crying the entire way there. Lawrence loved it, it took me a rum to recover! The evening was the normal out for dinner (i'm so sick of noodles!) and a drink in the usual bar in the eveining, only that night when we went in there were two english guys leaving and something was going on but I didnt really get what until they'd left and one of the girls started ranting about how they'd offered her 200 baht (about 4 pounds) for sex. It wasn't the fact that they'd offered her money for sex in the first place she was bothered about, it was because it wasn't enough! "Maybe 200 baht for ladyboy but not for sister" I think were her exact words. Yes, it turned out we had befriended an entire bar full of prostitues. But they're nice ones! Although we haven't told them where we're staying now we've moved!!

On Tuesday we went to the beach again and after we'd been there for about ten minutes the heavens opened and it pretty much hasn't stopped raining since! We were supposed to be going back to Bangkok on Thursday and shortly after heading down south to Phuket but having heard that the weather is even worse in the south and set to stay that way down there for a while we're sticking it out in the north for a bit and just hoping that it starts being sunny again soon. We moved from the hotel we were in to a cheaper one (one with a bathroom that doesn't have hot water or a toilet that flushes!!) in the resort up the road called Lonely Beach and we went for lunch just after we'd got here and bumped into one of Kieran's friends from school, Sam. It also turns out we're just two rooms away from him as well!! What a small world it is and all that.

I'm now sat in an internet cafe trying to upload photos (although if it doesnt work this time i'm giving up!!) while Lawrence has gone off on a bike to White Sands which is the next beach up to find us somewhere to stay from tomorrow. Watching that boy go off on bikes does give me chickens. I refuse to go or to watch!! I hope everyones ok and will get started on some postcards soon! xxxxx