In Koh Phi Phi we stayed in a Bungalow on a private beach. We had to go by boat to get on and off the beach. We had a lovely view of the sea and the sunrise every morning at half 6. This woke us up every morning because the sun shone directly onto us and by half 7 it was too hot to stay in bed.

We did a lot of snorkelling in Koh Phi Phi. The main island which we stayed on is called Koh Phi Phi Don and we went snorkelling at two smaller islands called Koh Phi Phi Ley (a national park where they filmed the beach) and Bamboo Island. Sometimes the fish bit us.

They organised boat trips to these islands from where we were staying.

One night we thought we heard monkeys playing around on our roof.

We climbed over a big hill in the middle of the day to walk to Ton Sai Bay, the town in the middle of the island. I've never sweated so much in my life, and then we had to go clothes shopping for a few hours. I hate shopping at the best of times, but this was a new low for me. Whenever I tried on tee shirts I got a powerfull whiff of stale sweat.

Ton Sai Bay was destroyed in the tsunami and it is now a big building site so we were glad we didn't stay there.

When we went to Maya Bay on Koh Phi Phi Ley, the main beach where they filmed 'The Beach' we snuck in the back entrance by swimming through a cave. We were the only tourists who did this. There was a big reptile about 2 metres long walking around in front of us when we walked up the path to get to the beach.

On the last night we had a few beers with a Polish Canadian and a German guy. The German stayed quiet all night apart from when he told us about the abcess in his back. When the Polish Canadian started telling us his conspiracy theory that the jews were responsible for 9/11, we went to bed.

Aidan.