Lady-boys, tourists, rain, markets and more tourists equals Thailand. After spending two weeks in Borneo Owen and I flew out of Miri to reach our destination Phuket, Thailand. We arranged to meet our good friend Worm (Jermany Rankin) there and before we all new it we were hitting the bars down Bangla Road in Patong. Bangla road is pretty much where everyone goes at night to get tanked and steer at lady boys. Worm told us that if you were unsure if it was a girl or a boy, to look at their hands. After all, a lady boy can not disguise those manly rather large looking hands.

Phuket itself is full of tourists from all over the world. After coming from places where there were only a few other tourists around we were truely shocked and a little put off. However, it is touristy for a reason. The beaches are beautiful and the scenery is impressive. One day we hired scooters and flew around Phuket looking at giant Buddha's on hills and eating freshly fried chicken off the side of the road. We spent just under a week in Phuket which is longer than expected. Unfortunuitly for Worm he snapped off his little toe in an accident and had to spend a few days recoperating.

After Phuket the three of us ventured off to Koh Tao which is a tiny island on the east coast of Thailand. We left Phuket at 12pm and arrived in Koh Tao at 6am the next day. The journey itself was not so bad because we were able to sleep on the boat. However we were all crammed in to a tiny cabin with inch thick mattresses lied next to each other but at least we could lie down.

Owen decided to do his open water diving course in Koh Tao because the island is well known for its underwater marine life. So that left Worm and I to potter around the island for four days. I enjoyed this time as it was a great excuse to do nothing on the beach and wonder around getting massages.

Every night we would meet up for dinner with our other good friend Lee Johnson who has been living on the island for three months. One night we all decided to go and watch Muay Thai boxing. This was amazing to watch! There were about 6 different fights and all consisted of good head on fighting.

After Owen finished his dive course we went on a snorkelling trip right around the island. We went to several different dive sites. It was definitly up there with the best snorkelling I have ever done. At one point there were schools of fish everywhere. Im talking about tens of thousands of little fish swimming around us. It was awesome fun!

As the 24th of July edged near so did the full moon which only meant one thing... full moon party! Owen, Lee, Worm, Nicole and I all ventured by boat to Koh Phangan where the full moon party is held. On the way to the island we all got soaking wet because the boat was so chammed packed that we had to sit outside along the barrier which is the prime spot for a sea water shower. I had just straughtened my hair and much to my disappointment it got soaking wet . I hadnt straightened my hair in three months! Next time I will not bother haha.

We arrived in Koh Phangan at 1pm. After freshening up from our sea shower we all went and hit up Amsterdam bar which is famous for its 180 degree view of the ocean. We ended up staying up there for about five hours admiring the sight and relaxing before our big night. We meet up with some more people and then we were off to enjoy ourselves! After spending a few hours at the full moon party I was on my way to buy another round of drinks when I noticed that my wallet was gone. I tried to look for it but with 20000 other people crammed on one beach there was know way I was going to find it. That put a downer on my night but other than that it was awesome! Owen and I even got small tattoos each. We got them done traditionally with bamboo (they are tiny so dont worry mum, dad, grandad and nana).

After the full moon party we went back to Koh Tao to collect our big bags and head to our next destination Bangkok. We farewelled Lee and Worm as they were heading in opposite directions and off we went. Bangkok was really full on for us. You could tell that the 20000 young people who were at the full moon party were now in Bangkok. So after visiting the River Kwai WWII bridge we left Bangkok and went north to Chang Mai.

Chang Mai is a lovely place. The city has canals running down with massive fish in it. We went to a big night market there and also went to serveral different factories such as silver, gold, gems, silk and wood. We also went to visit the tigers. That was great! All the tigers there have been hand raised so you are able to go up and cuddle them. Owen and I also snuck into the baby tigers pen and cuddled them to until we got kicked out.

After Chang Mai we went to a place called Pai. We had heard amazing things about Pai from other travellers so we were excited to see the place for ourselves. We were not dissappointed by it either! Pai was my favourite place in Thailand. The place itself was so chilled out and even though there were other tourists there they werent so in your face. We hired a scooter for a couple of days and zoomed around looking at all the sites. Im pleased we had not rid an elephant yet because Pai was the best place to do it! We paid half the price of any other elephant place in Thailand and got double the time. We rid an elephant through a tropical rainforest and then played in the river with it for an hour. So much fun!

After having only one day left on our visas Owen and I left for Laos!!