Hey guys,

We r in Dubai now but we will do some back tracking of our last week in the land of Thai.

It was a hellishly bumpy ride from the half moon party over to Koh Samui. We had heard from people travelling round that Samui was the most commercial of the 3 islands and was the most expensive - they weren't kidding! We got there in the middle of a terrential storm and got soaked everytime we got out the taxi to go ask a place how much the rooms were. Turned out they were triple the price of anything u would find anywhere else. We were looking down east coast (where the irish girls recommended) and we later found out, after we had left that there were cheaper huts over the other side of the island - duh!

Anyway, we planned to spend Ems 21st on Samui but it was so expensive we only stayed a couple of days and planned to go back to Koh Tao for more diving. But whilst we were there, we did what Mark had wanted to do for years ..... go deep sea fishing. It was fun but a very slow day as hardly anyone on the boat caught anything. Mark caught a couple of little hand sized silvery fish with poisonous spikes on his back, and Em caught LOADS of nothing! Not even a goldfish! Complete waste of money for a whole lot of sea sickness! haha was fun trying tho.

After Samui, we headed back to Koh Tao. We wanted to go over to the West coast of Thailand to Krabi and Koh Phi Phi to dive there but the irish girls were over there already and they said it hadnt stopped raining and there was nothing to do. we checked out the forecast and were bummed to see it was monsoon storms so could go over there :(

We went back to Sairee Hut Dive Resort on Sairee beach and went for another beach hut :) felt vgood to be back!

We booked our advanced PADI course (at a discount!) and had a wicked time with it. We had to to 5 adventure dives, Deep water (30m) , Navigation, and we chose Fish ID, Night Dive and Buoyancy control dives. Deep, Nav and fish ID were cool but the night and buoyancy control dives were a great laugh and we learnt a lot. Like how to to acrobatics underwater and hover in the middle upside down, and how if you shine your torch on a trevally fish, a giant barracuda will zoom in from nowhere and annialate it!

Oh! and FYI - never shine your torch into a sting rays eye!! They dont like it and wont hesitate to stab you!

For Em's bday we spent the morning in the sun after a yummy brekkie and we went for some vnice spa treatments in the afternoon when it clouded over. Had a lovely massage and this weird treatment where they peel the dead skin off your feet - its delicious! ick! Had a really yummy bbq on the beach and blagged lots of freebies from the bar that night too! :)

Went diving the next day and saw 2 moray eels and Em spotted an endangered sea turtle - was soooo gorgeous! it wasnt long before the word spread and everyone was crowding round him tho. But he seemed happy just chomping on the coral!

the next night we got the ferry and night bus up to Bangkok again :( though we reeeaally didnt want to.We gotback to Koh San Road at 4am so went to a 24 hr bar and played cards until the world woke up.

We only had 3 more days so wanted to cram in as much as possible so we headed at 8am to Katchanaburi (cheers Zoe!) on local bus....but thats another blog......!

Will upload pics so check them out if u can. Miss u all! Will see u soon!

Mark and Em xxx