Ah Thailand! We'd waited a long time to get here!

We arrived into Thailand from Malaysia, and stopped in a town called Hat Yai. It was a good intro because�there was no obvious attraction there so not crawling with tourists and all the things that come with them. We had a nice but rather�unexpectedly spicy meal (bamboo curry)�with some other�local diners, and followed it with�a pancake and condensed milk from a laughing street�stall lady.�Thais seemed�friendly!

The next day we headed by bus to Krabi on the coast (yes, one of us was crabby tempered that day, who shall remain unnamed) and from there took a boat to Ko Phi Phi island. We'd heard it was idyllic and beautiful and all sorts of lovely things...it soon became clear so had a lot of others! Backpacker after backpacker streamed onto the little boat, and the pile of bags grew and grew into a huge mound.

When it came to getting off the boat, we were smart, we had a plan. We would walk past the touts trying to get you to go to their hotel, and go to the tourist information place for an unbiased view of the best deal. We did so. Around 150 backpacks with people�attached did exactly the same thing and soon there was a huge sea of us all milling around trying to find the cheapest place. If there had been space to laugh we would have! In the end we trusted a little man who had faithfully dogged us since arrival, and checked with a few others on the way that this was about as cheap as it was going to get.

As for the island...well it was beautiful in a way. Big rocky outcrops covered in forest, blue sea, white sand. But the sand was littered with bottles and other rubbish all along the tide line, the water was warm but murky and shallow with stinking grey sand underneath it and more rubbish all in the sea, and further back from the coast there were piles of rubble and pools of really foul smelling water sitting around in between countless bars and restaurants and other touristy shops.�Whole families appeared to�live in what looked like huts made from tin and tarpaulin while meters away from them rose stupidly luxurious hotels full of drunk sunburnt foreigners.

We found out later the island had been badly hit by the Boxing Day�tsunami, and perhaps the piles of rubble were testament to that. There was building going on, but it looked like more hotels rather than anything decent for local people.

We ate in the market stalls where the locals�did, walked up and down the beach in between thumping bars�trying to find somewhere to sit that we didn't have to pay for, and generally felt like we were not in with the crowd!

One day Cal lazed on the beach alone while Matt sat in a little shop with another woman for 6 hours..yes it's true. She was dreadlocking his hair! At the end a stiff but triumphant Matt emerged with little spikes sticking out all over his head, and soon discovered his new hairstyle quickly led to a) laughing and pointing from locals and b) a sunburnt scalp!

From Ko Phi Phi�we sailed on to Phuket, another tourist�ghetto famous for beautiful beaches. We�rather hoped to find the island paradise we were�seeking here, but it wasn't really to be. It was a nice beach but not stunning, and there was such a strong current you couldn't swim without endangering your life (which of course Matt gladly did). Most of the time we were there the rain was thundering down.�One day�as we sat on the beach in the sun we looked out and thought the horizon looked a bit�dark.�A local guy who took money from us about half an hour before to hire a sun umbrella for the day started putting the unused brollies away.�We looked at him. He laughed. "Rain is coming" he said. We think he knew!

Determined to get our money's worth, we decided to stay it out and watch the storm come in. It was amazing, only�taking about 20 minutesd to go from bright�sunshine to a major storm. The rain swirled in in a column like a tornado and we joined our enterprising friend in his little tent thing to sit it out along with a 1 week old puppy that was scared. When we finally braved it and made a dash back to our hotel the roads were a river of brown water and all sorts of chaos was going on as people in ponchos tried to deal with it. Quite entertaining!�

Phuket wasn't quite the paradise we hoped for but it was fun...if extremely touristy! One day while we played cards in our hotel lobby a German man chatted with a Thai lady about the prices for 'all day' and 'short service'. It wasn't long before it dawned on us what he was talking about with such openness and with no effort to lower his voice so we couldn't hear (we were about 2 feet away) - Thailand's second biggest industry after tourism. Nice. He went on to complain that he had a problem - a friend from home who knew his wife and kids was coming to stay and with her in his hotel room he wouldn't be able to continue making use of the 'services'. It was as if he was talking about laundry. No shame, no discretion. Yuk.

What with that and the rain we rather gave up on Phuket and made our way to somewhere we were sure would be the perfect paradise haven...Ko Pha Nga.