Thurs 9th - Fri 17th January (Weeks 15-16)

Thurs 9th - Another beautiful blue day, no clouds, lovely temperature, and neither of us wanted to leave Australia. The time has flown by and its been so nice and easy, but at least we're flying out to continue our trip - not flying back to the UK just yet ! Caught the JetBus to Adelaide airport at 11am and again, the check-in lady was so chatty, and the baggage scanning man was chatting to us about diving etc - you just don't get that anywhere else ! The 7 hour flight was pretty empty so we got 4 seats between us, nice food, a few films and a sleep. Landed at 7pm KL time, caught the transit train to Salak Tinggi station and got picked up by our hostel.

Fri 10th - Got dropped off back at Salak Tingii station for the bus to the LCCT airport - low cost carriers where Air Asia flies from. Pretty chaotic, self-checkin didn't work, huge queues and no order anywhere so took ages to actually check in. Had a nasi lemak and a mango smoothie before boarding at 1pm. Short 1hr 20 flight to Krabi and got an airport shuttle to Krabi town and our hostel. Headed out to walk around and check out the area and were so happy to be back to SE Asia prices where everything is dirt cheap and there are 7-11's and Pad Thai - hurrah !

Sat 11th - Had our much missed breakfast of fruit, muesli & yoghurt, and a mango shake. Booked our ferries to Ko Phi Phi and Ko Lanta, and a day trip for Monday. Caught a songthaew to Tiger Cave Temple (Wat Tham Sua) and climbed the never-ending 1237 steep steps up to the top. Pretty good 360 views of all the limestone karsts all around and views back to Krabi. Walked around the forest trail to see the caves and huge trees and monkeys. Tried to catch a tuk tuk back but there were none around, so started walking along the main road back to Krabi and after a while a pickup stopped with other stray travellers heaped in the back, so I climbed in (Brandon got the front seat !) and enjoyed the sun and wind in my face for the trip back ! Pretty shattered and hungry by 4:30pm with no lunch, so headed to the market and had a crazily spicy curry, then sweet sticky rice and mango. Yum. I also ordered what I thought was a mango, but turned out to be an apple mango and quite bitter. :( Had another good dinner of pad thai, and massaman - we could live on those dishes !

Sun 12th - Caught another songthaew round to Ao Nang - a big touristy resort 20mins drive away. Lovely setting - karsts and islands all around, and long golden sandy beach, but wow is it touristy ! Shops all along the beach selling clothes, souvenirs, massages, beer, English food etc etc, it could be Costa del Sol ! We sunbathed for a few hours (there is no beach in Krabi), then bought a few bits in the shops - nice lightweight dress for £4, a manbag for Brandon, and a dry bag for diving. Were considering taking a longtail boat to Railey, but decided there was enough to entertain us in Ao Nang so stayed there until 5pm.

Mon 13th - Did a day-trip to the Hong Islands by longtail boat today. We were quite taken aback by how many people they packed in - both in the pickup truck, and the longtail boat - no room to move or turn around ! We visited Hong Island lagoon for a quick photo stop, then round to the other side of Hong Island for 1.5hours to sunbath, snorkel and enjoy the beautiful soft white sandy beach and karsts. The visibility was really poor, and the coral was all dead - possible from the tsunami in 2004. Then we went to Lading Island for lunch and another 2 hours of sunbathing and snorkelling. This time there was some coral, and underwater plant life and quite a lot of fish including the biggest puffer fish I have ever seen - must have been 3ft long - I thought it was a shark ! A large barracuda, clown fish and lots of shoals of smaller fish. Went past Rai Island and Pakbia Island for photo stops, then back to hostel at 5pm. Stunning beaches and scenery, but really feels far too touristy and spoilt, with millions of day-trippers descending on the islands, and rubbish left everywhere. Real shame.

Tues 14th - Took a ferry over to Koh Phi Phi at 10:30 (actually left at 11), arriving at 12:30. There are no roads on Phi Phi, so if you are far away, you can get a long tail boat, but if you are somewhere in the main town, you have to walk. So we trugded through the heaving streets, dodging all the bikes and people and touts for tours and accommodation, and finally found our hostel. We had a hard time trying to find anything within budget on Phi Phi, and even this small little room - with the worlds best view (see photos!) was twice as much as our budget ! Walked around the town, and along Loh Dalum and Ton Sai bays to get a feel for the place. There are some beautiful hotels and restaurants, but in the main, there are a lot of cheap, chavy places, lots of rubbish and lots of alcohol and party places. Found a nice pad thai place for another late lunch at 4pm, booked a tour for tomorrow, and then had a cheap dinner of rambutans and Chang beer in our room and had an early night !

Wed 15th - Another breakfast of fruit, muesli & yoghurt - thats been every day since we arrived in Thailand, and its still great ! Walked down to the pier at 10:15 for our 10:30 boat tour, but didn't leave until 11:15. We were really lucky and only had 9 people on our long-tail boat, whereas some of the other boats we saw were heaving. Did a tour around Phi Phi Don, stopping in Monkey Bay, then heading over to Bamboo Island for an hour of snorkelling, sunbathing and lunch. Then headed down to Phi Phi Ley, passing Viking Cave, a few bays, and finally getting to Maya Bay - the setting for the "The Beach" film with Leo Di Caprio. We read lots of reviews about how spoilt this place now is, just back-to-back boats and tourists and you can barely see the beach or lagoon. But it seemed almost empty when we arrived and took lots of lovely photos with no-one in ! We saw an amazing super-yacht called "Cloud 9" doing a tour of the islands, and the crew were assembling dinner tables and chairs on the beach - much to the interest of all the budget backpackers ! Got back at 6pm, had a later dinner at 9, then thought we'd wander down to the beach to check out the Full Moon Party at 10pm. It was really impressive with lots of fire shows going on in 3 or 4 bars - such as fire limbo, jumping through fire rings, jumping a long fire skipping rope etc and locals twirling fire sticks etc. Some really good music, and lots going on to watch so we ended up staying until 2am, and might have bought a "bucket" (vodka, lemonade and red bull) to keep us going !

Thurs 16th - Bit of a lazy day with breakfast at 10am (fruit, muesli yoghurt, a waffle, and french toast!), and walked up to the viewpoint to get great views down to both bays and over the town and karsts. Then walked for 30mins round to Long Beach, passing some beautiful resorts and wooden huts etc, to a long soft white sandy beach. Sunbathed and swam until 4pm when it got cloudy, then came back for a late lunch of Pad Thai. Wandered back down to the beach at 10pm and the bars were doing the fire shows etc again but less than half the people of last night, so we didn't bother staying long.

Fri 17th - Another tough day in the life of Michelle & Brandon. Sunbathed on Loh Dalum beach from 10-4:30, with a lunch of pad thai, pancake and mango shake on the beach. After originally finding Phi Phi too overcrowded, full of tourist tat, chavs and tattoo and massage shops every other shop, we have now learnt to put that aside and appreciate the natural beauty of the island. Loh Dalum bay is just stunning - a long stretch of soft white sand, turquoise waters and karsts that nearly seem to enclose the bay. I wish we could have seen it 10-15 years ago, but it still is a beautiful place. Had a nice meal of cashew nuts & beef, and penang curry to finish our time in Phi Phi before we head to Ko Lanta tomorrow.