Hello!

We have been in thailand for a while but it has gone so quickly! Jade arrived two nights after us and it was brilliant to see her and also find out what was going on in hollyoaks etc. We were staying in Rangsitpilom, a student area outside Bangkok with my friend Meg and her friends James and Phil. James is half Thai and speaks Thai so helped us out alot! In Bangkok we did a lots of looking around markets and shopping areas, buying more stuff than i had for the past three months put together. But it was all very cheap and we left extra stuff at Meg's when we left. We also visited some temples, one with an amzing reclining buddha (the largest in the world) and the grand palace. The food is good here and i am managing to push my spicyness boundaries and jade tried some thai food for the first time two nights ago. We went out to some fun places in bangkok at night with the students who lived below us. They were all so nice even if they didn't speak any english really. We took an overnight bus with 8 of us to Koh Phan-ngan for the full moon party. The beaches on the island were beautiful, although jade and I did manage to get stuck out on a mound of painful dead coral in the sea and had to be rescued by thai fishermen because it was waaaayyyy too painful to walk back. The full moon party was lots of fun and whilst we were there we saw Lynsey and Anna Dewhurst which was brilliant and we are all still alive. We also saw Elena randomly on a beach, it just shows it is a very small world. We are now on our last night in Koh Tao before heading to kaoh Sok tomorrow evening. Whilst here i have been doing an open water diving couse and became officially certified this morning! It had been brilliant and i can't wait to do more diving. I did 4 dives in total seeing lots of cool fish like Sting rays, puffer fish and even many attacks from a cleaner wrasse fish on a burn on my leg from motorbike (don't worry mother i wasn't driving it) as the fish likes to clean dead skin. it was pretty gross. Josie, Molly and Jade came snorkeling with me on the first day which was lots of fun. There has been lots of sunbathing going on as well. Also molly and jade did an epic kayak of about 3 miles return to an island off ours. Koh Tao is beautiful and i really don't want to leave. it just is very hot!

Lots of love to all the mothers, fathers and silbling and all other family. We do actually miss you and still plan to come home....at the moment.

xxx elspeth xxx