Helloooo everyone, we arrived in Koh Tao on Monday afternoon, after a madness filled full moon party! Koh Tao is a tiny island just above koh pha nang, so only took us an hour and a half on the boat, which was nice, though we sat on the boat deck and fell asleep (still wrecked from the full moon party probably!) and were both pretty burnt! Jay worse than me though which makes a change! So weve got not very attractive lobster red marks! So were on the Aloe Vera aftersun which is helping quite a bit!

Koh Pha nang was a nice island, but definately a party island. Not a huge lot else to do but get wrecked! It was nice 2 meet up with the people from our trek again aswell and we had a wicked nite with them! Felt sorry for the 3 from london though as they had a boat to catch at 11am to take them to a bus, to take them to get a flight to singapore, which is a 12 hour journey! Fair play to them tough they stayed on the beach with us till 10am then just left to get there bags!! must have been a tough journey 4 them!

We managed 2 get accomodation there no bother aswell, we were in beach bungalows right on the shore which were gorgeous, but we had a thunder storm on the night of the full moon and we had a few power cuts. We got soaked at the full moon, the beach was packed and we had torrential rain for about an hour, so every1 was a mess! we were all covered in u.v paint b4 we went out but that washed off pretty quickly!

Were staying at a place called Buddah Veiw in Koh Tao which is a diving resort at the south of the island. Were doing a 4 day PADI course which will mean were fully qualified scuba divers with a licence and everything! That can be used all over the world as soon as we have it, so we can do loads of dives in Oz all by ourselves. Apparantly this island qualifies the 2nd largest amount of people in the world after australia, so its full of divers. The water is crystal clear and we saw some amazing fish today on our mini lesson. Its a fraction of the price compared to oz aswell so im glad we did it here. In Oz it can cost as much as 500 quid so compared to the 130 weve paid its really expensive. Were staying in chalets aswell which are nice and cosy, which is good as weve got lots of revision and questions to do for our final PADI exam. (Were supposed to be on holiday and were revising!) Its all quite interesting though!

Today we had 2 hours in the classroom then time 4 lunch, and we went out on a boat to mango bay which was lovely. First we had a mini fitness test 2 check we cud actually swim! So we kinda just got pushed in and had 2 swim 200 metres then tread water for 10 minutes! (Hard work!) Then we got all our gear set up, (Which we'd been taught in the morning) then our 'diving buddys' check over all the gear, mine is Jay so I was still pretty nervous b4 getting in! Today was all pretty much what to do if: i.e. you lose your mask, you run out of air and what 2 do if your buddy runs out of air. So this was all really scary! You have 2 learn like an underwater sign language aswell, so thats been quite funny! Every night here thay have a bbq so you just pick what fresh food you like and watch it be cooked 4 you. You can have squid or marlin or trout, or i just have chicken satay!

Weve got 3 days left of our course though we might stay on the island for a while longer to try out our new qualifications, or maybe just chill out on the lovely beaches! Weve just got out of holiday mode and started saving a bit more and watching the prices of things. Ive started drinking Chang which is the local beer which is obviously cheaper the mixers and spirits from back home. But its 6.5% so gets me drunk a bit 2 easy, Jay loves it though! (His new found Stella!)

We'll keep you updated with where were off to next and what were up 2.

Lots of love, miss you all! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Seems like weve been here for ever! Definately our longest stay in one destination! We absolutely love the place! We completed our Open Water dive course and then continued to do our Advanced course aswell which was 5 more dives. These were to deeper dive sites with a lot more going on like sharks and stuff! Our last deep dive we went down to 30 metres and had to kneel on the floor for a while to do some skill and didnt even realise there was a black tip reef shark (apparantly about 2 metres long) swimming around us! there were 4 others in our group who saw it and said it was right behind us! thats what scares me with diving youve got no idea whats around you because you cant hear anything and can hardly turn quick to look with all that gear on your back.

We then went on a night dive, which im still having nightmares about! Jason absolutely loved it and has definately found a new hobby! But its completely pitch black and you have a torch so you can only see what you shine your torch at! I used my air up before every1 else because i was panicking that much! Think were off on a fun dive 2morrow back to chumpon pinnacle, which is where we missed the first shark! so better luck this time! weve changed accomodation now aswell still in beach bungalows and only down the beach a little way, but we have hot water this time! yeah!

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We were walking along the street 2day and we seen a lady sittin there with a baby monkey tied 2 a string. she told us 2 sit down and give us some fruit 2 feed the monkey I (jason) fed the monkey and he took the fruit out of my hand and he let me stroke his fur. no probs. nicole then wanted a piece of the action so she stood up with an apple in her hand and walked towards the monkey who then charged at her full speed, knocked the apple out of her hand, then clung to her leg and started chewing on her knee. it was hilarious!! the lady come and pried the monkey off nicole an we left soon after. nicole then asked me why i didnt do anything to help and i explained that i didnt want 2 scare the monkey... ye right i was s***tin myself!!

Think were off to Krabi next but we'll let you know! lots of love xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx