The trip to Phi Phi islands was one that I had wanted to do the last time I visited Thailand but just didn't have time. This time I knew I had to fit it in and was so glad that I did. Phi Phi is made up of two islands, Phi Phi Don (where there is accommodation and restaurants etc) and Phi Phi Len (probably the more famous of the two as this was the setting for the famous idyllic beach in the film 'The Beach' - everyone remember Leonardo on the beach!...

So Christmas Day and I woke up to no not snow, not rain, not even cold, but lovely hot sunshine and the prospect on spending my day on the beach - what more could you ask for...Admittedly I had a bit of travelling to do for a few hours in the morning to get to the beach, but then the afternoon was spent making the most of the rays and working hard on the tan!And after such a hard day it was only right that I take some time to relax, so we went to the Last Fisherm...

Khao Sok apparetnly has some of the oldest remaining rainforest in Thailand, some even older then Amazon it's thought. We arrived at a beautiful guest house by the side of a clear water stream on the edge of the tropical jungle. We were warned to keep the doors and windows our our small bungalows locked whenever we weren't there to make sure the monkeys didn't take too much of a liking to any food in our bags though! The first afternoon I just took a...

Another short ferry ride and I arrived in Phuket, a place I had fond memories of from a previous visit. This time though I was headed for the main resort of Patong for a few days to see what all the hype was about... On the way we stopped off at a gibbon rehabilitation sanctuary to see all the good work that is being done to try to free these animals back into the wild. They are often found in tourist destinations in Thailand being used to climb trees for coconu...

We left Krabi and took a local ferry across to Phang Nga Bay and the small island of Koh Yao Noi. This was my first real experience of muslims in Thailand. Up until now most of the people we had met were Buddhist, but southern Thailand has a large muslim population and the village where we caught the ferry was a muslim village. Apart from the visible difference in the people and their dress it also meant we had to dress differently and to respect their traditions...