Needless to say, Ken was sufficiently surprised to see us turn up at the airport for the flight to Krabi. He was even more surprised when Claudia and Rochelle arrived, having not seen them for almost 2 years! Ken and Holley (his girlfriend) had spent a week travelling around Bali over his birthday and after a 12 hour layover in Bangkok, were both shattered, so we stayed near Krabi for a night and worked out a plan. Ken wanted to retrace his steps from Christmas, unfortunately though, as it's low season, everything was much much quieter and there wasn't much open. It was a bit of a shame as he'd been looking forward to seeing it all again, but at least we were lucky with the weather and it didn't rain much. We did manage to pick up some bargain places to stay though, so low season does have its little advantages!! From Krabi we went back to Ton Sai beach and then from there travelled on to Koh Lanta. We were stuck for a few hours longer than planned while waiting for the rain to pass so it was touch and go whether we've been able to book on the lunchtime bus (the passenger ferry doesn't run in low season), the high tide was also a lot higher than we'd seen before, so it was interesting trying to get out of the longtail boats with all our bags in the rain with the waves crashing all around us!

Where we stayed in Koh Lanta was quite 'closed down' as well, but we had a few days of good weather so managed to get some beach time. It was lovely to see Ken and meet Holley, even if the week passed very quickly and we didn't really do much!! They were travelling back to Krabi the day before their flight, so we booked a boat to Koh Phi Phi for the day that they were leaving. It just happened that on that day, they'd cut the ferry service to one boat a day for the rest of the season, so it was an early start, but at least it cut down on the long goodbyes!!

The boat ride across to Phi Phi was pretty rough, I had to keep a firm eye on the horizon in order to keep a firm grip on my stomach! But it was worth it.

We'd all avoided going to Phi Phi as we'd heard the horror stories of it being really (really!) busy and just full of people getting drunk even though it was meant to be one of the most stunning of the islands. We'd booked ourselves a little treat for 4 nights (ended up extending another 2!) so we were away from the craziness, but to be honest, it wasn't as bad as any of us had expected, it's quite easy to dip in and out - Claudia, Rochelle and I had a night out 'Phi Phi style' which involves drinking alcohol out of a bucket (like you'd use to build sandcastles!), they're very cheap and strong and for one night, it was fun, but I don't think any of us could handle it again!! Mostly though, we made the most of having decent air con, comfortable beds, a tv and room service!!

Not quite ready to leave paradise just yet…and not having actually done any of the 'sights' around the island, we hunted for a cheaper place for a few nights. It wasn't luxury, but it gave the bank accounts a break and gave us a chance to walk up to the view point (quite a hefty climb after the past few months of very little exercise!). Fortunately, I took my phone though as I'd left the memory card for my camera in the room, so managed to get a few snaps. The other thing we really wanted to do was to get a boat to Maya Bay which is the famous beach where they filmed 'The Beach'…a lovely little excursion, although just a shame that everyone else wants to do it as well!! The beach was stunning and the water was such an amazing colour of blue, it was worth the choppy boat ride!!

I'd been looking at getting another tattoo to mark our one year of travelling and had a design in mind, after working our way through a few shops (there are more tattoo shops here than I've seen anywhere else), I found the perfect one and had my design tattooed with bamboo on the inside of my arm. It was such a lovely experience; using Bamboo to tattoo is a really traditional method and it was fascinating to watch everyone get involved with setting up the bamboo sticks (actually 4 tiny needles on the end of a bamboo rod - all brand new and sterilised!). Also, without the buzzing of the machine, it's quite a quiet and calm experience and surprisingly not too painful. I love it and it's definitely an experience that'll stay with me!

I think we all fell in love with Phi Phi a little bit, ok, it's not as cheap as some of the other islands, but it has a certain charm (I can't say whether it has the same charm as in high season…). The local island people are so relaxed and friendly and we saw one of the best fire shows - so good, we went back a second time - Rochelle even did a cameo appearance on the fire poi and earned a free poi lesson the next day. They were just incredible - but then again, they seem to have all the time in the world to practice! A little reluctantly, we booked our boat back to Krabi - which thankfully was much calmer.

So now here we are - our last night in Thailand. We've just booked our bus to Penang, Malaysia for tomorrow morning, pick up at 6.30am (eurgh!). Time to get back on the road, new countries, new places to explore, new adventures to be had and new friends to make. It's been amazing spending almost a month with Claudia and Rochelle and it's going to be sad leaving them, but they have new adventures in India to look forward to!

We're almost ready to celebrate our 1 year anniversary of travelling too! It's crazy how quickly the time has gone, but we've loved every minute. Here's to the next year!!!

xx