So, let me think...It's been about two weeks since I last did this, memory block!

After landing on Koh Phi Phi and marvelling at how clear the water was compared to the other beaches we've seen so far we approached the usual army of guesthouse touts competing for our business. Normally we'd find a decent priced cheap room no trouble but as Koh Phi Phi is such a popular tourist destination and so full of resorts the chances of finding something cheap were quite slim..

We got on the net and had a look but found nothing within our budget (5 quid tops!) so we went and had another word with one of the touts. He made the call and booked us into a nice little place at the top of the island complete with a pool for a fiver each. There were other places for the same price but if we were paying that amount then I thought we may as well get a pool thrown in! Most of the resort rooms although very nice looking and modern were 20 quid each, well out of our price range.

Because Koh Phi Phi is quite a small island, there arent many cars about (we literally spotted two or 3 in all the time we were on the island) so we had our bags wheeled in a trolley to our digs at the top of the island, about a 5 min walk from the beach. The place was nice and quiet and the room nice and clean with an ensuite, something we've been getting rather used to, not long now til the joys of shared bathrooms!

As Ciara was nursing a freshly battered limb we took it easy for the day, went for breakfast and a fruit shake and then back to the room to chill and nap for a bit so she could rest up. Later that evening we had a wander around the streets before having yet another cheap and tasty meal at a local restaurant. This one in particular was one of many which got levelled in the 2004 tsunami. The owner along with volunteers and friends, rebuilt it from scratch. After our meal and a trip to the 7/11 for some beers we had an early one as we were tired from all the days traipsing about, its a hard life being on the move!

Next morning we got up earlyish and went out for breakfast. I had yet another portion of chicken and egg fried rice and Ciara had something similar. The only reason I know I had rice is that over the last 4 weeks or so its become something of a regular meal whilst i've been trying to get back on budget. After shelling out for travel every few days and visas here and there along with the odd tshirt and parcel sent home, i'd overspent a little so I decided to bite the bullet and keep the spends down. I dont want to spend the next 8 months catching up on, or worse, blowing the budget, coming home early and winding up getting up for work every morning like the rest of you, ha ha.

Being an island, they have to import everything into Phi Phi so beer along with most other things is nearly twice the price along with time in the internet cafe's too. Anyway, as a result of my high rice intake, i seem to have lost half a stone since i left the UK, bonus..

We had bought some sunscreen in a hurry in Cambodia, we couldnt find any Nivea and Sock was driving us from place to place looking for some so in the end we bought some that was just called 'Enrich', made in India. It'll do the job we thought.. After slapping plenty of it on, Ciara and I lazed on the beach for a good few hours, had a dip in the sea and then spotted ourselves turning a bit pink so headed back to the room. As it turns out, the suncream couldnt have worked at all as we were both cooked! So much so that we decided to wisely stay out of the sun until it'd calmed down. Bummer :(

That evening on the 26th we headed to the beach after dinner and lit a candle for my late cousin James who would have been 29 that day and took a while to remember him. On the way back we watched a bit of the half moon party on the beach, complete with flaming skipping ropes and fire limbo which lots of people who had a bit of dutch courage were taking turns to have a go at. Two girls in particular nearly set their hair alight trying the skipping rope, funny as!

The next few days we spent living like a pair of vampires, staying in in the hottest part of the day and walking in the shade etc. My face looked like i'd been trying to kiss a blowtorch and I was in a fair bit of pain as was Ciara. I couldnt believe we'd come all the way to Phi Phi, which we were both looking forward to and not only was it overpriced (which we should have guessed) we couldnt even go out in the sun while we were there. At least we were saving money in staying in, it wasnt all bad.

The plus points of Koh Phi Phi is that it has some awesome stalls and shops selling all kinds of cool stuff ( found a great little stall selling vintage classic rock/metal tshirts, could have bought loads of em!) as well as good restaurants all over. The only downer was that the island seemed to have more of a feel of Tenerife than Thailand due to all the football bars and 'Irish' bars. Phi Phi was full of Brits while we were there, all kitted out in Ed Hardy gear and sporting bland curvy tribal tattoos. In fairness though, we didnt see any trouble, unlike a holiday I had in Tenerife 5 odd years ago which was a complete chavfest. Also, we've since been told that the Thai islands are run by gangsters so if you have half a brain you dont mess about!

We spent two of the first 'sunburn' days hibernating with Oreo's and water and having cold showers. Ciaras leg was still on the mend and I didnt feel confident going for a dip in the pool in case I made matters worse with my sunburn so just chilled in the room along with the lady and finished reading my book on crystal meth, a very interesting and informative read.. The only problem with spending so long couped up in our room was the CD that was played in the guesthouse restaurant. Jesus wept. The woman who owned the joint played it on repeat, all day, every day we stayed there. Same CD again and again and again... If i remember rightly, it had 'More than Words', James Blunt - You're Beautiful', 'Tears in Heaven' along with other assorted horrors. The Americans probably have a copy in Guantanomo bay.

After 2 full days of aural torture we headed out to one of 3 view points on the island, bit of a walk but the view was well worth it. You can see how the 2004 tsunami desolated the place as two bays back onto each other with not a lot of land in between, easy work for a massive wave. We got soaked on the walk back down as it started raining the minute we got up there. Back to the room to dry off, lol.

Next day we were up early and onto the ferry back to Krabi, a bargain at 300 baht! As I mentioned before, we got stung on the way over from the mainland so it was a pleasant surprise that the return journey was a bit cheaper. We got dropped in Krabi town and then hopped in a cab to Ao Nang, the beach we were meant to have headed to when we first arrived in Krabi nearly a week earlier but I had got it wrong.. We looked around for a place to stay and came across a tourist agency with a promotion, pay 2 nights stay for 3, 300 baht a night, room with a fan. Bargain, we'd just saved a nights accomodation each! The girl in the office called the bungalows who said they didnt have any 300 baht rooms but had 400 baht ones instead. I said we'd have to leave it, she spoke with the girl on the phone, lowered it to 350, I said no again, got our bags to leave and miraculously, they were able to provide a 300 baht room after telling us 15 seconds previously that they had none. Magic, lol.

The room was very nice, plenty of space and at the quiet end of the complex away from the road. We dumped the bags, went for a wander and got familiar with Ao Nang. I'd recommend visiting Ao Nang if you're ever in Thailand, very peaceful area with tons of nice restaurants and a great beach to boot. Koh Phi Phi has more young and single types whereas Ao Nang is more for families coming for their holidays in Thailand. There's still plenty of seedy backstreet bars to booze in, all of em with friendly looking bargirls ;) One in particular which we got given a flyer for was 'Rockys' the main rock bar in Ao Nang. We headed there with our saved money from the free nights accomodation and had a drink or two. They had a house band on consisting of two guys backed with a drum machin playing weakass covers of Pink Floyd classics and Steppenwolf etc. The customers were welcome to get up and sing along and join in if they so wanted, this we found out when we looked round. A chubby little kid, no older than 11 had a saxophone and was belting out his solo version of "My Heart Will Go On' all the time being coaxed on by his grandad. Absolute funniest thing I've seen in ages. He killed the song with loads of flat notes and then carried on after running out of puff and having to take a deep breath to finish his masterpiece. I think you would have had to be there to really appreciate it but it made us chuckle. Fair play to the lad for getting up there in the first place, i wouldnt have! After we finished clapping, his grandad said something along the lines of 'I tell you what, in ten years time he'll be a superstar'

We spent the next few days chilling and wandering around whilst staying out of the sun and had been given a flyer for a Halloween party at the Luna beach bar. We had a bit of cash to enjoy by now so decided to go and make a night of it. What a waste of time. It promised a fire show on the beach as well as a 'special prize from Dracura at midnight'. We got there, the tide had came in, no beach, there then, the place was dead, no Dracura as we were too early and a bottle of beer cost as much as it would have done back in Coventry. One drink and we were offski. Earlier, on the way down there, we had stopped in at another little bar on the way that we wished we had found days earlier. 40 baht for a Sangsom (Thai brand whisky) and Coke. Bargain! We stayed there a while and chatted with the woman who ran the place, tunes were better than the Luna bar and it was just a nice gaff in general.

Next day we headed down to the beach for a wander and walked right to end of the beach and came across probably a few dozen monkeys of various sizes all running about the place and swinging in the trees. We bought some nuts from a woman selling em and one by one started feeding them to the monkeys. I must have only given away six of seven nuts before one of the cheky bleeders came up behind me and snatched the whole bag and made off with the lot, they're fast, i tell ya! They then thought Ciara had more in her bag and started climbing up her and after a minute or two she had 2 sat on her shoulders, one of which was looking for mites in her hair (aaw) with another two hanging off her skirt. While I was busy laughing, i had two climb up onto me who started eyeing up my camera. No way they were gonna make off with that, you can have my nuts but not my camera! One of them saw a hole in my Ramones tshirt (which is full of holes) and put his finger in there, then he nipped at me. At this point, remembering I chose to be a cheapskate and not go ahead with having Rabies jabs in the UK before I left, I checked the skin which thankfully wasnt broken and we decided to call it a day and head back.Wise move i think..

That night, we ate at a restaurant on the corner of our road. The two guys who owned it were Indian but had an Italian pizza restaurant with a Thai chef, weird mix if you ask me! Basically, since we'd arrived in Ao Nang they'd asked us every night if we wanted to eat there, not wanting to appear rude we said we'd have a look at the menu and maybe another night take them up on their offer. They said 'We opened tonight, grand opening'. I said, thats funny, i saw people eating in here last night. Confusing.. I think as the season is still picking up for the year in Thailand, all of the the restauranteurs are in fierce competition to get people through the doors so I couldnt blame them. Only thing is, they basically asked and asked and asked me to promise when we would eat there and agree to it. If all else fails try the aggressive sales technique! We figured that if we didnt eat there then every time we passed the place we'd get asked and have the same conversation about how we were going to go elsewhere tonight but maybe tomorrow. So in the end, reluctantly we ate had a pizza each and it was pretty good I have to say. I was glad we didnt have to resort to standing on each others shoulders and walking past in a massive long overcoat every day in the end.

We left Krabi on the 1st Nov for Surat Thani to get the ferry over to Koh Phangan for the Full Moon Party on the 2nd. We'd been looking forward to the party for ages and were buzzing just thinking about it. After a 5 hour coach journey made easier by listening to the ramblings of Karl Pilkington on my Ipod, we got dropped in Surat Thani town which unlike a lot of other places in Thailand doesnt have a great deal of English signs or English menus in the restaurants. We landed a great room for the one night we were there at 280 baht between us and went for a wander. After an hour or so of our stomachs rumbling and failed attempts to find a restaurant we ate some street food ( sausage wrapped in ham bbq'd, yum) and then finally found a restaurant that had an menu in English, result = Pad Thai. We walked round the next corner and lo and behold, a massive shopping centre complete with Pizza Hut, KFC and many other places to eat. Doh.

Next morning we got picked up by minibus and got on the coach that took us to the ferry port to cross to Koh Phangan. A couple of hours later we landed on the island, jumped in a cab along with an Aussie guy, Matty who'd been saving a fortune on accomodation by stringing a hammock up every night in the woods and burying his bag in the day when he went out. And we thought we were roughing it!

We'd already booked our accommodation for the 4 nights we were on the island and paid a deposit online, paid the rest on arrival. We got given a key to one of the not so good cabins in the complex and settled in. I think the owner keeps the good cabins for people who want to have a look at a place to stay and i also think he knew this was a done deal so we ended up with an alright place but not as nice as it looked on the net. Funny that. lol

On our way back to the room from the 7/11 that day whilst i was totally in a world of my own chatting away to Ciara, I got rushed by a pack of wild dogs! Totally wasnt expecting it and so panicked about the Rabies implications. While i was running in circles with them barking at me, I was looking for something to throw at them but couldnt spot anything so just lashed out with my feet and swore at them, they seemed to understand obscene words and cleared off. Phew. Every trip to the shop thereafter wasnt complete without a big stick, ha ha.

We spent the rest of the day getting a good meal and having a nap til about 9pm. We'd heard the Full Moon Party doesnt really get into full swing til at least midnight and we wanted to see the sun come up so went late. We got in a cab up there along with a bunch of already half drunk Brits and Aussies and headed up to Haad Rin beach. We purposely booked our place down the road in Ban Tai as when the FMP is on lots of break ins occur in Haad Rin when people are out at the party, so we figured we'd do our best to try and avoid it happening. We jumped out the cab, paid our 100 baht for a wristband onto the beach and had a wander. The monthly FMP have anything from 5000 to 35000 people there on any one night depending on the season. I reckon it was toward the lower end that night, still busy enough though but not as crowded as i had thought it might be which was a bonus. We walked up and down and checked out the 10 or so different soundsystems rigged up, most of it was funky house trance or techno which we werent overly keen for so we just stuck around the drum n bass bar which didnt disappoint. Dirty old skool and nu skool tunes all night! :)

Everyone apart from us were painted up in UV paint for effect including one bloke who was just painted blue from head to toe, looked like a massive smurf, minus the hat.We bumped into a guy we had met on the coach the day before who we hung out with for a while until we lost him after we had been to the Mellow Mountain bar.. We then had a bucket or two each complete with energy drink to keep us going and enjoyed the party!

We took a disposable camera with us and took a lot of shots that we've yet to get developed. Cant remember exactly what we snapped, have to wait and see.. Next thing we knew, the sun came up, pretty fast too and the beach just looked awesome with everybody wasted and enjoying themselves. I've had plenty of good nights but this is one I'll always remember. Awesome. In particular, I enjoyed watching a small longtail boat full of nervous looking partyheads trying to make it out to sea across the morning waves ( the wind that was blowing in from the ocean was furious), the guy was revving it at the crucial moment and sending the nose of the boat skyward as he went, one guy fell out, proper funny, ha ha.

About 8am no one was dancing in front of the D N B rig anymore so they wound things up for the night/morning. We hopped in a cab back and were joined by a guy in his 20's/30's who was being nursed from the efffects of god knows what by a small Thai woman who looked about 50 odd. The young guy looked really mangled and was just about conscious. We overheard him ask the Thai lady if she was a male or female to which she replied a male. The young dude objected, then passed out for a minute, then awoke as if he had forgotten what he had been told and was all over the ladyboy who was trying to hold him at bay! Ciara and I couldnt keep a straight face, ha ha. That guy probably got more than he bargained for the next day!!

We spent the day asleep til about 6pm, woke up covered head to toe in sand, even in our ears, went out for a bite to eat, met a gibbon called John who lives in the back room of the restaurant, only a young fella, he had a nappie and bottle and sucked his thumb too, weird! After the meal, we called it a night, still needed more sleep!

A day or so later we left Koh Phangan on the ferry, back to Surat Thani where we caught the sleeper train down to Sungai Kolok at the Thai/Malaysia border, a 10 hour journey that was made all the more uncomfortable by the previous person in my bunk leaving their window open which caused the rain to leak in between the metal slats covering the open space. It's not too easy to try and fix things in the middle of the night on a moving train while you're half asleep so I sort of left it and woke up a bit soggy. One thing we didnt bargain on in heading south in Thailand was the amount of rain they've had. It's monsoon season in Malaysia right now and Thailand got affected too. People out in canoes, roads and fields under water, even the train tracks when we arrived in Sungai Kolok station were under half a foot of water, I've never seen rain like it. We broke out our cagouls for the first time since we left the UK. Also found out my cagoul isnt so waterproof after all.

Anyway, thats your lot for Thailand, it's 12.40 here in Malaysia so I'll tell you some more in due course.

See ya!