Hi everyone,

Sorry for delay with the blog but we have been so busy and having such a good time we havent had chance, sorry!!

We arrived in phuket wednesday 12th march following another boat journey from ko phi phi. We arrived at phuket port, which after the quite and laid back atmosphere of phi phi was a bit of a shocker!!

Following the trusty bible yet again, we got a taxi to another cheap, clean and safe accomodation 'The old town hostle' in Phuket town. The rooms were basic with shared bathrooms but the main thing being they were clean, made of concrete and totally free of bed bugs, yeah bonus!!!!

However there was a slight catch, we were caged in at night with metal shutters (we were allowed keys to it). This suited steph the insomniac as she was kept entertained sitting and watching the world go by, men unloading water melons at five in the morning. Unfortunately for Steph it wasnt Patrick Swayzie carrying them!!

Coming from the laid back Phi Phi we were desperate for a good night out on the town, as everyone would of heard Phuket is supposed to be the place to party!!!

As we were following the bible it must of assumed the budget would'nt stretch to a party as we soon discovered after asking every Thai man and his dog "where is the strip of bars?" and then noticing the puzzled looks followed by smirks and laughter, we realised we were in the wrong part of Phuket!!

We walked the streets for what seemed like hours and eventually came to a small jazz bar, with a live band singing english songs, but again no sign of any english!. It seems to be quite a trend in Thailand, but unfortunately they all sound like the singer from only fools and horses (cant pronounce thier R's) it always gives us a good laugh!!

The lead singer came to introduce himself, he was interested in what we all did back in england, sarah was finding it tricky to explain 'chiropodist' so steph said that she was a foot doctor. He obviously hung onto the last part of the description 'doctor' and instantly was besotted, we could almost see the pound signs flickering before his eyes!! He has now become known as the stalker!!

The next day we did the girly things, went shopping (obviously window shopping), stayed in at night did face masks and nails as these backpacks with wheels are taking there toll. Since vikkis accident we are more inclined to pull them!!!

The next day we were on the move once again, still in hope to come across the Phuket party night life. We gave ourselves pats on the back as we seem to be getting good at this bartering as we are getting cheaper accomodation than the bible!!!

We dumped our stuff and went to explor as usual, hit the beach- oh my god!! It was just like 80's cota del sol! Hundreds of sunbeds up the beach, full of germans and even banana boats! Sarah had a little sniffle as she was missing martha on her 2nd birthday!!

On the way back we noticed the local supermarket sold sang som, soi we decided to have a tipple on our balcony before hitting the town. Whislt sitting there we started to notice how busy our cheap accomodation was. With pretty Thai girls all squeezed into one room with a matress on the floor and constant visits throughout the night. We thought nothing at the time as the sang son was starting to ick in, so we got our glad rags on and went out.

We were recommended a good bar, which we went out to look for but after a bit of walking around and almost now sober we decided to get a tuk tuk. He charged us 200 bht (which could of brought four teas). As we were paying him we realised he had driven in a big cicle and dropped us off exactly where he had picked us up!!

We went into what looked like a really freindly bar untill the tina turner look alike with a dildo as a microphone and a strap on, slung over her shoulder came from behind the bar. The music wasnt up to much so sarah some how ended up behind the bar with tina changing the music to what she thought was oasis but turned out to be our local fat boy singer from take that, lisas favourite Robbie he he!!!!!!

We thought it best to end the night as we were in a bar called ' same same but different' ( Thai saying, translates to - just shut up and buy it, its ok either way we will rip you off ha ) getting served spare ribs by lady boys, no pun intended!!

The pool gatecrashing began!! - Having got bored with beaches and not having pools in our budget, we started gatecrashing any luxury pool we could find! So next day was lazy hangover day by someone elses pool.We later went back to our bungalows to discover our superstitions were correct, after having hearing an argument over payment for sexual services, yes that right - we were staying in a brothel!!!!!

We all now felt brave enough to venture into Patong, for those that dont know it is the capital of lady boys and sex industry. Soon got drinking to help us get over the shock of being in a cattle market and seeing all the old bald men buying there girl/boy for the night!

We took fanny annies (sarah's mum) recommendations and headed for a live show. Vikki really excited as she had been looking forward to seeing a drag cabaret show, but as we walked through the door we got more than we bargained for. There was a full on lesbian act, we stook out like saw thumbs!!! After a few shots we relaxed and ended up cheering like a bunch of lads as the ping pong balls flirted past us and the women were smoking from their tupence!!!! Had fantastic night, we all really enjoyed it!!! (slightly worried that the reccomendation came fron annie!)

After a relaxing few days we went to Karon beach as this is the part which was badly affected by the tsunami, really interesting and lots to see with the rescue centres and heavy regeneration projects.

Think we tried to push our luck as we attempted to gatecrash the Hilton pool we were quickly hoisted out (think the bed bug bites might of given it away).

Cant do a blog without mentioning food, we had the nicest meals in Phuket, lobster (budget definatly blown this day) red snapper, pancakes yum yum, we have been eating really cheaply and having fantastic food!!!

We have been island hopping since Phuket so difficult to get to computer, but we will be putting that on shortly!!!!

As always, miss everyone!! Get putting some messages on the board its great to read them!!!!