The journey to Phuket was as expected with a change of about 3 minivans and it taking 6 hours to get there I was not in the mood for anything. However, the staff at Rick and Roll where I was staying were very welcoming and this dissipated my bad mood upon arrival.

There was only one other person staying in my dorm and that was a girl called Laura who lives in Sydney. Tonight was pretty much a nothing evening, I went walking about and couldn't find anything I wanted to eat so went to bed after sitting in the bar drinking a few margaritas with a guy who is apparently Jack Blacks half brother?!

The following day (2nd) was also pretty much a bust day. I sat there talking to Rick the owner for a while and played with the little kittens they had but over all I pretty much did nothing except decide that I didn't want to stay on Patong beach. Laura, Rick and I went to dinner at a little place called Bella Vista over looking the water which was very nice. The food was fantastic but a little bit too pricey for me. I couldn't help but sit there and think I was spending about 2 nights accommodation on dinner and wonder whether it was worth it! The journey there and back was quite fun. Laura is not a good moped passenger and with the 3 of us on one bike she kept squashing Rick holding on whilst I was just sitting there chilled out taking pictures of the town as we went through!

Today (3rd) promised to be better. Today was diving day at Racha Yai. Laura had never done any diving before so she came along and did a DSD with a guy called Joe who I swear to god looks like Ray Liotta! I was buddied with Rick as he is also an Advanced diver. Racha Yai was alright, I got to have some fun and float about just looking at the fish. I even got a compliment in that my buoyancy is very good and I looked like I was just floating there meditating! The only thing with Racha Yai is the site that we went to for the two dives does not have the wow factor. A lot of the coral is dead and there are some fish swimming there but it was definitely not one of my best dives. Rick is also trying to be an underwater photographer so keeping up with him was a mission as he kept swimming away really quickly. The only thing I was very wary of was the giant Titan Trigger fish...it was the size of a small dog! No thank you let's promptly swim away! I did however see some Lion fish which were pretty cool but my best dive for marine life still has to be Chumphon Pinnacle.

Got a couple more days in Kata before moving on so will see what those days bring!

The picture is of sunset on Kata beach the day I arrived in Phuket.