After a coach, a train, two planes, lots of waiting, and a taxi I finally arrived in the mad city of Bangkok feeling absolutely exhausted and totally confused. It was a bit of a shock to be somewhere so busy, loud, crazy, hot, and not to mention very smelly! Had a moment of panic when I arrived with no money to find out I couldn't withdraw any cash, apparently after 11 months of being out of the country they suddenly realised my card was being used abroad and stopped it but whatever - that is sorted now thankgod. I met with Nikki who got here two days earlier and we stayed right amongst the mayhem which is Khoa San Road. Its very touristy but fun and manic at the same time. There are loads of market stalls selling everything from knock-off clothes, pirate cd's (which I stocked up on), junk, electrical goods, jewellery etc. And you have to bargain for everything, which can be fun but also becomes very tiresome. There are lots of food stalls too selling delicious dirt-cheap Thai grub, most of them on push-carts, some attached to motor-bikes. And even make-shift bars on wheels - who set up camp anywhere, put out a few chairs and display signs like 'V.strong Cocktails. Cheap. No ID needed' haha. There are people from all walks of life - tourists, backpackers, pervy white men with Thai girls (yuk), street vendors, lady-boys, prostitutes, guys looking like pirates, and a surprising amount of Thais with dreadlocks! April being one of the hottest and most humid months of the year it is pretty unbearable and we constantly had to take breaks from the sweltering heat outside and jump in any place with air-con. I got my hair-braided again, which helps - way too hot for hair. On our second day we treated ourselves and went to a spa. I got a bizarre body-wrap thing which involved taking a lovely hot bath with pieces of fruit, and a Thai massage. Felt a bit uncomfortable about the naked massage, especially on my butt (god knows what she must of thought about that bruise from Fraser!). In the evening we caught a tuk-tuk to the night-market. The ride was a V.scary experience! Racing in and out of the busy traffic like a lunatic! Quite fun though... The night market was full of fake-designer stuff and it was in the red-light district. You couldnt help but look in the seedy joints and stare at the poor girls dancing on the tables in every place we passed. Oddly the guys outside kept harassing us to go inside and watch the ping-pong shows (?) Umm do we look like we'd be interested in that sort of thing?! Yuk. Weird. The next day we left Bangkok for Phi Phi island. We caught the night bus to Krabi, a looong 15hour journey. When we finally got to Krabi (feeling v.crabby ourselves) we had to wait a further few hours for the ferry in the scorching heat in some crummy building in the middle of nowhere. We were told we'd get to Phi Phi at 12noon but didnt arrive untill 6pm more than 24hours after we'd left. Felt v.tired and scummy. Phi Phi island is a gorgeous place in Southern Thailand. Although it is v.touristy and almost as hot as Bangkok! The island was hit really bad by the Tsunami when practically every building was destroyed. Most of it has been re-built but you can still see the damage. There are demolished buildings which are now just rubble and alot of construction work still going on. There are no cars here which is nice, although the bicycle's do wizz through the narrow streets pretty fast! The first day I was dying to get in the sea but to my disappointment, although it is lovely and translucent, the water is really warm and does nothing to cool you down. We spent the day sizzling on the beach. In the evening we went to a bar and saw an amazing fire-show! They were great, there was a woman doing it too and a little boy. We drank buckets (literally in buckets!) of something so evil that night. A Thai rum called Samsung, which I have only just found out contains amphetamines (!) no wonder we felt like death the next day. Yesterday we went on a day-trip on a boat. We went to Monkey Beach, unfortunately the Monkeys were having a day-off that day. Then we snorkeled and kayaked by another island with huge lime-stone cliffs and beautiful beaches. Afterwards we went to Ma Ya bay, which is where the film The Beach was filmed. It was absolute paradise there. We had to arrive by kayak, which was pretty dangerous as the waves smacked us against the rocks, Nikki fell and hurt her arm. Then we walked through Palm trees and exotic plants to reach the gorgeous beach. We swam where Leonardo Dicaprio had! Mmmm... Then we returned to the boat and watched a magnificent sunset. Ahhh thats the life.....