Hey again everyone,

After three nights in Koh Lanta we headed towards Phuket. The boat we got on at Koh Lanta was headed to Phi Phi which meant we had to stop in the middle of the sea and hop across to another boat which was headed for Phuket. Definitely a first for both of us - and something you'd only ever really see in South East Asia! Once we arrived in Phuket we jumped on a pre paid air conditioned minibus which, after a mix up with guesthouses (first he took us to Na Na Chart Mansion instead of Na Na Chart Phuket), we were pleasantly surprised with what we found; a quiet, clean, friendly resort with its own restaurant and once again free wifi. We spent our first day chilling at the hotel as we had endured an early morning get up to travel here.

The second day (New Years Eve) we headed into Phuket Town to have a look around before meeting Amy and Mike, the couple we met in Koh Phangan. We exchanged stories over a few drinks about what we'd been up to since we last met then headed towards Patong which is known to be the seedy, more touristy part of Phuket. When we arrived we sat down and had an Indian which, although pricey with undersized portions, was very nice. We had planned to make our next stop the beach where all of the celebrations were to happen; however, on the way, we were stopped by a ridiculous amount of people asking if we wanted to see a renowned ping pong show. Friends we met in Koh Phangan had told us that they were not at all how we pictured them and were actually comical and a good laugh so we decided we might as well have a look. We spent the next hour in a dodgy back room of a club where we were treated to a group of ladies (we're still not sure if they were ladies or not) showing us their skills! The show included some rather embarrassing moments for unsuspecting audience members who jumped up on stage to take part! After this rather unusual, and unexpected, stop we finally made it to the beach and joined the hundreds of thousands of other revellers. We were surprised to see hundreds of floating lanterns being let off which lit up the sky and, as Mike described it, it was like "moving stars" and was quite a sight. Patong Beach is a huge stretch of beach which curves round in a large U shape and at 12 o'clock we were treated to the most amazing, panoramic firework display! As with all other laws in Asia, their firework laws are very relaxed and anybody can buy fireworks very, very cheap so, as well as all of the bars and restaurants along the coastline creating huge displays, hundreds of people in the crowd were setting off their own fireworks, we were literally surrounded!!! We then hunted down a taxi costing less than 1000B and retired to our beds for an early night as we had to fly to Singapore the next day.

We hope everyone is well back home and that you all had an amazing New Year. The last three months of 2010 were truly special to us and we hope this will carry on into 2011, not only for us but for all of you also! HAPPY NEW YEAR, we love you all and miss you very much!

Sophie and Kie xx