So…time for another update I reckon, get ready for another essay!

Hope that you are all really well. Thank you for the email updates and message board comments, keep them coming.

Arrived into Phuket after Chiang Mai - to another of Matt's hotels, very nice I must admit. Chilled for a day and a bit before moving onto Ko Phi Phi. Took the ferry across and it was literally raining for the whole journey. Still absolutely beautiful scenery though, rain or no rain. Little slice of heaven that place is. Lugged our bags off of the boat (honestly wish I hadn't packed half of the silly clothes that I have) and the rain really decided to turn it on. My god. SHEETS of the stuff. A little thai/rasta man (they love Marley in Phi Phi) came from our 'hotel' to meet us at the dock and put our (and a couple of screaming Chinese girls') bags in this big trolley thing (there's no proper roads for cars on Phi Phi, everyone just walks or bikes around these little lanes, love it). I had had time to get my mac out of my bag (THANK YOU Becki for making me buy that) but Matt didn't, needless to say by the time we arrived at our 'hotel' he looked like he had been standing under a shower fully clothed. I was rather smug. We'd literally been wading through little rivers of rain. Of course our 'hotel' couldn't find our booking. The owner obviously had a fondness for cats as there were about a million kittens running around the reception when we were trying to sort out our room. You may have noticed that I keep referring to our hotel as a 'hotel' well I suppose you have to take the rough with the smooth but, after staying in relatively cheap luxury in Phuket, this £15 a night hole seemed like hell. It didn't seem so bad at first, apart from the bathroom - one of those showers which is basically over the toilet, mmmmm clean. Then we realised that we were almost halfway up a little mountain surrounded by lots of greenery, greenery = lots of bugs and stuff. The big wooden headboard of our bed made loads of crawly/clicky/fly/insect noises so we ending up sleeping at the other end. Then, and Matt thinks that this was my fault for leaving the door open but I think it could have had something to do with the hole in our bathroom ceiling, an actual geko (house lizard whatever) came to live with us for the duration of our stay. How ironic our last Geko story seemed now. There was no way we were going to try and catch him, he was so fast, I know he would have ended up jumping on my face. So we left him and at night we could hear him squirming around the walls. Also woke up from an afternoon sleep one day to see a huge preying mantis thing looking in at us from our balcony.

Anyway apart from our 'hotel' (oh forgot to mention that we had to walk past a sewerage place to get to it, ha) Ko Phi Phi is the most beautiful place ever. The cloud of the first few days didn't really do it justice but once the sun came out you understood what all the fuss was about. The first night started off fairly innocently, then we stumbled across a beach bar which had little mats for you to lay down on, on the sand, ended up sharing a bucket of the local Thai spirit 'Mekhong' or something. Bleurghhh. Tastes like rum or whisky or something equally horrible. The rasta man from the bar said "Hey you want 'smoke'?" We must have looked scared as he left us alone pretty quickly. We then found ourselves in another place, the little Tonsia or 'tourist' village is brilliant, a little maze of backpacker bars, hostels and shops. Really chilled out but a bit manic at the same time. A couple more red bull and vodkas later (don't even like these but they were cheap!) we found ourselves at a fire show at the beach, next thing I know I'm dancing around on the sand whilst Matt watched the bags. Ha. Had to be done.

Went on a speedboat trip to the famous Phi Phi Leh on our last day, small uninhabited island off of Ko Phi Phi - made famous by the film The Beach. When I say that our speedboat driver/captain was no older than twelve, I am not joking. (I managed to sneak a photo of him). We were climbing the waves and smashing back down into the sea. We somehow made it one piece to the first couple of stops, Viking Cave and a snorkelling stop in a BEAUTIFUL cove. FYI we cannot snorkel, my flippers were too big and were dragging me down/falling off the whole time. By the time we got to our next stop (another cove) Matt began to feel a bit queezy. To be fair he had said that he hadn't felt right the night before and obviously the motion of the choppy waves, the fumes from the engines and our boy driver's 'skills' didn't help. Before you knew it, he was spewing up everything he'd got (and not in a discreet fashion) over the side of the boat while our other trip people were still swimming around. HA. Another girl was being sick from the front of the boat and I must admit I nearly joined in.

Finally we made it to THE beach and stunningly beautiful it was. Our boy driver couldn't get the boat into the bay so another driver had to climb aboard and reserve us in. Nothing was said about a different pick up point just, "one hour, one hour" so obviously, wanting to take lots of pictures and videos I took our bag with us. Had a lovely hour on the beach, soaking up the beauty of the place. It really is a must-see. Then we were told to walk through these bushes and rock pools and to climb down these rickety old wooden stairs off of the side of a cliff and to swim to our boat. (I don't think that boy driver could get the boat back into the bay). He took my bag (containing camera, video camera, money etc) and put it into this black bin liner. Good. The water was so choppy, could hardly breathe, the current was so strong as well, very scary moment. The boat didn't seem to be getting any nearer either, Matt was shouting 'backstroke Suze backstroke!' Ha. Managed to drag ourselves onboard, followed by the boy driver carrying the black bin liner, which incidentally had split, water was gushing out of our bag and we are now camera and video camera-less! Very annoying. Luckily the memory card was fine so we have saved our Phi Phi Leh pics. Will be purchasing a new camera asap.

Moved onto Koh Lanta last Thurday morning, we casually walked down to Ko Phi Phi pier/jetty thinking that we had hours to spare, turns out, the boat to Koh Lanta only goes every other day in low season. We had to RUN down the length of the main pier (with Matt carrying both of our bags as I can just about walk with mine on let alone sprint) to get a boat to Krabi that was leaving that second (two hour journey) and then get a minivan to Lanta which took about 3 and a half to 4 hours. The joys of travelling! Ha.

Took us a few days to warm to Koh Lanta, the weather was a bit rubbish and we were both still feeling a bit ill (definitely ate something dodgy in Phi Phi). Moved hotels to a stay in a cheap bungalow on the beach and the sun decided to come out for the last few days - loved the place by the end. Met a brilliant Tuk Tuk man named 'Ivory' " you know like elephant!" he'd say (and do actions). We wouldn't have even arranged to meet him and he'd be waiting outside our hotel ready to take us wherever we wanted (for a small charge of course). His Tuk Tuk must've been the talk of the island as it had a little cushioned seat in (as well as a standard seat), he called us the 'King and Queen of Lanta'. Queen got to sit on the cushioned seat. Ha. He also said that I must've been a doctor and that Matt looked like a professor (ha) at Hogwarts of all places. He told us that he used to own a restaurant on the island which was destroyed by the Tsunami so now he is tuk-tuking all day every day to try and re-open the place. He took us on a private tour of the island, down to the old town and to see the 'Sea Gyspies' . We saw a couple of massive elephants casually being ridden down the main road on the way down there, and a few monkeys chilling out in the back of people's trucks. Obviously haven't got any pictures of Koh Lanta, you can google it if you like. Lovely place, very quiet, especially this time of year but a very nice spot to chill.

Back in Phuket now, enjoying some more sunshine, finally getting our tans on. Walked down Bangla Road yesterday, my word. Think we're going to see a Ping Pong show tonight. Ha. So wrong but has to be done I suppose, wish us(me) luck!

Love as always xxxxxxxxxx

P.s forgot to say, after my smugness at my mac wearing abilities in Phi Phi, I left it out on our balcony to dry and it blew away into the 'jungle' below. We could actually see it but there was no way I was going to wade through the shrubbery to find out what little friends had wormed their way into the many pockets. So it was left. I'm distraught.