Even though Phi Phi is still a tropical paradise island, the place had certainly changed since I was here a few years back. The first thing I noticed was they'd replaced the shabby wooden pier with a brand new concrete one, which in fairness with the amount of foot flow that goes through here I'd be surprised if the wooden one didn't snap under the weight of all the people. Plus more bars, shop & Guest houses had gone up everywhere, very different from Railay - appealing to the holiday maker more than the backpacker. Finding accommodation on this island is a nightmare at the best of times and cheap places don't exist, so East & Simon set off to see what they could find. After an hour or so they had found somewhere, it was a 1000BHT per night (the most expensive place we'd stayed so far) but it was really nice with a small private terrace area complete with hammock & our bathroom was in the setting of a tropical garden.

Unfortunately Becky had been poorly the night before so recovered in bed whilst East, Simon & I had a mooch around & booked a dive trip for the following day - Easton Birthday! That night I came down with the same sickness bug Becky had, but luckily for us both it only lasted 24hrs. So whilst the others had a dinner at Cosmic Restaurant (our main haunt for the three days there) I stayed in wanting my mum to look after me.

Thankfully the morning of the 10th of March I was feeling slightly better so I was still able to go diving. It was East's first dive since passing his Open Water and it was amazing!! We swam with black tip reef sharks, huge lionfish & scorpion fish, moray eels, sting rays, sea horses and 100's of other beautiful fish. When we got back Simon & Becky had put balloons all around our apartment & picked up the birthday cake I'd arranged. We went round the markets and got East a couple of new bits to wear that night, followed by his first traditional Thai massage.

By the time we went out we'd all had few drinks, so were pretty merry & after a beaut dinner at Cosmic we headed to the Muay Thai boxing - with a difference. It was tourist fighting rather than professionals, who were tempted by free whiskey/vodka bucket to participant. They wore protective headgear and the rounds were shorter but the rules were the same - great fun to watch. East wanted to jump in but he'd drunk far too much & Simon wouldn't let him… thankfully! Then two Thai's entered the ring for the most brutal fight we'd ever seen, we couldn't believe the ref allowed it to go on. It wasn't until the following day that we were told that it was staged (100 times more believable than any WWF match). After a couple more drinks at the beach bars we headed back with a very drunk Easton saying that "it's my birthday (although it was 2.00am) in England". He carried on the next morning saying "It's still my birthday in South America"!!

After just two nights on Phi Phi, which because of the price was enough, we caught the boat back to the mainland to meet up with Jamie & Bennet. Very much looking forward to some luxury treatment in the villa that Simon & Beck had kindly booked for us all on Koh Samui…Bliss!