From our hotels on Phuket, we took a boat trip to Ko Phi Phi (pronounced pee pee; ko means island), which took about 2 and a half hours and was very pretty. Ko Phi Phi is part of a national marine park, which comprises numerous satellite islands, the most famous of which is uninhabited and called Ko Phi Phi Leh. This island is famous for being the location for the movie The Beach, starring Leonardo Di Caprio. Before filming took place the production crew had to remove approximately 3 tonnes of debris and even plant some new palm trees, leaving it cleaner and more beautiful than when they arrived. Now unfortunately it is mobbed by tourists. The interior of the main island is a maze of narrow footpaths, weaving between shops and down to beaches - one of which is pictured here. There are no roads and apart from walking, the only way to move around the island is to get a water taxi around the outside. We stayed the night in a hotel called the Banyan Tree and had a triple room again. This involved a mattress being placed on the floor for me, but at least it was under the air conditioning unit! This turned out to be a disadvantage as at approx 0400 the unit made a loud banging noise and promptly ground to a halt. After careful investigation I discovered that it was clogged up with ice which was now falling onto my bed - oh well, at least it kept me cool as we had to leave the machine switched off. The next morning we were up early and went to the beach pictured, where Maria and I decided to hire a kayak for an hour.We went out way beyond the headlands in the photo and found a secluded little beach with only two other kayakers on - blissful. Our boat back to Phuket left at 1500 and we were back in our hotel at Kata for dinner. The 29th was Vera and Paddy's last day, as they were flying to Bangkok for one night before heading home. Having pillaged their suitcases for toiletries, sun cream, bug spray, etc the three of us then proceeded to load them up with all the stuff that we wanted them to take home for us - I'm bet they're glad they visited. The day that they left we decided to head on to Ko Samui to visit some friends of Alan's.......so that's where you'll be hearing from me next. S xx