Paradise, we're in paradise, but it was one hell of a journey getting here!!!!

7.40 sitting outside our hotel in Phuket waiting for our mini bus.

8.40 mini bus arrives an hour late. Grinning driver says '14 peoples', we didn't have a clue what he was on about, there were only the 2 of us so we climbed aboard and took 2 comfy seats with plenty of leg room for Dave. We stopped along the way to pick up 2 nice guys, one from Sweden, one from Germany and off we went again, our luggage stacked neatly on the second row of seats. More stops; 9,10,11,12 peoples, all their suitcases and the driver and a hostess, on a 16 seater bus [3 seats were by now loaded to the ceiling with suitcases. The driver, still grinning [it's a Thai thing] kept counting the seats as though more were going to appear out of thin air. By this time things were getting silly and there were murmurings on the bus; 14 peoples, we can't get 2 more on here, safety, comfort, 6 hour journey, etc etc.

Sure enough, we drew up to another hotel and there were 2 more peoples and 2 more suitcases waiting to get on.The hostess assured us we would be getting to another bus in 5 minutes, so we all shuffled up, sat on luggage and laps and prayed the suspension was going to hold out. Half an hour later we were moaning like hell and the driver pulled into a garage and made a phone call.

Another grinning Thai, masking a very nasty temper turned up and threw all our cases off the bus saying we had too much luggage, people were pleading with him that we needed to catch the ferry [we had a 6 hour journey ahead of us on the mini bus before we even got to the ferry] and that we all needed our luggage and we had been promised we were going to get onto another bus. He outright refused to help and we sat in the hot sun for an hour, we weren't budging and neither was he. No-one had tickets, they had been taken off us so no-one could contact their tour companies, we had no idea where we were and suddenly the little s*** didn't understand a word of English. People were panicking at this point that we were going to miss the last ferry so we reluctantly re-packed the mini bus [some were having to sit with their feet on suitcase, we left the hostess at the garage, [God knows what became of her] one man had to sit next to the luggage in the second row and hold it so it didn't fall on the driver and I was wedged, up-close and personal, between 2 young men. The 'boys' and I were sharing 2 bucket seats between 3 of us which meant I had a cheek on the edge of each seat with nothing supporting my undercarriage [difficult when you feel a 'fluff' coming on and you can't clench your cheeks together] and no support for my back. It was so uncomfortable the 6 hours felt like 6 days and my arse felt like it had been beaten with a banjo when I got off. I was well grumpy; everyone gave me a very wide berth.

But that's not the end of it! We then had to queue at a bus station for bus and ferry tickets. Dave and I were well and truly ripped off by another nasty piece of work who told us we also needed taxi tickets which would cost us the equivalent of 20 quid, we argued that we had paid all our fares but he said the bus was about to leave, if we didn't pay we couldn't get on it and we would miss the ferry. We coughed up another 20 quid and ran to get the bus which then sat idle for another half an hour. No-one else on the bus had had to pay for taxis; the b******!

4 hours on the ferry and I was thinking what the hell are we doing? My morale was right down and I just wished the ferry was taking us home. [I was very aware at the time that we don't actually have a home but some-ones spare bed in Cheltenham would have been very welcome by this time.] When we got off the ferry it was dark and a girl was crying saying she had paid at the bus station for a taxi and accommodation, she had been well and truly ripped off too, it left a nasty taste.

To top it all, an open air taxi took us to the accommodation we had booked over the internet the previous day. Though it was dark, we could see it was a lovely resort, right on the beach, swimming pool the lot. We were shown to our 'budget' accommodation and it was gloomy to say the least and though it probably was clean it didn't feel it because it was so shabby. Next day we went for a walk along the beach and found some wooden bungalows, we booked in for 3 nights and haven't looked back. We are loving it here, 20 paces to the totally chilled out bar and beach and we have our own hammock at last! We are on Salad bay and it is absolutely gorgeous, we watched a wonderful sunset last night; we only wish the photos would do it justice. We don't intend moving from here for a while, it's too hot to do anything anymore energetic than swimming snorkelling, reading, writing blogs for you lot and, eating and drinking. It's like being on holiday!

Laura, thank you for making us come!