MATT: I am getting eaten by mosquito's right now...so I will come back to this!

Kel: Hi everyone, feels like I've not written for ages. So, Koh Yao. Well we realised we were enjoying the less touristy trails much more so I went on the hunt for some undiscovered tropical paradises. Virtually impossible to find, but we got close. We took a boat from north Phuket to a small island called Koh Yao, which is a predominantly muslim area whose main trades are in rubber, coconuts and fish. Tourism is a sideline that's very slowly developing. The boat trip was hilarious. We were the only westerners with the locals on what was a bit of a choppy crossing (but nothing serious) They were all bricking it, sitting inside with as many lifejackets as they could fit on, hold, cower under... I swear none of them could swim which is crazy considering where they live. Anyway, Matthew and I were out on the front of the boat with the captain having a chat and enjoying the scenery. The limestone cliffs are absolutely stunning all around you. Quite like a little chunk of halong bay in vietnam but with turquoise sea.

We found ourselves a wee bungalow and spent a couple of days there enjoying the deserted beaches and cycling around the island (it's pretty small) We've taken loads of pics so hopefully you'll get a feel for it soon, but it was just so nice to feel like we were really exploring on our own without really bumping into that many white people. It was such a small place we even bumped into the captain of the boat again. He took us to his house (which he built in 3 months) We had a swing in his hammock and chatted for a while. Then we met some guys who were trying to rescue an orphaned baby monkey, which was really weird to touch but strangely cute. Just nice hanging out with local people. Some serious chilling on that island though. One woman was lying dosing with her baby in a shop I went into and she could barely say hello, let alone sit up when I went in. Matthew had a problem with his bike. The local mechanic was full of zzzz and we had a hard job waking him up to ask for an allen key (in sign language!) So funny. So definitely worth a stop over on our way to Krabi.