We got into Thailand really early in the morning at 1am, to be greated by laods of taxi drivers pouncing on us and quoting us stupid rates. We managed to find a 'metered taxi' but he wouldnt do it on the meter as it was late at night. It was a subaru though, so we got there in no time. After checking in and having a beer, we slept the rest of the night.

uring the day, we went to explore Phuket town and get some maps. This a bit different to the other travelling, as we were literally on our own, and didn't have the set out plan that we had in Hong Kong. It took a bit of getting used to, but with our lonely planet and acquired maps, we soon worked it out. We found a great bar at the top of the viewpoint thathad an amazing view over the town, so we stayed there most of the night, experiencing the local brew, Chang. We then had our first try of Thai food, and the curries were amazing, and had tastes that we'd never tasted before. That night, we went to th shop to get some beers to chill with back at the hostel, and we ended up getting the cheapest called 'Siam Sato'. After 1 bottle and about half an hour later we were both steaming and could barely walk. Not bad for 40 pence!

Phuket town was nice but we were craving a bit of excitement and the chance to meet some other travellers, so the next day we decided to go to Patong Beach. We jumped on the bus and checked into a hostel right on the sea front. The main road in Patong is called Bangla road, and it had everything from bars and clubs, to DVD'S and sunglasses, t shirts, go go girls and 'special' massage places. It was all a bit overwhelming at first glance, but then it began to just look seedy..maybe it was because of all the dirty old fat men. The noise you hear constantly is a woman saying, "massaaaaaaaaaage?!" We made the most of the happy hour drink offers, then on the night we met a few guys from the hostel, John and Derrick from California, Storm, and Singapore. We all headed out on the road, and had a few beers at one of the bars that had girls dancing on the bar top. Of course, Kirsty had to show them how it was done! We ended up in a club that was free in, and spent the rest of the night there. Simon ended up getting into a dance off with some guys who turned out to be amazing break dancers! Turns out the shuffle shulffle wasnt good enough!

Needless to say, the next day we didnt really do much, but we did experience double big macs from McDonalds. On the night we experienced one of Thailand amazing sunsets and spents some time on the beach. It was cool to see people setting of the lanterns into the sky.

The next day we headed back to Phuket town and decided to treat ourselves to our own room at the same hotel which was much nicer. We got a tuk tuk to the harbour to see about tickets to Koh Phi Phi, and experience our first Thai rip off. When we got there, we decided that we could get them cheaper in the town, so we asked the driver to tke us back. He said no! We couldn't understand it at first, but then realised that he would get comission from the harbour company for taking us there, but because we didn't get a ticket from there, he wouldn't take us back! Turns out we wanted a walk to see a bit more of the town so it was ok. We got to see the housing areas of the city and how the Thai people live.