We came down to here after spending a night in a place called Khao Lak. Khao Lak about is half way down the coast inbetween Ranong and Phuket and is the best access point to the Similan Islands, which are amoung the top 10 dive destinations in the world. We knew upon arriving that Laura was feeling congested (which is bad for diving), but as we were passing through to get to Krabi we thought we might as well stop off and see if it cleared up so we could go diving for a few days. Unfortunatly after looking around for prices and having a good nights sleep, Lau didn't feel as if she was clear enough to go diving and as it was a lot of money we decided to head straight down to Railey in Krabi. Upon arriving at the port in Krabi at 5.30pm we thought we had made it just in time to get the last boat over to Railay at 6pm, but were told by a boatman to wait for 2 more people to join us as he needed a full boat, so we waited... and waited... and waited, until at around 6.15pm when the driver decided to walk off and leave us at the port as no one else turned up to join us on the boat! Now we had to find acommodation and stay a night in Krabi town which we did quite easily as there was a lot of cheap rooms, and then walk to the port first thing in the morning for the first boat. It was quite nice staying in Krabi town actually - there were really cheap nightfood stalls by the port and our room had wifi so we just chilled out.

The next morning we got the first boat fine and after a 30min ride arrived at Railay. Railay is attached to the main land of Krabi, but due to where it is, its landscape and thick jungle, it cannot be reached by car or bike as there are no roads! After jumping off the boat and walking along the walkway looking for acommodation we managed to find a lovely bungalow up on stilts set back in the mountains called Railay Cabanna. It was around 5 mins walk to the beach and was set in the nicest of grounds perched amoungst the cliffs and surrounded by huge limestone mountains. We were fairly centrally located here, so after a hour or so we went off to explore Railay and its 3 main beaches. One of the beaches has been voted one of the best in the world so we headed straight over to see what the fuss was about, when we got there it wasn't the beach that was so amazing but more the setting and surroundings. As you walk to the beach through the jungle path there were monkeys jumping around you and then it opened up to this beach that was surrounded by the biggest limestone cliffs and caves, and even out in the ocean there were limestone karsts which look like they have just been placed there by a giant, it was a really nice beach but i have defo been to better! We relaxed there for a few hours and took a short walk over to the next beach which was where the sun sets, it was walking along here when we saw a small dive shop offering cheap diving courses on and around the Phi Phi islands, so as we are now quailified divers (pat on the back again) we had a butchers. We spoke the guy in there who was English and said how we were interested in doing our Advanved Divers Course, he said we could do it with them for 8000bhat (£160) which was really cheap outside of Koh Tao, especially as it was to be done on the Phi Phi islands. We didn't book it right then though as Laura's friend Amy was coming out to us tomorrow and we didn't want to leave her on her own as soon as she got here, but we would see if Aim wanted to come snorkelling whilst we dived and that way we would all be together. So after watching the sunset on the beach we headed back for some food and got a good nights sleep. We woke the next day and found a cheaper place to stay right on the front so we decided to move as it was closer to all the bars and resturants. Its so much quieter here at night than other places we have been to, it's got a really chilled out feel to it with a lot of Reggae Bars and decked areas sticking out over the sea covered in cushions for you to lie on and have a few drinks. After moving homes, we didn't really get much done that day other than chill on the beach and relax... it's hard work all this travelling you know! After another nights eating, drinking and watching Muy Thai boxing we both woke up excited as Amy was arriving to stay with us for a while! Amy arrrived and we upgrded our room to a bigger bungalow and snuk Amy in so she didnt have to pay as a extra person, and her and Lau spent the next hour or so catching up on the last four months! Within 10 minutes of arriving Aim had us in stitches... she was just saying how she didn't mind where she slept as long as she had her pillow... which she then realised she'd left on the boat over here... she left her book on the bus (the same book she was saying she can't wait to lie on the beach and read) and she had also left some brand new trousers she had just brought (which , I quote, "really caught my eye"!) on the bus too! She's such a donut!!!! I can see I'm going to have to keep my eye on her!! Hahaha! We headed to the beaches to chillax and explained to Aim about the scuba/snorkelling thing we wanted to do but hadn't booked it yet as we were waiting to see what she thought... so of course Aim being Aim was well up for it, so we all went and got booked... me and Lau starting our 2 day advanced course the following day and Aim coming snorkelling with us the second day and on the way back the boat was going to drop us all off at Phi Phi Island (our next destination) for free, which saved us a 450bhat ferry trip each... bargain! That night we decided to celebrate Amy's arrival by having a nice seafood dinner with a free salad bar which was amazing, we had Shark, Black Salmon and White Snapper between us and enough salad to sink a ship! At about £4 each it was the most expensive meal we've had yet!!!! Haha!

Our third day we woke ready to start our advanced scuba course! The reason we wanted to do our advanced is because amongst other amazing things you learn, it qualifies you to dive down to 30m which is important if we ever wanted to dive wrecks in the future, as most are below 20m. We got on our boat and headed out to the Phi Phi islands whist munching on the breaky provided. We were really lucky as we were the only two doing a course on the boat, all the other divers were fun divers so we had our instructor, Taff, all to ourselfs... Taff was a Thai instructor but he went to uni in Australia so his English was perfect and he was excellent. We were to do 3 dives on our first day, a deep dive to 30m, a multi level dive and a navigation dive. So in we jumped for our deep dive and it was amazing... the diving here was sooooo much better than Koh Tao, I mean Koh Tao was good but the fish and coral here were unreal... so bright and so many more fish and stuff, and the water was crystal clear... visability was to about 20/30m! We dropped straight down to 30m and came back up to around 16m to check out some fish... we saw all sorts - Sea horses, Scorpion fish, Lion fish, Sea snakes, Giant Moray Eels....the list goes on. So up we came, had lunch and went for our second dive, our multi level dive, this teaches us how to work out our air etc and how long you can stay at each level for etc. This dive was at Maya Wall which is literally a wall or coral up one of the limestone karsts attached to Maya Bay... which was the set of the film 'The Beach', so you can imagine how amazing it was here! As soon as we dropped in and went down to around 16m we were less than a foot away from the biggest green Turtle munching away on some coral, it was amazing to just sit next to him and watch him... we swam with him for a bit then headed off to see more amazing stuff! The third dive was a bit harder, we were given co-ordinates on our compass and had to navigate round in a strong current and in really poor visability (we couldn't see Taff at some points which was quite scary!), it was hard work but it taught us skills that you really need to learn. The day ended after our third dive (the most dives we've done in 1 day so far... knackered!) and we headed back to land to join Amy for dinner and drinks... after which Lau and Aim decided to have a dreadlock each!!! I think the reason they gave was something like "why the hell not"!!!!!!

The following day all three of us got on the boat - for us the day would consist of 2 dives - a fish ID dive and a peak boyancy dive - and for Amy was a day of snorkelling... at the end of the day the 3 of us were being dropped off on Phi Phi Island. The first dive we did was one we had been looking forward to for ages - the fish ID dive. Basically you take a slate down and have to identify five different family's of fish, it's really easy actually but it's interesting to know what your looking at and whether it's dangerous or not... of course we did it with ease, there are so many fish you could do this within the first 10 seconds of hitting the water! But we just missed seeing a Leopard Shark :-( maybe next time!!! The last dive we did was at the same place we saw the Turtle yesterday and upon pulling up to the dive site we saw turtles at the surface... so we kitted up and jumped in, and there he was again, this one looked bigger than yesterday and even Amy saw him whist snorkelling above us! We then did some boyancy skills, where Taff gives us weights whilst swimming around and we have to control our level in the water by using our breathing and lungs... of course we nailed it! At on point we looked up and Aim was snorkling right above us waving, haha! After our last dive we were now Qualified Advanced Divers, yay! We all had a great day and at around 3pm our boat kindly dropped us off at the Phi Phi Islands. x