Hey guys, well this is it, the final chapter of what has been by far the best 7 months of my life.......

So the last 9 days of my trip where pretty cool as expected. We ended up having a crazy night out in Patong, visiting some of the delightful bars! Western guys do very well around here......! pretty much a heaven of Thai Girls and not so Thai Girl! You know, maybe not all there, not just upstairs!!! Anyway a great night and thankfully no dodgy dealings with any lady-boys! The next day we check out of the hotel and book ourselves on the 2:30 boat to Phi Phi, a 2 hour boat crossing to Thailand’s most beautiful island region. After a short yet crazy tuk tuk journey to the pier with all 6 of us piled in with 6 heavy backpacks we arrive there just in time. Most of the guys fall asleep on the boat over to Phi Phi, last nights antics coming back to haunt them, but not little old innocent me! ;-)

We arrive on Phi Phi after a very picturesque crossing, we pass the island where The Beach was filmed which looked amazing. Once on the little island we walked around looking for accommodation, as Phi Phi is so small, it doesn’t have any motor vehicles on the island at all. Everything is ferried around by cart or boat from bay-to-bay. We find ourselves a place called Twin Palms, a resort on the beach which has small bamboo beach houses for sleeping in, pretty awesome! We all get ready for a big night out on the town after watching the football of course, Man Utd Vs Liverpool, we only saw 1 goal as a huge thunderstorm came over and cut the power off and lost the signal, never mind. We then head into town and find a bar owned by 2 Hull City fans, and would you believe it, city where playing Newcastle that night so a great night for us all, met about 12 city fans on the island!

The following day we all wake up outrageous hangovers! It’s Dan, Marc and Andy’s last full day with us so we plan to do something good. Adam and Andy go off fishing for the day on a boat around the island. Me, Dan and Marc book a trip for the afternoon to take us over to the other Phi Phi Island and Maya Beach, plus snorkeling and a sunset from the boat. Once booked we all decide to head back to bed until 2pm when the trips where leaving. After a nice nap to get my senses back we met up on the beach and gathered on the boat to take us on our trip. 1st stop was Monkey Beach, a small bay with huge towering rocky mountains overlooking the small cove which is a truly great snorkeling spot. We swim around for an hour or so checking out huge shoals of Sergeant Majors, Needle Fish, some small clown fish and butterfly fish. Next stop was to Maya beach, a short but very rough crossing on our small boat to the opposite island, here the towering rocks plunge deep into the sea from 100’s of feet above, it looks like nothing could ever exist on such a rocky island, however stashed away in a small opening was Maya Beach, the most beautiful beach ive ever seen! The movie does give it justice as there is so many little boats around with people visiting its hard to picture the place ever empty. The beach its self though was blinding white. We spent around an hour on the beach, sunbathing, simply taking in the surroundings as they really where breathtaking. As the sun was setting we head off around the island to see some other sites. It was such a rough ride, we all nearly ended up in the water a few times. We past Viking Cave, a huge hole in the rock where people still live! I have no idea how as its well open to the elements! There so close to the ocean they don’t have a doorstep! We ploughed on and finally ended up back at Monkey Beach where we snorkeled a bit more before sunset. The other guys had had an amazing 2 weeks of action packed fun with me and Adam, they couldn’t believe we had basically done what they had been doing for the last 2 weeks for a whole 7 months! It was a reality check for them both, its hard work traveling, drinking all that beer and eating all that food, plus all that sunny glorious weather you have to put up with! Nightmare! During the evening we just relaxed, had a few drinks and hit the hay early after a hectic couple of days, plus the guys leave where leaving in the morning.

Morning soon comes and the guys pack and head off to the pier for there boat back to Phuket before a flight back to Bangkok before a 14 hour flight back to the UK via Kuwait! Rather them then me….. Once gone we all realize that we should check our bank balances, it was very pleasant reading!!! So for the next few days left on the island we just chill out and catch some much needed sun. The beach where we are staying is beautiful, literally walk out your door and on to the sand.

So the day finally came when we had to leave Phi Phi island, thinking about it, leaving the island and heading back to Phuket is really the start of heading home! Bad times! We catch the early ferry from the pier back to Phuket and check back into the hotel we were at in Patong. Chilled out for a couple of days as we had no money, caught a few more rays then caught a flight back to Bangkok. Me and Adam decided to treat ourselves and book ourselves into a decent hotel, 4*, A/C, Pool, Breakfast! £12 each a night! Really pushed the boat out there!!!!! Our friend Nick who had been with us a majority of the time around Thailand came and met us back in Bangkok for one final send off night out. We drank Chang Beer Towers and smoked Shisha’s until we basically couldn’t stand up any more, one final Pad Thai before an emotional farewell to Nick and Bangkok, this was it, we both knew now our trip was finally coming to an end…….

The following day we check out of our hotel and go to the Airport to catch our flight to Singapore for the night. Both feeling sick as a dog due to the stupid amounts of Chang we drank, a serious Chang-over! Adam managed to fall asleep on the airport floor. A Short 2 Hour flight saw us arrive in Changi Airport. We have a hotel booked in the centre of Singapore for the night courtesy of Singapore Airlines! Singapore looks a cool city, certainly an up and coming one, seem to be spending a lot of money into making it a metropolitan and cultural city. Morning came and we where out of the hotel and back to Changi, our 14 hour flight back to Heathrow await, may sound bad but we happened to land ourselves quality seats on the new Airbus A380! An awesome way to finish an amazing 7 months. With on demand movies, games consoles, free drink and food whenever, 14 hours seem to fly by! An emotional welcome home from my parents awaited me once back at Heathrow.

So that was it, 7 months of action packed, adrenalin pumping fun and adventure had come to a sweet end. Been home is really quite strange, I was ready for coming home according to my bank balance but to be honest, id rather of stayed out there, until Christmas at least. Time to face the music and go back to work. All good things have to come to an end apparently.
7 months, 200 days, god knows how many thousand miles, hundreds of new friend and a million memories! Thank you all for reading my blog and leaving your generous messages on my message board. They really kept me going when times where hard…….that’s a complete lie, when have I ever had hard times in the last 7 months! Oh well it was still nice to read. See you all in the coming weeks!

This is Mark Blenkinsop, signing off in………..err…. Hull :-)