Hi veryone,

Sorry not my own picture this time but similar, not as good - obviously, but it will do!!

I wasn't going to include this little dittie but decided to change my mind; The other thing which happened on our last night in Ao Nang was on our way out for the evening, we followed one, most amazing, LadyBoy down the street! He/She was fully 'assetted' up so to speak, had the shortest shortest of dresses on, well just, one of those which kept riding up over His/Her bottom so that it had to be constantly adjusted downwards as it wiggled its way ahead of us, and an incredible figure! Even R was struck by Him/Her and asked why they all seem to have the most amazing legs? Why ask me, like I should know! I had noticed the Katoy disappear down a side alley and we carried on but on the way back to the Hotel I suggested that we should have a quick look down 'this alley' just to see what was there! I didn't let on, so we had a quick walk up nd down, it was full of bars heaving with heavy beat music and lots of girlies, you can imagine I'm sure. The look on R's face was enough to tell me that a quick exit was required and that I had better lead us back to the street so we headed back but not before we had seen the said Katoy organising the 'Staff' at a bar readying them for any customers who might stroll along! If the Katoy was anything to go by I'll bet it was quite fun in there, but for other people-obviously!!

We moved further South to Koh Lanta, another place I had never visited, it was Rosie's birthday and we had failed to find anything for her so we moved on still looking, we headed for Lanta Pier, a few hours later we arrived to be greeted by a frenzy of activity with 60 odd people and luggage trying to get off whilst being accosted on all sides by taxi drivers, touts, tuk tuk owners, accommodation touts and others trying to sell tours, total chaos. I edged our way through the melee and tagged onto a a cheerful young man who had a tuk tuk, we hired him and set off to view several options I had as accommodation, all tunred out to be failures and then our driver came up with an option which appeared to suit our immediate needs. We settled at the Lanta Paradise Bungalows, not a perticuarly accurate name, well Lanta and Bungalows were but if Paradise smells like that bathroom then I'll give it a miss thanks very much. the advantage was its location, it had a pool, was on the beach had plenty of options for food and entertainment and was ideally situated to let us make our next move.

Unfortunately in residence at the same time were two females who were your worst nightmare as representatives of the British Abroard. Sat around the pool I have seldom heard such appalling language even from severley drunk males after a night out. It was truly atrocious with the majority of their limited vocabulary being the use of two 4 letter words. I am particuarly intolerent of the 'C'ertain word but even more so when used by women, sorry, my prejudice I know but there you go.

To compensate for this The Green Chilli beach restaurant just along the beach is fantastic so we consoled ourselves there several times. the beach is 3k's long and of golden sand, rocky at low tide which means you can snorkle as wellas swim if you so desie.

We hired a motor bike for two days just to explore and went over to the East side of the sland which is totally different and has a craggy coastline with small inlets for fishing boats and is also the home to an old Gypsy Sea Fishing village where the folk are trying to preserve an ancient way of life. The Old Town also sits on the east coast and is fabulous and worth visiting if only to see how well old Thai houses can be restored and turned into beautiful guest houses and quaint coffee bar / bistros. Some of them were really beautiful and had idyllic locations being stilted and sat out over the water. We looked at a couple which were very nice indeed and although quite expensive, would offer a wonderful location for anyone who really wanted to get away from tourism and travelling and stay somewhere truly authentic.

The day was very hot and a good spot of respite was provided in one of the cool cafes, clearly a stay here would be a lot more costly but that is what makes the place so special and the 'old town' is now on the future To Do List. We headed for the fruthest point on the road and then turned back and took the road which crosses this Island about half way back towards the main town. We went up over the hill and through the dense forest until we hit the road on the West side and headed back to 'Paradise'!!

We cooled off, showered, changed and watched yet another sunset over the Andaman Sea, planned our next day which didn't take long and then headed off for dinner. Blimey this is tough!!

The folowing day we went Caving. It was really good, I actually thought that being in a cave would offer a bit of cool and a break from the heat, wrong, we had a Kilometer walk up to the entrance and then a couple of kilometers walk inside. We never seemed to cool down it was actually very warm insdie which I found very surprising. Our guide remained as cool as a cucumber whilst we and the other members of our group sweltered. Honest everyone was dripping and this guy was cool as you like. It was a good little trip though and the cave is what is know as 'Natural' this means that there is no electricity and and no pathways therefore we had to carry headlights and watch our footing. It also meant that on occasions we had to crawl through narrow gaps and tubes to get to the next cavern etc. We used ladders to get up and down to the various levels and then on the way out we visited a small colony of bats just to top everything off. For 200Bht it was great value, our guide was enthusiastic, amusing and informative all of which went towards making it a very good experience as well. Inside may not be as spectacular as some caves you may visit but because you have to put some effort in to it the experience is really worth while and everyone enjoyed it very much. The cave has several caverns running off it which we went into, one which has a river running through it and during the raining season can flood. The Bat Cave is full of the necessary odour, you will have to imagine the smell of guana but it is slightly amonic, stale and pungent! There are long corridors and bamboo bridges making it a good little adventure.

The walk back down the hill was refreshing if only for the fresh air and the ride back to our base provided some much needed ventilation around the body!! A swim was in order and that is exactly what happened.

The whole time we were on Lanta the weather was clear and sunny with only the occasional clouds, the temperature was either 32 or 33 degrees every day obviously I was hot but I seem to be used to it now, even Rosie was getting used to it by the end of the trip. But we still had some time to go and were going to move again, this time it was more successful and I will catch you up on that next time.

Take care

Chris