This is becoming a chore so please show some appreciation to keep us hyped for writing the story that is our lives. It is tiring living it, let alone writing about it..

We've never been so incredibly hungover that we thought death was likely for at least one of us; until we hit Thailand. If Koh Phangan didn't kill us then going straight to Koh Phi Phi certainly would. However we powered through like gold medalists and decided to go anyway. Half way through the 17 hour journey consisting of: a missed taxi, a caught taxi, a boat, a bus, another taxi, another bus, another boat, a minibus, another boat and a dinosaur (jokes about the dinosaur - just wanted to make the journey sound more fun) we decided to bail on 'plan party' and take a detour to a shipwrecked style island. The cue to this drastic change of plan was when a thai man rolled out a plastic mat onto a concrete bus station floor for meg who obviously looked more sleep deprived than a new mum of octuplets whilst his colleague sympathetically asked Eli if they'd come from Koh Phangan and offered to change their tickets for Koh Lanta (drug fuelled chill out island) free of charge where we could recooperate and stock up on shrooms and weed - jokes, so far we've avoided addiction. We think she was genuinely concerned about our semi concious states and we really appreciated her making the decision for us.

Arriving in Koh Lanta we roll-melted into the first hotel we saw, having been dropped off by the minibus. The name 'Chill out House' seemed entirely appropiate, the rastafarian monkey featured on all the signs seemed less so.. Pretending to ourselves that we fitted in, we climbed up to our room which was actually a room in the biggest tree house ever, complete with home made walls, floors, ceiling and bed! We really think this was one of the coolest places we've stayed so far. Chilling in paradise for a few days on postcard beaches, complete with Thai massages and endless hours of sleep was the best hangover cure imaginable - if only we could do this after every messy night out in Reading! Feeling truely refreshed we made the short journey to Phi Phi ready once more to party. If only this could have been the case on night number one.

Having checked in to our millionth room, we felt like we were boiling from the inside out, we sprinted to the beach and jumped into the sea after grabbing a cheeky spring roll or six. Sitting on the beach, commenting on the stunning views around us, we all of a sudden heard a blaring siren and watched as the sea was instantly evacuated at a speed we've never seen before. We turned around to see if others were watching, to find we were the only ones not running away! At this point the tannoy translated its announcement to english, saying the words nobody wants to hear when sitting on a beach on one of Thailand's smallest islands... 'TSUNAMI WARNING. PLEASE EVACUATE THE BEACH IMMEDIATELY AND MAKE YOUR WAY TO HIGHER GROUND.' Its safe to say the following six hours were the scariest of our lives!! It is also safe to say that we've never climbed up a mountain wearing bikinis and flip flops at such a speed. After a blur of police whistles, tannoy announcements, people shouting, people screaming, people running and crying and families clutching children (we kept our cool.. standard Meli behaviour) we cannot explain the feeling of death looming. We were told twice in six hours that the tsunami was coming at a specific time and all we could do was wait it out and hope it didn't reach high land whilst people sent up smoke signals through the tree's in the mountains by making fires (we personally thought this was irresponsible fire risk but whatever). Of all the 'film moments' we've had this was definitely the least fun and something we hope never to go through again. Definitely a day we'll never forget!!

After a sleepless night, having being told that we weren't totally safe till the next day by locals, we met up with new found tsunami evacuee friends and took ourselves on an afternoon boat trip to calm our nerves - because obviously the sea is the place to be after something like that.. Who knew the top of a mountain was such a great place to meet new friends?! The rest of Phi Phi was spent furthering our liver damage with copious amounts of drinking, dancing and watching english attempt thai boxing. It was ace. Infact, we were having so much fun we didn't have a chance, or feel it necessary, to check our flight date. This only hit us, having entered the airport as Megs casually joked that we should check the date on our ticket (for the first time since we booked it..) and check we were there on the right date. We totally weren't. We were totally a day late. We totally had to fork out for another ticket (no sweat, we like to spend money like water). We totally had to sleep on the floor in Phuket airport till the next morning and we totally had to say goodbye to the tasty pancakes we'd ordered for the flight that had sadly departed a mere 12 hours before (probs the saddest part of this tale). The footlong subways each - the most expensive meal to date (damn those airport prices!) - provided some comfort. The next 12 hours flew by and we almost shed a tear as we said goodbye to the security men we had befriended, to head for flight to bali (take two). You'll be glad to hear we made that one!

Arriving in Bali, we felt really welcomed, particularly when the passport control officer hit on Eli, chatting her up and offering her his number with the advise that she could 'call him if she got lost in Bali'.. She thanked him but politely declined the offer. We headed straight to Gili T (another party island), once in Bali, where every hotel offers free breakfast, great for us budget living breakfast fanatics. Bali is magical and a cross between India and Thailand, so we like to call it Tindiand - feel free to do the same. We've been befriended by most Tindiands and are really enjoying the frequent powercuts we have here! We aim to spend the rest of our time looking for 'Gary' the 'table' sized turtle who apparently is great pals with the waiter at our favourite restaurant, who also by the way has offered to be our 'shark protector' when we go snorkelling... having told us there are no sharks here?!

Blog # 6 Stats!

• Number of iced coffees drank - 124114121941268
• Number of different modes of transports used - 9
• Number of times Meg has fallen headfirst (backwards) out of a moving taxi jeep weighed down by rucksack - 1
• Number of times Eli has saved Meg's life whilst she fell headfirst (backwards) out of a moving taxi jeep weighed down by rucksack by clinging on to a clump of her hair and dragging her back in - 1
• Number of times a flight from Phuket to Bali has been paid for - 2
• Number of taxi's which forgot they'd arranged to pick us up and take us to our scheduled boat - 1
• Number of 'free pick up' advertised with a ticket that has turned out to be someone showing us the way by foot - 1
• Number of McLove handles vanished from Meg - 2
• Number of times the sea has been advertised as a large hotel pool - 5
• Number of horse and carriages that have nearly mowed us down - 20
• Number of Tindians that have sat down at the dinner table with us (uninvited) - 3
• Number of Lee's that have ditched us for Janines - 1

Peace and Love,

MELI xxxxxxx

Ps. We obviously haven't forgotten about Tibet and its lack of freedom

Ps. Ps. We are obviously still living the dream.