Phuket, Phi Phi, Krabi

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Moved on to Phuket on the 16th January. After a hectic couple of weeks in Singapore and Chiang Mai I was looking forward to a relax on the beach and start working on the tan (sad I know!).

My flight down from Chiang Mai was good and arrange a pick up from the airport to prevent having to barter with the thousands of taxi drivers outside the airport.

I originally planned to stay in Patong beach but after several people comparing it to Ibiza or even worse Benidorm I decided against and booked to stay in Karon Beach in Phuket. My guesthouse was called the Pineapple Guesthouse which was ran by an english guy Steve and his thai wife Lek. My room was great, big room, clean, aircon etc so couldn't complain. The resort was more for couples and families rather than backpackers, but it was nice to relax for a few days. Met 2 couples there, one couple who were also travelling and heading down to Malaysia after Phuket.

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The beach was stunning and I also managed to sneak into a 4star hotel round the corner from the guesthouse and use their pool and did water-gym every day!

I'd like to say I did loads on this part of the trip but to be truthful I have just spent most of my time on beach/by pool! I did go to a night market/carnival one night with a girl I met at the guesthouse. It was great, loads of bargains, they even had 10 baht  stalls (20pence), and we managed to bargain down (Lyns - you would have loved it!). I bought Ben & Ella's 4th birthday present there (not at 10baht stall!) so it should be on its way to them as I type this! There were also some carnival games and one in particular that made us laugh - 'Dunk the Thai girl'! Three girls sat above a huge tanks of water, the player had to hit a target with a ball and when they hit the target the girl fell into the tank. We stood watching, half laughing and half looking in disbelief that these poor girls were being dunked!!!

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Also took a day trip to Phi Phi Island, which was beautiful - I didn't want to leave. We snorkalled off Maya beach (used for the film 'The Beach') and then had some time to walk around PhiPhi Island.

I move onto Krabi tommorow just for 5 days before going up to Bangkok on the 4th Feb.

30th Jan - 4th Feb - Krabi

Took the ferry boat to Krabi on the 30th January which was fine. I was a little concerned when the boat stopped about 10 minutes after leaving the port. One of the crew put on his snorkal and mask and fixed the problem and off we went. Arrived at the guesthouse in Krabi and checked into my room. I did the usual british tourist thing and looked around, hot & cold water, very clean! Until I noticed behind the front door splashes of something red on the wall and it was also on the floor behind the door. I convinced myself it was blood and that something must have happened in the room the previous night and the cleaner had done a poor job of cleaning it up! So I headed back to reception and told the receptionist that my room was not clean and asked her to come and look. She came to the room and apologised that it was varnish from the door. She kept apologising for her poor varnishing and I just felt an idiot for thinking that there had been a murder the night before!!!!

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I didn't do much again in the few days in Krabi other than sitting on the beach. After 3 weeks on the islands I was ready for a change of scenery so was looking forward to heading up to Bangkok.

I took the overnight bus to Bangkok. 15hours on a bus was not a great idea but it only cost 10pounds! Stayed at the Green House guesthouse which was near the famous Khoa San Road. Met more people there than Phuket as more backpackers. Spent a couple of days walking round the city, having been to Bangkok back in June I had done all the main tourist attractions so it was nice just to walk around the city and take in the atmosphere! On my last night in Thailand I met the group I was traveling with to Cambodia and Vietnam which was nice. A group of 15 travelling made up of 3 australians, 4 canadians, a swedish lady, a girl from Ireland, 5girls from Norway and me the only English! Our tour guide was Sukai, an australian who moved to Cambodia to become a buddist monk! Great guy and really interesting to talk to. We also had a trainee tour guide Scott from Canada. Seemed like a great group so was looking forward to the next couple of weeks. We went for dinner together to a restaurant recommended by Sukai and food was great, didn't really like the very large rat that walked through the restaurant though! But I was happy that I wasn't the women on the next table as it walked over her feet - nice!!!