HELLO!

I'll start with my birthday (also our first day on Langkawi). It started with a pair of Ray-bans from Abi and Rach (THANKS GUYS), and ended with a reggae bar on the beach. Inbetween there were excellent pancakes and a man who was extremely generous with a bottle of tequila, as well as two Indian/Saudi/Iranian (really) guys who were very funny and easily impressed with our moves and our knowledge of song lyrics. O yeah, and there was also a very funny conversation that centred around the mistranslation of "handsome stranger": "so you want to meet a strange man? And you only care that he's handsome?" lolz. We spent the next couple of days sunbathing and enjoying some good local food on the island before hopping up the coast to Koh Lanta - leaving Malaysia and entering Thailand.

The journey to Koh Lanta felt like one of our longest yet. Passed between a taxi, a ferry, a coach and a tuc-tuc (a rickety van with no real seats), we never really knew where we were, and were quite sceptical that we would ever actually arrive at our destination. All was forgotton, though, when we did arrive: after 12 hours in transit we couldn't believe our luck when we found ourselves surrounded by amazing hut/treehouses that sat right on a beautiful beach. The extremely friendly owner, An, (obviously seeing that we were flustered) invited us to dump our rucksacks, "relax, and check it out"; he shushed our quries about ATMs (we had literally no cash on us) and told us we could pay for everything when we left. So we took to a little hut on the beach, ate to our hearts content, and laughed merrily at the fact that we were allowed to stay here for 3 pounds a night. We ended up staying 6 nights, rather than the 2 we'd orginially planned, the relaxed atmosphere was so contagious.

Eventually visa worries dictated that it was time to move on, and we headed north to another island: Koh Phi-Phi. On arrival I was struck by how much it looked like a windows desktop (the one with the thai long-boat particuarly). Phi-Phi felt alot more touristy, and it was way more expensive, but probs more beautiful than Lanta - lots of pure white sand, turquoise water, sheer green-topped cliffs, and pretty long boats dotted about. We'd only planned to stay one night because it was so expensive, but once we were there we decided we might as well see the island properly and stay 2. And we did have an amazing (if dramatic) day, beginning with tsunami panic. Oblivious, we got up and started for the beach, only for the hotel owner to tell us that we couldn't go to the beach because a tsunami was coming, and people were running from the beach. All the staff were frantically ringing family who lived in other places along the coast, and there were hoards of people moving up to find higher ground, Abi even saw a girl running and screaming. Our friend at the hotel insured us that we were safe there as we were quite high up, and told us to stay put. Feeling a bit weird we had breakfast and waited to see what would happen. As it turned out it didn't hit Phi-Phi, and we started to see people walking back down (one guy in the skimpiest boxers I've ever seen - he must have really panicked). An American ex-pat told us that her and her husband couldn't find anything on the internet, and that the island was safe. Feeling grimly lucky we eventually carried on with our day, and headed to the beach as normal (though we did find it eerily quiet).

By the afternoon things really had got back to normal, and we decided that a tsunami def was not coming our way, and we were safe to hire a long boat around the island. First stop Monkey Bay, colonised by a massive group of seemingly tame monkeys - they were really cute until they turned on each other, and then on us. I think someone tried to touch one of them, they went mental, and I was suddenly slightly worried that I hadn't had that Rabies jab. Next we stopped at a lagoon where we jumped off for a swim, and then went onto a reef where we snorkelled - even better than Fiji - we were totally surrounded - I was just amazed that none of them touched us when they were all so close. Last stop was Maya Bay - famous for being the beach from The Beach - which loved up to expectation in its beauty. We were back on the boat just in time to see the sunset.

Back on dry land we decided to finish off the day with (literally) a bucketload of alcohol. The Thais seem to have embraced the binge drinking culture - or perhaps they know their market - because the streets in Phi-Phi were lined with stalls selling buckets with whole bottles of spirits. We chose one to share containing a bottle of vodka, a bottle of sprite, and a small mystery bottle (which we later learned was some sort of Thai red-bull - basically amphetamines). We drank on the beach - comparing (non)tsunami stories with some Canadians who had had to run up from the beach.

We're in Phuket now, waiting to get a night bus to Bangkok, to get a flight into Cambodia. In transit: feels like the longest journey of my life.

Jamie - hope your exams have gone ok. Who am I kidding... you don't read this.

Much Love
xxxxx