The Adventures Of Me And My Rucksack

After a long day of getting on and off of boats and buses we arrived it Koh Phi Phi!! Its gorgeous!! The islands really different to the others... its soo nice!! Theres no roads for a start it all little lanes like Brighton! Its more expencive here too but its obvious why!! We're staying in a little guest house down one of the lanes called Island Guesthouse... Koh Phi Phi was one of the islands hit by the Tsunami.... it was completely whiped out! The islands quite small and thin so the didn't really stand a chance!! It been built back up really well! We saw some pictures of how badly it was effected... its changed so much!! Yesterday we went on a snorkelling/swimming trip round the islands... it was amazing! We went to so many places! Koh Phi Phi has loads of mini islands around it! We went somewhere called Bamboo island which was gorgeous! It was a bit like thie island on lost!! The water was like nothing we'd seen it was so clear and it was and amazing blue colour!! We did some snorkelling round some amazing reefs!! The reef is rewally dangerous and sharp nearly everyone on the boat cut themself on it!! We took a underwater camera so we should have some brill photos!! We also went to Maya Beach which is where 'The Beach' was filmed!! The sand was white.... it was so nice!! The water round it was so choppy.... i thought we were all gonna die!! ;-) We went in to soem coves aswell which were gorgeous..... there were some mini beaches that you could only get to by boat!! It was such a nice day and to top it off we went to Monkey Beach on the way back!!! It was brrriliant..... There are loads of monkeys just living on the beach and there really friendly... well untill you run out of food!! They started chasing us and barking at us! We all ran and jumped on to the boat!! It was so funny!! They were really cute tho they would come up to you and take the food out of your hand!!! It was such a hot day and the sun was on us all day.... so yes.... we got sunburnt!! Bens burnt pretty bad although he had factor 50+ sun screen on!! ;-) I got burnt too.... pretty much everyone on the boat did!! The sun was so strong sun screen didn't really do anything!! Its just as hot today too so were keeping well out of the sun!! weore oing to Krabi tommorrow on the early morning boat!! Theres loads of stuff to do there like riding elephants and Kayaking so were gonna do some of that!!! Bye bye for now!!!

Well sorry i haven't blogged for ages 1 its all been busy busy busy here and 2 the internet is really expensive here......... in fact everything is about twice the price!!!! The trip from Bangkok here was crazy.... we got the overnight bus which dropped us off at a totally random place at about 3 in the morning..... they chucked us in a room with some mats on the floor so we could have a sleep.... it was so so funny.... it wasn't the most comfortable sleep but it was alot of fun!! Then at about 6.30 we were picked up by another bus trhat took us to the pier where we got a 5 hour boat to Koh Tao!! The buss stopped in the middle of the sea about half way because the engine was over heating i was asleep at the time and Ben woke me up to tell me we were sinking.... Lucky we weren't cos i just went back to sleep!! The island were on is really really nice! Theres not much to do appart from snorkel and scuba dive so we've done our fare share of that!!! Theres three mini islands here and there all joined by beach..... its the only place in the world apparently!!! The fishes and the coral here are really beautiful! We've been staying in a little wooden shack about 2 seconds from the beach and we got it for free because we've been doing sone snorcelling and scuba diving with the same company..... result!!! We've got huge lizards in the walls that fight at night and some times go running along the floor..... it was pretty scary at first but we got used to it!! There's holes all over the wall where thwey come in and out!! They sound like rats when they run around!! We also hired a moped the first day and had a cruise round the island and see what was going on!! Anyway thats about it for now! Oh we've got a swimming pool too which is real nice.... its right next to the sea!! Hope everyone all good!!!!

Blog soon!!!!

Wow!!! Yestersay me, sharon and ruth went tubing!!!! We started at 1 and didn't get back till about 7..... oit was an interesting day!!!! As we got in the river at the start there was a great sign-

'NO PISSING AROUND'

it was so funny..... i took a token picture of it so i can put it on here!!! The current of the river is really strong and theres about 7 bars along the river all shouting at you and throwing bamboo into the river for you to grap on to!! At about the third bar Ruth got stuck in some gunk at the side of the river so me and Sharron tryed to help..... it didn't work... there were arms and legs everywhere the man who owned the bar came in to the river and saved us.... he was obviously really desperate for buisiness ;-) At this bar there was a zipwire/swing thing in to the river........ We watched a few people do it then thought we'd give it a go...... what a mistake that was..... i got up there and my upper body strength was appaling... may have been because of the Beer Laos!!!! Imaging me doing a star jump horizontally into the water it was really funny but a bit embarrassing!! I think i pulled a muscle in my kneck and shoulder cos it really hurts this morning!!! Anyway it was all fun and games along the river..... we met this couple who were about 60 and the man had drunk way too much and i think he was on something too!! He fell off a chair in the bar and cracked his head on a rock... it was pretty masty but he was ok!!!! when we got to the end the currents were pretty strong and there was no one there to help you in so we just kept floating.... it was so scary!! We had to grab hold of reeths and mud to pull ourself up onto a bank we all cut our feet on rock as we were trying to get out...... it was naty.... we came out in someones back garden.... they were not impressed :-/ it was a fun day but you have to be really careful.... if we hadden't have stopped we'd have ended up in china!!!!! Just a few tips from what i saw.....

1- Have 3 beers maximum....... No more!!!

2- Don't take any drugs!!!

3- make sure you go with some friend so they can watch you back

4- Watch out for the end!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today we hired bike and cycled to a cave.... it was really dark and scary.... i thought i was in some sort of horror movie!!!!! It was a good day tho!!! a bit knackered now after all that cycling!!!

I'm heading to Vientiane the capital of Laos tommorow!!! Exciting stuff!!! :-)

Well i've finally arrived in luang prabang..... one of the towns in Laos!! After about 3 days travelling i'm soooooo pleased to get here!! I got a night bus from Pai to Chiang Khong (one of the border towns to Laos) The bus was meant to take about 6 hours but took about 8 or 9!!! It was so uncomfortable there was no way you could sleep on it!!! The driver was crazy!!! The whole way there he was downing cans of coffee!!! then he would stick his head out of the window and chuck a bottle of water over him self!!!! And every couple of hours he would stop at the side of the road and have a disco dose!!! It was hilarious!!! Anyway when i got to Chiang Khong after no sleep i got my visa for Laos...... Then i booked myself on to the Slow boat along the Mekong River to Luang Prabang!! It took 2 days..... 6 hours one day then you stop and a village for the night and about 8 hours the next day!!! On the boat i didn't sleep either it was the most uncomfortable time ever!!!! Made some friends on the boat so we all checked in to the same guest house...... it was the pitts!!!! I had a collony of ants in my room and later on in the evening i found a Kitten under my bed...... it was crazy! Also..... the toilet smelt like a rabbit hutch!! Nice! The electric in the town went on and off all through the evening and night.... it was crazy!!! Finally went and got some well need sleep!!!! The boat left about 8.30 this morning and got here about 5.30..... it was more uncomfortable than the first!!!! I contemplated throwing myself out!!! ;-) The views were amazing tho and it was a great experience..... i'd definatly do it again but maybe with a bit more sleep!! Anyway i'm now in Luang prabang safe and sound!!!!!