Southern Andaman Coast

I'm sitting here in Ko Phi Phi two hours away from our departure by boat back to the mainland. This place, well it's very similar to how Hell is described in jokes - you know the weekend in hell with all the parties.. well its just like that and needless to say I'm pretty happy to be getting out of here.

We've had a lot of fun though, I've dived and we have partied like it was 1999. Now its time to get back to the trip as it should be - nice, healthy fun and hopefully a successful attempt at giving up smoking.

We left Ko Surin and got back to the mainland were M (tour op) offered us a free ride in the back of a pick up truck that was heading to our next destination Khao Lak. We gladly accepted. 1 hr in the back, wind in our hair, Ipods on - I was listening to Man Chau - Clandestino I thought it suited the mood to the T. We got to Khao Lak and headed immediately to a plush hotel that was recommended to us by an Austrian woman we had met on Ko Surin. The Nang Thong Hotel was just amazing!! We have photos of all of this which I will post at the next stop. It had a proper bathroom, mini bar, walk in shower, bath, western toilet, tv, aircon, pool, comfy real beds!! gardens etc etc The first night there (we were only supposed to spend one night there but we ended up staying for three) I couldn't help but wonder what had happened in that room during the Tsunami. The hotel is 17yrs old. Khao Lak was the worst hit area in Thailand. You could see that the refurb had just been completed and the snagging still ongoing. ummm not a nice thought.

We headed off to Ko Similan on Valentine's Day. We got another 'Fast Boat' (BTW its was 4 x 250 outboard engines... Hey I am a girl :) The Similan Islands, voted in the top 10 dive sites worldwide, is a group of 11 islands. We were booked top stay on no.4 the usual tourist and National Park stop however when we got onto the Fast Boat we realised that we were stuck on a day trip with 30 other yukky tourists. They were going to do a tour of most of the islands and get to no.4 at 3pm so Joanna and I decided to get off on stop two, island 8 and boy was that a good choice.

Immediately on arrival we walked up to the office to book a tent and I explained to the guy that we wanted a tent when this deep, incredibly sexy, Spanish voice said: He doesn't speak English. I looked to my right and there standing quite still, was Adonis. We both did a very subtle 'double take' (the 'wow - who are you' one) and I knew we were going to love this island. He was in fact Italian and he was there with his travel buddy Itor a Spaniard. Itor (I called him Timor) from Barcelona lived in Scotland and spoke English with a deep Scottish accent ....very confusing! Joanna, Itor, Claudio and myself together with the other natives (c.4other Europeans living there) spent 5 days of bliss on our island. We rented longboats to snorkel the coral reefs, we spent days on deserted beach with picnic lunches and a boat taxi rides home whislt the Medicine Man (Claudio) hiked home through the jungle. I saw my first shark whilst snorkeling a black tip reef shark, saw 5 manta Rays, 5 metres in diameter. It was just amazing, and innocent too. We made some really good friends there and I may travel with Claudio in South America next year. We will see.

We left Ko Similan with sad hearts and headed back to Khao Lak on the 18th and spent one more night there this time at the 'Holiday Inn' - umm yep not quite, the bungalow was a little nicer then the HI we know but although quite basic :) That night Joanna and I bought a bottle of lovely Sancerre at the supermarket to take out to dinner. The resto was very happy to allow us to do so. We had had a really bad experience of local wine at a resto in Khao Lak (PooLak) prior to going to Ko Similan. Boy it was nice to have a glass of wine with dinner. I simply cannot describe the excitement but two other Euro women sitting on the next table were infected too and ran off to copy our idea and buy some wine of their own.

We took a bus down to Khokkloi north of Phuket (1hr) and then caught another to Krabi (2hrs). In Krabi we stayed on the beach at Ao Nang in a nameless hotel. The town was full (Chinese New Year) the accommodation difficult to come by and very expensive. We soon found our feet getting to know the restos and bars. Luna Bar was a favourite were we saw our first of many fire shows. We also met some Swedes there, Ben and Frank who were very funny.

We left Ao Nang on the 22nd to come to Ko Phi Phi and we have spent 4 nights here. Joanna and I will be going our separate ways tomorrow :( sniff its been fun but Im nervously excited and cannot wait to go it alone for a little while. It'll be my first day alone since arriving in this country.... Somehow I don't think it'll be for long.

Take care you all - miss you loads

Will update with pics and on Phi Phi soon.
T xx