back on line...

hi there - back again, sos for delay but theres been no (cheap) internet where we've been so aint been able to go online - and just realised my last comment was before the treacherous longtail boat journey -

so we headed off from bulone for ko lipe - kicked the day off with a few 8am singa beers to calm the nerves which worked a treat - the journey was great fun - 3 hours of bouncing along on a small wooden boat - i loved it

we landed at lipe in the pouring rain and managed to (again) blag some beach front shacks and stuck the hammocks up straight away - i really dont understand why hammocks aren't the first thing people pack cos they are just the best thing when you doing this kind of thing - every spot has a lovely hammock hanging spot - (Mum and Dad - hope you have the hammocks up in france now, i'll be asking claire to check!!!)

ko lipe is a lovely little island, and when the sun came out it was just gorge, amazing snorkelling with really clear seas, and not many jellyfish - and a few cool beach front bars for the evening -

we also did a whole day boat trip to 4 snorkelling spots which where just superb although the current on the first one was quite scary and i also got vertigo from the depth of the sea below me - strange!
the guy doing the trip went out and cought 6 fish for us all so we had a BBQ on the beack for lunch eating our fish using these massive tree leaves as plates, nice touch :-)

also came accross a very dangerous fish - but more of that later

justine also managed to get a dive in which was cool, so after that we headed for ko adang which is ran by the national park authority - its pretty much a mountain in the sea with a few bungalows and pre built tents in bamboo frames - we managed to walk to the big waterfall there (panicing all the time cos of leeches) but it pissed down in the evening so another night of beer and scrabble (spendygames) which is still very addicitive

spent one night there and got the 9am ferry to ko turatoa, also part of the national park - this place is lovely, we hired a tent and pitched it right on the sea front, hammocks up within 5 mins and hey presto , a brand new home! oh yeah, it cost us a pound each to stay there! excellent (search for ko turatao for some pics)

hooked up with chris and becky again here, and we all did a big 20k walk the following day to this overgrown ex prison site (sounds ok to be a thai prisoner!) - quite funny cos the criminal inamtes had to work every day and build roads and do general hard labout whilst the political inmates where down on a different part of rthe island writing dictionarys and inventing new types of cucumber - true story! anyway, we buggered the timings up and had to cadge a lift home cos it was dark and still 8 very hilly Km's to go so we got a bus back with hypo thai teachers - most amusing

so with legs aching we headed off on another hike the next day to try and find the turtles on the beach which they normally nest on, but they wont be there for another few months which was quite dissapoining

one more morning ferry and we find ourselves in the land of go go bars - Phuket - first impressions ???? very benidorm! still, i aint seen the beach yet and we are only here to learn to dive so thats ok

ok, thats it for now - will try send some mails soon, and send some xmas cards - hope all is well,