Koh Lanta

I'm having some creativity issues with the title of my blog posts here, as you can clearly see. Nevermind. I think my brain is a bit dulled by sun and sea.
So, anyway, we waved goodbye to Nick, which was a bit sad - it means me and Zoe are back to everyone assuming we are a couple (and giving Zoe pitying looks of "do you think we should tell her?") but that's fine we are having lots of fun on our honeymoon. We got a boat to
Koh Lanta which isn't as far from Phi Phi as we thought, in fact we can see it from the beach we're staying on, so we have been waving to our friends On TohKoh beach. The new thing about Koh Lanta is that it is the first west facing place we've stayed (you notice these subtle differences when everywhere is basically the same) so we've had some beautiful sunsets. There are also lots of nice beach bars, which, as with all of Thailand, are not shy with the fairy lights. I feel very at home. We've only been here a couple of days but we did manage to bump into my friend Kabir from London who was staying one beach down, indulged in a few pina coladas, and phoned every mutual friend we could think of which was fun. Apart from that it's been more swimming and sunbathing (and sunset watching) and I even managed to go for a run this morning which was the hottest experience of my life. (As in temperature).
Zoe had an unusual coded message on her drinks menu last night.
We have also been experimenting with the fast shutter speed on my wonderful camera. The camera is not, however, very happy in the sandy conditions and I'm worried about her surival odds for Australia.
New Years Eve has proved to be an inconvenient pain in the arse in the middle of our stay here, as hundreds of tourists are arriving by the boatload every second and everwhere is booked up so we are homeless as of tomorrow. We toyed with the idea of sleeping on the beach and then had the brainwave of heading inland, so we will be spending NYE in a grotty hostel (1 pound a night) in a town described by the book as "a transport hub". We have decided this is hilarious and are going to drink whisky with the locals somewhere industrial, maybe by a railway line, and get an early night - the next day we are off to Railay (another beach) to see some friends of mine from MTV (Jeannine and Kate) before setting off for Malayasia. We have decided not to bother with Koh Lipe as it is, after all, just another island, and it's a bit out of the way.
So that's it for now! I've just realised I hadn't posted proper links to all the photos so I have fixed this and the link to the left should show everything up now.
Happy New Year everyone!
x

Picture update...

Hello again! Zoe has written something proper below... so I will keep this short, but I have some pictures to show you. As usual this is just a small selection of the hundreds on the flickr page...
So, just to recap, if Koh Panyang was a hell of debauchery, whisky and tattoos, Koh Phi Phi has been like heaven; white sand, blus skies and turquoise seas. We stayed on a tiny beach where there was just one set of bungalows, and a bar up on the rocks looking out to see. This is where we had Christmas. So here are the photos:

KOH PHANYANG: The boat to KP. Zoe and Judith in a luminous bar. The first of those deadly buckets. The half moon party.

KOH PHI PHI
This is where we stayed. This is the sea. This picture was taken on chrstmas day. How's the weather in England by the way (hehehe). Obviously my camera wouldn't go underwater so you can't see all the little rainbow fishies. I saw a nemo.
This is our beach
This is definitely the funniest picture of the holiday so far
This is the beach where they filmed The Beach
Here's the view from where we eat dinner every night.
This is the sunset from the boat which brings us home from the shops in the afternoon.

This is the full moon rising on christmas eve
Here is my entry into the christmas day sandcastle competition we decided to have
This young lady's was another notable entry.
Here I am being a sea gypsy (avec infamous tattoo)
Obligatory drunk christmas eve photo
And me and zoe in town one afternoon at Ton Sai, Phi Phi. I have now dumped these glasses in favour of some knock off raybans which cost 4 pounds, which I bought with a singha beer t shirt. Yup I am a complete tourist.

(Full sets are here

Christmas post

hello! It is Boxing Day and we've caught the boat into town - today is Nick's last day with us (boo) and we've just waved him off on the boat to Phuket from where he's flying back to Manchester. Bye Nick! Christmas Day on Toh Ko resort was pretty fabulous, it involved a late start after some xmas eve excess (more on that later), followed by breakfast on the beach - some dolphins even came out to play! Nick got up a bit earlier than us and got a pressie from Santa's sack - a pair of plastic earrings. After that we sunbathed and played in the sea. In the afternoon we held a sand castle competition - all were excellent but the unofficial winner was of course Richard Bateson's ambitious Inca Civilisation, closely followed by Lisa and Wade's speedboat, inspiring quote of the day from Ben "why'd you take the dick off the boat dude?" (I believe there is a photo which will explain this....). Ben is the nicest and most un-rufflable (made up word) person in the world. He spends all day running the place, and all night manning the bar. He is the only person I've met to use the word 'gnarly' in daily conversation and hanging around with him and Scott is a bit like being in Point Break. All sentences will contain at least one of the following words - dude, man, brother, bro, cool... Ben spent the whole of Christmas Day in a Santa costume (pretty toasty) and also Christmas Eve night where he served everyone turkey and mash and gravy in the bar followed by buckets galore. Buckets of drink I mean, like the ones in Koh Pha Ngan - it seems they are a Thai staple. As is serving everything with Red Bull (often with disastrous consequences - thai red bull is not like other red bull). Christmas Eve was also an amazing full moon which may explain some of the lunatic behaviour in the bar. Or was that again down to the red bull....
Christmas Eve daytime we took a trip to the beach from the Beach, very pretty, followed by some snorkelling in the coral reefs and then we sailed past where they get the bird's nests from for bird's nest soup. Made of bird spit apparently. But excellent for your virility. Yum!
Our time in Toh Ko has certainly opened our eyes to the local wildlife, at night time the beach is full of crabs, and once a snake, and our bungalow is home to several varieties of ant, geckos, moths, mozzies, a cockroach and (to quote ricardo) a bee the size of a CAR (sadly no longer with us). Sadly we are leaving all this excitement behind tomorrow to catch a boat to Koh Lante for a few days, before heading on to Koh Lipe for NYE. busy busy busy!
HappyChristmas to you all and lots of love XXX

U down with Ko Pi Pi? Yeah you know me

Hellooo! We have been without internet for a while so sorry for the lack of interaction. I haven't got any new photos for you today because I am in town and I left the lead at the bungalow(which is a boat ride away) by mistake. I shall start at the beginning...
So last time I wrote I think we were on Ko Samui and nick had just arrived. Our numbers swelled to four when a young lady he met in Chiang Mai came to join us (Hi Judith!) and we all got the boat to Ko Phanyang. We had left the fast/detox well behiund us at this point which was a good job because phanyang is the party island so we all got to behave like 12 year olds for a few days. We stayed in a dilapidated shed for a couple of $ a night (sorry this keyboard has no pound sign) but the beach was byoooooteefool and so were the people, obviously I include ourselves in this despite the mosquito bites and patchy sunburn. Anyway so we went to this half moon party in the forest, which was amazing, and I decided to have a midlife crisis and was dancing til 5 in the morning thanks to thai whisky and red bull (which you drink out of buckets - like, beach bucket&spade buckets) then I rode home on the roof rack of a rickety jeep thing and was speaking french to anyone who would listen.
Unfortauntely (and mum I apologise profusely if you have given this address to any of my elderly relatives) I was still drunk when I woke up, got on everyone's nerves at breakfast by yakking on incessently (this means talking, not throwing up) and then I decided to go and get a huge tattoo of a dragon on my shoulder for reasons the tides have long washed away. It Took Seven Hours. Zoe Nick and Judith kept me topped up with beers and noodles throughout the day and I when I emerged it was evening again and I now look, well, you'll see the photos. :(
So after that we decided to get well away from the backpacker scene before I went completely feral, and hopped on a plane to Phuket where we stayed for a night (in the main town, it was very cool) and the next morning got a boat to koh Phi Phi.
Now, koh phi phi is THE most beautiful desert island in the world ever, and we managed to haggle our way via a little wooden boat and some local knowledge to a remote beach where there are some little bamboo bungalows run by a thai family, and two american beach dudes called ben and scott. There is only electricity for a few hours a day.
We have been here for a couple of nights and we don't ever want to leave, our balcony looks right out into the sea, over some palm trees (We're up a bit of a hill) and there is a little bar on the rocks which stays open all night. The beach is idyllic and there's a coral reef a few metres from the shore which you can walk to and snorkel in. We like the rainbowy fish things, and there are harmless reef sharks, but the sea urchins are frightening. They just sit and wait for you to step on them. Which one of us will eventually. I got freaked out yesterday by a giant jellyfish but it turned out to be a plastic bag, phew.
Today we're visiting the town on the island, we all needed to stock up on cash and mozzy spray. Tomorrow we are getting a boat to the place where they filmed "the beach", it's only about 10 minutes away. Should be back in time for a late lunch and a few beers.
Can't wait to put the latest photos up, you will all be sick with jealousy :)
Thanks for all the comments it's really nice to hear from people when you're this far away. I'll get Zoe to write the next one so you can have a different perspective.
Oh and Happy Christmas! I don't reckon we'll be back in town (& therefore on internet) til after the 25th so next time you hear from us it will probably be nearer new year. Christmas for us will be just another day on the beach...
xxx

life's a Beach

Hi! So, I'm writing this from the words oldest computer, on the beach (in a hut). I've got about half an hour while my photos clunk over from the camera to the computer. I, and the computer, and the camera, have sand in every cranny so nothing is working properly. The sand here is white, fine and omnipresentbut it's forgiven because it's very nice to sit on and look at.
Well you will all be glad to hear we finished the fast, all 7 jungly days of it. We did feel quite healthy afterwards and apparently were completely detoxified, so that must have done us some good. By the end though, we were going a bit mental and despite all the other fasters saying "It's weird I just haven't felt hungry", I was starving. So we got in a taxi down to chaweng beach a few days ago and life since then has been a constant stream of spring rolls, curry, fishcakes, noodles, fried rice, coke, beer and not a whisper of fruit or water, and Definitely No Spa Broth (which we decided was made by waving a potato over some hot water).

So onto the latest photos! Well, as always the bulk of them are on the link over <----there but i'll show you my favourites. This was our hut in the jungle. This was the pool. And THIS was my favourite thing, the hammock. I read three books in it. The other day we went on an elephant. It was called Bang Bang. You can see Zoe is not very happy - she didn't like it because bang bang was a bit sad, and she had a point, so that will be the last animal cruelty we indulge in for a while. I enjoyed sitting on its head though, you steer it with its ears. This is zoe on the beach in the evening and this is me doing a handstand. This is our bit of beach at night/ This is me posing on the bus and this is Zoe with some drinks. (We got holed up in a bar during some hurricane-esque rains and wind, which was fine, I had a beer and zoe had an irish coffee. This was the view. )
This is the view from our bungalows. Word of warning: do not climb on one of these while drunk, or this will happen.
Yesterday nick arrived, so we went out for dinner and went to the local trendy bar where there was a thai girl punching men who wouldnt buy her a drink, I loved her.
All good, let me know how you're all geting on! x

Week 1...

Oh hi. So. We are here! In the depths of detox, somewhere on top of a rainforesty hill on Koh Samui. I will start at the beginning. This will no doubt be overdetailed and dull because my brain is mangled from fasting.
[just a note on the photos, the links don't open in a new window so you have to press back afterwards. To see all the photos you need to use the link on the left <-----]

I have lost track of what day it is but we got to Bangkok last Friday (I think it's thursday now) to our amazing hotel which is the last we're planning to see of any luxury for a while... I made a couple of cultural faux pas like tipping the bellboy 20 times too much so he stood about asking me what else I wanted him to do which was a bit embarrasing. Then we lounged about in our matching kimonos and drank G&T and then we had our fabulous dinner on the roof. Zoe had a minor episode but it was OK because she looked like she was scrutinising the menu and it didnt last very long. We had about 7 courses, each one with a different wine, and it cost a fortune . Hooray! just like london.
The next couple of days we spent looking at a lot of gold sparkly things (buddhism is very gay) which we loved, avoiding con artists, and obviously visiting dodgy bars. Our karaoke track record so far is Rick: Together in Electric Dreams (inadvertently, the reggae version) and Don't let the sun go down on me. Zoe: Green green grass of home (very good) and morbidly, goodbye to love.
Anyway, having exhausted Bangkok and its pork ball surfeit we got on a comedy overnight bus to some port. It had a missing window/flapping cardboard thing and they played the first half of Troy twice on the TV. We drank Gin. Then we had to get a boat at 7am to Koh Samui which was ace because it was sunny and we were knackered and they sold pringles and pepsi. (We thought they were going to provide us with breakfast when they put plastic placemats down in front of us but they turned out to be sick bags.)
We stayed in a lovely hut for a night on the beach then had to drag ourselves to this detox thing.

So the detox thing. Hmmm. Well the place is beautiful, on top of a hill, amongst the palms. It's a bit like jurassic park (or at least thats what I'm telling myself to keep me entertained).
The programme involves eating nothing except for "soup" (badly disguised hot water), drinking sludge made of some weird vegetable husk, taking pills, drinking wheatgrass, and of course, the nice bit, doing yoga and meditation and having massages. Actually yoga and meditation drive me bonkers so I have been having lots of massages instead. And I have nearly finished my book. The other erm "aspect" is the colonics (TWICE a DAY) which are getting a bit tedious. We are on day 3. Of 7. It is now raining. We are losing the will to live but all the other punters (/cult members) keep telling us "the only way out of it is through it". I will keep you posted. I have limited tolerance for calm, abstinence and spitituality, so I could be down the beach and eating chips and drinking pints by tomorrow....

By the way, hello everyone, we miss you all.

x

Practice Post

Hello, well this is my first blog post. We haven't actually gone anywhere yet, flight is tomorrow at 21.45

By Friday sometime, we'll be drinking on the 70th floor of he Banyan tree in Bangkok. (Picture should be here somewhere if I've done it right!).

Right, guess that's all I have to say for now... see you on the other side.

Cool. Shall I be blue?

how's this - is purple good?