1. Ate our way through every kinda fish known to man.

2. Played ‘chicken’ with sharks 19m underwater – hard-core!

3. Provided bedbugs with Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving dinner – all at once.

4. Sealed the deal (and more) on Maya Bay.

5. Spent 80% of our time chill’n on the worlds best beaches.

6. The other 20% lying in hammocks – hard isn’t it!

7. Got my ass kicked and burnt alive playing volleyball – lesson learned – exercise is not good!

8. Discovered a better use for buckets on Koh San Road.

9. Stupidly, signed up for fire stick lessons and didn’t get burned, that much!!

10. Watched clean 10 movies and another series of House.

Definitely a kick-back island and a place to get away from the tourist hullabaloo.  The lack of jet-skis and girly bars makes it a far cry from Ko Phi Phi, but we’ve had enough of that – need to be all responsibe now that I’m engaged .  The island doesn’t have those stunning cliffs found all around the Krabi Province, or even particularly good coral; what is does have is miles of sandy beaches and a seriously laid back ambiance – exactly why we came and stayed as long as we have.

We’ll start with a picture of Jack (Jack Sparrow) a bartender.  There are 5 barmen with enough work for 1.  That’s also him and another barman (Boon, or Baboon as he likes to call himself) in the second picture asleep.  Ironically, it’s called Freedom Bar – anybody want a job?

The rest of the pictures are just random, more can be seen on the Pictures tab, No.41.

For those of you who asked if I have bought Sam a ring, the answer is NO, not yet!  Tradition suggests that its value should be twice ones monthly income – as I am currently unemployed, it need only be a cheap one .  Only kidding, we hope to pick up a lucky bag en route.

We have spent our days since in Ko Lanta on the beach and relaxing by the pool while soaking up the sun (next post).  We still seem to be milk bottle white (as Richy put it) and stand out a little from the crowd, maybe it’s time to downsize the sunscreen factor or get out the oil!

Tomorrow the rucksacks go back on as we head for Malaysia, don’t know where yet, just taking it as it comes.  Thankfully we are heading in the opposite direction to the fiasco in Bangkok – for most it’s nothing more than an extended holiday on work time.

We visited the island briefly a few days previous on a day trip but it was packed with tourists so we didn’t stay long, so I wanted us to be able to experience the island on our own, relatively speaking.  There were 12 of us – Australian, English, Swiss, Irish and a few locals providing the food, cocktails and beer – great combo!

It was everything we had expected and much much more. After setting up camp on ‘the beach’, we had a BBQ dinner, a few cocktail buckets, listened to a few tunes and talked till the early hours.  A great bunch of folks and we enjoyed their company immensely – they made the experience.

At midnight I ushered Sam off for a walk along the deserted stretch of beach and while sitting on a driftwood log I whispered those sweet words ‘WILL YOU MARRY ME’, she jumped for joy and said YES.  It was all very romantic and just how I had imagined it and how Sam would have wanted it.  Like the movie scene, we went for a dip (wink wink) and swam among the fluorescent plankton – it was incredible!

I’m an auld romantic at heart .

So there you have it, we are now officially engaged.  Please don’t ask us ‘when is the big day’, it has taken me 9 years to pop the question and will probably take another 9 to set a date.  It’s kind a hard to save for a wedding when you are technically unemployed. 

This travelling lark is turning out to be some adventure.  Sorry we are not with you to celebrate, but I’m sure you will all raise a glass (or two) in our honour!

Please feel free to leave some comments, slag’n or otherwise!  Or text us on our Thailand sim +66 801444031.

A coral and fish dive off Bida Nai and a shark dive off Palong.

Bida Nai: two minutes in, the apprehension just drifted away, it seemed like only days since we had dived previously and all the skills became second nature.

It was breathtaking, so much better than our four previous dives.  Within minutes a leopard shark drifted past, then a bamboo shark and a barracuda, wow!  The area was amass with colourful fish, the only names we remember were lion, snapper, trigger, clown, brown marbled grouper – and many many more.

We dived a depth of 19m but only lasted 34 minutes – showing our lack of experience, but that will improve over time.  Visibility was around 20m.

Sadly, our camera played up yet again – as soon as we entered the water ‘memory card error’ – and we could have got some amazing shots, what a pain in the asshole.

Palong:  As it was a shark dive, the area and conditions were somewhat different, little colour and very few fish.  Low and behold, the only sharks we seen were on the first dive – damn!

We dived a depth of 12m and lasted a whopping 55 minutes, a big improvement.  Visibility was a poor 10m.

Luckily we had a spare memory card and the camera behaved, but the pictures are disappointing – next time eh!

The rest can be seen here, no.39.

To take her mind off being away from home, I’ve booked us on a nice surprise outing, which I’m keeping a secret for now in case she reads this post, so you’ll have to check back over the next few days for an update.

There will be no phone coverage or email for the next day or so, but we will receive all messages on our return.

I hope she likes the trip .

First we headed for Ao Maya, which was controversially used as the setting for the filming of The Beach starring Leonardo DiCaprio.  As you can imagine visitor numbers have soured since and and it was packed at 10am when we arrived. We can’t imagine what it would be like when the sun’s out!  We stayed no more than 15 minutes, took some pics and headed off to the quieter areas.

Our cheeky ‘captain’ took us to areas where there was an abundance of coral reefs crawling with marine life beneath the crystal clear waters.  We spent hours ducking and diving and got some great shots – thankfully, the camera worked on this occasion.

To end, we headed for monkey island where, unsurprisingly, there were a fair few monkeys.  Again, a bit of a touristy thing, but we got a few snaps with a monkey on our backs.

A great few hours and enjoyed the company immensely, thank you guys!

We went to see Thai boxing in a a local bar and though you would enjoy this video which shows one of the hardened fighters getting flattened (about 10–15 secs in).  And a restaurant billboard which captures the humour of these great islanders (line two).

We have booked a longtail for the day with two other couples to explore Ko Phi Phi Leh, so more on that soon – that’s if our camera works.

Wow, is all we can say.  As it’s just entering high season, it’s a hassle get getting accommodation, but once you’re settled in you can immerse yourself in the shear beauty on offer.  Ko Phi Phi (as we know it) is split into two islands – Phi Phi Don and Phi Phi Leh – the only accommodation is on Phi Phi Don and it’s a short boat ride to Phi-Phi Leh, a Marine National Park.

We checked into our hotel and excitedly headed straight for the beach for some long awaited snorkeling – it was bliss as you’ll see from the photographs.  With the temperature well above 30 degrees, we baked ourselves for hours.

The exceedingly tragic Boxing Day tsunami of 2004, turned back the eco-damage meter when it wiped out nearly every standing structure on the densely populated twin bays of Ao Ton Sai and Ao Lo Dalam.  In terms of loss of life and property, Ko Phi Phi Don was second only to Khao Lak.  Admittedly, it is very very expensive, but the islanders are still rebuilding and restoring this place to its former glory and that comes at a huge cost.  Although it seems expensive compared to the rest of Thailand, if you compare it to other pin-up islands around the planet, this paradise comes pretty damn cheap.

We will enjoy our stay here for sure.

Not a lot to say about the town of Phuket really, other than its the usual tourist trap with back street hole-in-the-wall art galleries, restaurants and bars.  Our camera was (and still is) playing up so we were unable to take any photos.  Even if we had we probably wouldn’t have posted many here – enough said.

We are two weeks into our 30 days visa and if we had had longer we would have headed to Patong Beach for a few nights – as we hear it is the best in Phuket -but as time is of the essence we need to push on.

Just a few shots of how bad the weather got in a matter of hours.  Admittedly, miniscule compared to the storm my brother and his family braved recently in Brisbane, Australia.  Jonathan took some great photos which you can on their blog.