Saturday 9th February 2008

After packing our bags this morning, we decided to go out and find an internet café so that we could check our emails and also update the blog. We didn't bother eating any breakfast - and just had some tasty banana milkshakes instead. Afterwards, we returned to our guest house and collected our bags before walking down to the beach to try and find a bus. Luckily, one came pretty quickly and we jumped on - heading in the direction of Phuket Town.

The bus journey to Phuket Town was painful! First, as we drove along the beach front, the bus travelled at speeds that never went higher than about 3mph. Next, there seemed to be no limit to the number of people our driver was willing to pick up - i'm sure that towards the end there were some up on the roof with the bags! Finally, we made it to the bus station and we were soon on another bus - the time to a small place called Phang-Nga.

No sooner had we got off the bus at the bus station at the other end we found ourselves booked on an overnight tour. We went into a small Tourist Information and the lady convinced us that we should go on one of the tours they were offering... one that her husband and brother just happened to co-run! As it turns out - it was a tour we wanted to do anyway.

At 3pm we were taken by rickety old van down to the river, where we boarded a Long-tail boat and were taken to a guesthouse on a small Muslim fishing village, called the Koh Panyee Bungalows. Nothing surprises us about Thailand anymore so, when we found ourselves approaching a small village built behind a mountain - in the MIDDLE of the river, we thought nothing of it! The whole village was fantastic! It seemed like it could collapse at any moment - with the dock being made of small sticks that looked like they fallen from an old tree. Our tour of the Phang-Nga Bay is tomorrow, so we were left to do our own thing this evening. For some reason, I wasn't feeling too good - so I went for a quick sleep. I woke up just in time for tea - and me, Nikki and some friends we'd made - Clem (from France), Yusuf (from Turkey) and Sebastian (from Germany) sat on the dock, overlooking the river and ate two lovely curries - one sea food and the other chicken. We then spent the rest of the night talking about our trips so far. It was good, because the others had started in Bangkok and traveled South - so we were able to get some tips.

I hope our room makes it through the night - the floorboards have got bigger gaps than Weston Pier!