I think im spending far too much time in internet cafes writing dam blogs as the world passes me by, so i think im going to start cutting down. We shall see. So where was I.

We took a truck to the port of ko phangan yesterday, where there were cafes and shops and things for us to wait until our boat came. With our bags we sat on the gravel for about half an hour in the midday sun (40 degrees for all you people currently snowed/frosted in ;) ). We were herded onto a 4 hour boat trip, then onto a bus that could best be described as the oceana disco room. It was all exposed chrome, strips of colour painted all over the place and generally cramped and hot - no air con but all the windows were open so it cooled down once we got moving. 4 hours on that bus, kicked off at a service station, then 4 hours on another bus, 2 taxis later we arrived on the small town of krabi. We found a place called the grand tower hotel - which was neither grand, nor a tower and was more a hostel than a hotel. It had air con and free bottled water so it was fine. The town is very westernised and most people walking around are tango'd tourists. A nice place though with a breezy flowing through it so not as humid as bangkok. We havent really done much today tbh. We got some breakfast/lunch at a nearby restaraunt and are in the middle of planning a night out tonight. 2moz we are going to catch a long boat to the hong islands. We are going to go swimming and kayakking there.

We thought for a bit about going to phuket and kho phi phi (where the beach was filmed) but it would be expensive and too touristy. A day trip on the hong islands, do a spot of kayakking through the caves as one does, then off to the even smaller island south of that called ko lanta. We are going to try and rent scooters so we can ride through the towns and jungle areas. We are going to spend a week or so more in thailand before heading off to cambodia and vietnam. We have made a list of things we want to do in each country, and by being generally stingy now, we should be able to afford it and live comfortably in new zealand at the end. Far from the worries of nottingham, architecture (dam all nighters), market research (standing outside tescos with a clipboard asking people if they would consider being friends with orange juice if it were a real person), and more recently wetherspoons (elbow deep cleaning dirty fryers at 6am) and all the stresses and strains that come with it - all seem a world away now, the only worries we have apart from money (and fully sun creaming my scalp in defence of my ever thinning hair), is if the next place we are going to has air conditioning and are there western toilets there. Normally the answers are no and no, but tis a small price to pay for life we are currently living. Its a very hard way to live but someone has got to live it havent they :D

Hope you are all keeping well. As i walk through the markets i keep seeing things to buy that people from home i know would like, but i dont really want to be stuck carrying them around this climate, through deserts and forests and up bloody everst with me. Ill try and souveneir shop in new zealand. That way at the end when i throw out a lot of my charity shop and primark stuff i originally bought for this trip, i will have enough room to carry them home. Any gift requests? (i refuse to bring back a digaridoo for anyone so dont even bother asking :D ) xx