The Datai, Langkawi!!

After a long, much needed hug from Robert, who met us as we got out the taxi, Laura snuck up and jumped on Kate who was in deep conversation with another couple staying at the hotel. A few emotional tears and long hugs later, we enjoyed a drink and a brief catch up before checking in and being shown to our room. We hopped onto a buggy which drove us down the winding path pulling up outside a huge villa in the middle of the jungle, cleverly positioned giving it the feeling of complete privacy. We had been upgraded (again!), but this time into a luxurious villa that words can't begin to describe. On stepping inside, it opened up to reveal an enormous yet still homely king-sized bedroom with high ceilings and the biggest and most breath-taking bathroom we have ever seen, equipped with a giant bathtub, his and her sinks and a rain shower. On discovering the complimentary iPod full of every artist you can imagine, we put some music on and quickly freshened up ready for dinner. After gravlax three ways followed by mouth-watering steaks with roquefort sauce and mashed potato (something we had been craving for a while), we collapsed into bed and were asleep before our heads hit the fluffy pillow, eager for Ian and Heathers arrival the following day.

Up early for a champagne breakfast and a quick glimpse of a sly monitor lizard, we excitedly waited for Heather and Ian, who thought we were on the ferry from Thailand, to arrive. As they were welcomed at reception Charlie jumped out to surprise them and there were more emotional hugs all round! Once settled into their new room, we all met on the beach where the weather wasn't being particularly welcoming with overcast skies and no appearance from the sun. We enjoyed a long lunch with beer, wine and cocktails and spent hours endlessly chatting amongst us. Later that afternoon we all had a wander along the beach to the mangrove creek where we spotted a wild boar with her piglets roaming across the sand. After a relaxing afternoon of shade bathing and napping, we enjoyed drinks in the lobby watching the giant hornbills and dusky leaf monkeys feeding in the fig tree before a delicious thai dinner in a unique restaurant located high up on stilts amongst the towering trees.

The following day was spent doing much the same, with more average weather and shade bathing with our first spot of the macaque monkeys. Heather and Charlie both spotted six cute little faces poking out of the waves which turned out to be the giant otters, a very lucky and rare sight! All six of us followed them as they moved along the shore, but our legs were no match for their speed in the water. Eventually we gave up when they were just pinpricks in the distance, gutted that not one of us had our camera with us! After another long and relaxing lunch inside the restaurant due to the rain, and a comical moment when Ian realised he had accidentally picked up another guests shoes thinking they were Heathers and had them under the table for the whole of lunch, we all headed back to our rooms. Heather enjoyed a relaxing body scrub at the peaceful spa, with open air rooms overlooking a crystal-clear river. Dinner was enjoyed by all at "The Dining Room" whilst Charlie and I had gravlax and steak for the second time that week!

Yet another relaxing day spent on the Datai beach and cooling off in the pool, spotting monkeys roaming the grounds, a couple of monitor lizards (one climbing a tree) and some giant squirrels feeding in the tree next to the pool. That afternoon Charlie and I enjoyed a long walk along the beach before getting ready to head down the bay to the Andaman Hotel for cocktails before an entertaining dinner at the Japanese tempanaki restaurant. With a tasty and colourful starter of salmon and tuna sashimi and a swirling bowl of miso soup, we were ready for our main course of duck and chicken for Robert and beef, scallops and prawns for everyone else, cooked in front of us by the charming tempanaki chef. After a few warming carafes of sake (rice wine), we were the last table to leave the restaurant and headed back to the Datai for a peaceful nights sleep. 

With Robert opting to relax at the hotel, the rest of us spent the morning and early afternoon on a short tour of the island with planned stops at a couple of waterfalls (especially for Charlie!), a beautiful beach and a fruit farm. After a short drive we arrived at Langkawi's tallest waterfall, Temurun Falls, and after a short walk we reached the main tier where we took some photos and paddled in the deep, emerald-green pool. It was impossible trying to fit the whole waterfall in one photograph! The second stop was a short stroll along a beautiful white sandy beach (if you ignored the eyesore of the cement factory at the far end of the bay) with limestone rock formations jutting out of the sea. After a quick refreshing drink at a local restaurant, with the mums being shocked at the price difference of a fizzy drink compared to those at the hotel, we headed for the second waterfall. On parking the car, Heather and Kate darted straight into the nearest shop where they both purchased lovely dresses, before we all climbed up hundreds of lethal steps to the base of the second waterfall where we took yet more photographs! Our final stop was a tour of Langkawi's Agro Technology Park, learning about some of the 20+ fruit types, seasonal and non-seasonal, that they grew in their orchards. Species included starfruit, dragon fruit, jack fruit, pineapple and mangosteen with a visit to the fruit tasting corner where we sampled several different fruits, including our favourite the incredibly deep neon-purple dragon fruit. After some amusing photos with jack fruit and pineapple, we remember Robert all alone at the hotel and headed back for a late lunch at the hotel. Finally, the sun was out and blue sky was in sight! The rest of the afternoon was spent soaking in the rays on the beach before a delicious indian feast for dinner at the Gulai House, in the middle of the jungle. 

Waking up extremely early, watching the monkeys feeding in the fig tree whilst eating breakfast, we headed down to the beach where we went body boarding as some sporadic waves were crashing on the shore. It was another stunning day and all six of us spent it on the beach on the sun beds. After lunch, we headed to the spa where we had full body aromatherapy massages in the couples room, another open-air room with the relaxing sound of the stream running past outside. We were, however, interrupted by the squeal of a wild pig outside, making us jump out of our skin and quickly remove the eye masks. We did manage to relax and enjoy the rest of the massage, with both of us nearly falling asleep! We had to quickly wake ourselves up for a trip to the busy local market where we browsed the stalls selling everything from smelly durian fruit to fake abercrombie clothes to local food delicacies to baby chicks and ducks. In need for an ice cold drink after walking around the market stalls in the sticky heat, we headed to a nearby italian restaurant where we were enjoying our pizzas until the waitress apologised to Charlie and Kate for not cooking their pizzas for long enough!

Another beautiful morning of sunshine and we were up early, enjoyed another delicious breakfast and headed straight to the beach where we soaked up the sun before before deciding it would be a good idea to kayak out to the island just offshore for a snorkel. Whilst Robert stayed on the beach enjoying his kindle, Charlie (professional paddler) led the trio of kayaks across to the quiet island where we dragged the boats ashore and unloaded our towels, sunglasses and other belongings. All kitted up, we swam around the corner where the first coral appeared and had a short snorkel spotting various marine life including a scorpionfish, a great barracuda that stared daggers at Laura and thousands of sparkly silver fish that surrounded us. As we swam back to shore, with Kate remembering that she had read the 2004 Tsunami had obliterated the reef here and that snorkelling wasn't particularly great, we suddenly heard Heather shouting behind us. A large clan of evil macaque monkeys were eyeing up Ian and Heathers kayak and belongings, and seemed particularly interested in Heathers sunglasses. With Ian running to the rescue and shooing the creatures away, we slowly crept closer to watch the hilarious characters sifting through the rubbish on the beach with our favourite being  a little monkey that couldn't take the lid off a bottled drink so bit a hole in the bottom and sucked the remains out! The rest of the afternoon was spent sunbathing, reading magazines (luxury) and going for a walk along the beach. In the evening we all went on a rather hot and sticky nature walk with Wendy, a very excitable naturalist, who knew the answer to any question you had about the wildlife here like the back of her hand. In search of colugos we didn't manage to spot any and Wendy's highlight seemed to be the woodpeckers that flew overhead, causing her to hyperventilate with excitement. She also particularly loved spiders, showing us a tarantulas nest with a mother hiding inside and several tiny baby tarantulas, not too far from Kate and Roberts villa! For dinner we had a light meal in the lobby next to the oversized frog pond dotted with fuchsia pink lilies whilst listening to a fascinating duo "singing" in the background.    

On our final day we had arranged to go on a mangroves tours and after yet another champagne breakfast we spotted about ten of the dusky leaf monkeys sitting in a line along the railings surrounding the pool. We watched them as they groomed each other before jumping off, running across the patio to a clump of trees, climbing the first tree and jumping right in front of Robert (who was upstairs in reception looking over the balcony) from one tree to the next. We met in reception and were driven down to the Andaman hotel to meet Wendy. After no success with colugos the night before, she led us through the Andaman grounds where she had spotted a colugo earlier resting in one of their favourite spots. A few photographs later of the fascinating gliding mammal, we walked further along the path and spotted a kingfisher and a great view of a giant squirrel. On our way back to the car, an extremely excited Wendy whispered as loud as she would let herself that the colugo had a baby and that it was poking its head out! After gazing at the adorable yet bizzare, piglet-looking animal we were melting and had been attacked by mosquitoes so headed back to the welcoming air-con of the car. 

After a short car journey we were greeted by our boat driver and as he navigated through the maze of mangrove trees, submerged underwater due to the high tide, Wendy educated us on the life-cycle of the mangroves. We then drove further inland where we passed another boat feeding the local white-bellied sea eagles and brahminy kites. There must have been fifteen of the beautifully gracious birds of prey, swooping down to catch the chicken fat that tourists were throwing out and, despite us all disapproving of feeding the wild birds, Charlie managed to get some great shots and it was lovely such amazing views of them. Further along the journey, after passing some naughty macaques, the boat driven turned off the engine and we floated up next to an angry-looking mangrove pit viper who had been curled up in the same tree for a couple of days digesting his most recent meal. After getting more fantastic photos and frighteningly close to the poisonous reptile which has a striking distance on 1m, we carried on towards the mangroves fish farm. As it started to rain we spotted three giant otters playing on a floating pontoon and watched the sleek acrobatic creatures until the rain became so heavily that they slipped into the water. Once at the fish farm we watched them feed the giant trevally, with their dorsal fins slicing through the waters surface, and then hand fed the gentle giant stingray which Heather seemed to be particularly fond of! Moving on from the fish rain once the torrential rain eventually subsided, our last stop was visiting a bat cave where 1000 bats were resting. Having been told to keep our mouths shut when we look up, we eventually made it out of the cave and back into the light, spotting the tiniest macaque babies. One even stuck his tongue out at us! 

We had a late lunch back at the beach club, where we spotted a troop of the dusky leaf monkeys who look as they have had clown make-up applied to their comical yet sweet faces. One even had a tiny baby, bright orange in colour meaning that he was less than one month old, clinging to the mothers tummy as she lept from branch to branch. The afternoon was spent packing, relaxing in the villa and sorting out what to give our parents to take back to England. Our final dinner was at "The Dinign Room" where, for the third time that week, we both had gravlax three ways and steak, followed by a mouth-watering chocolate fondant. After seeing neither flying colugos or flying squirrels during the whole week, both species surprised us with a acrobatic after-dinner show in the trees with a flying squirrel chasing a colugo which made an unbelievably long and fast glide right above our heads into the distance. A few flying squirrels then spent a while glide from different spots in the trees, feasting on the figs. With Laura's parents refusing to get up early to wave us off (thanks!) she said goodbye to them after dinner, but not before Kate, Charlie and Laura wandered through to jungle to have a last look at the tarantulas nest to see whether the monster had come out of the hole. With several mini-tarantulas surrounding the nest, we decided the mother must have gone hunting until Charlie said "oh WOW" and spotted her on the other side of the tree. Relieved that this nest was nowhere near our room, but worried about how many there were surrounding us, we headed back to a final nights sleep in the comfiest bed in the world! 

With our alarm set very early, we finished packing the following morning and said goodbye to Heather and Ian who weren't leaving until later that evening. Saying a sad farewell to an incredible week at the magical Datai, we were driven to the airport where we waited for our flight to Singapore. 

Koh Tao Diving Part 2!!

After a long and hideous journey, we finally arrived back on the welcoming Koh Tao, where we headed to our accommodation for the night and were "upgraded" to a beach front villa. We walked straight up to Roctopus where we booked places on the Sunday Sail Rock trip, and ended up listening to the stories about the numerous whale shark sitings all the dive schools on the island had been having over the past week. We were persuaded by Sammy to get straight back into the water and head out to Chumpon Pinnacle, the whale sharks favourite, the very next morning! The evening was spent catching up with the dive school staff and other divers we had met previously on the island, none of whom were surprised that we couldn't stay away from the addictive Koh Tao! 

Waking up early to the sound of waves crashing on the beach, we checked out of our room, lugged our backpacks up to the dive school and left them in the office whilst we packed our kit in the familiar blue bags, ready for our first dive back on the island. After the taxi ride down to the pier, we clambered over five or six boats, finally reaching the Roctopus dive boat where we set up our equipment and lay in the sun for the 40 minute ride to the pinnacle out at sea. After twenty minutes, we noticed that the dive site seemed to be unusually busy and P-man (the skipper) started making the whale shark signal, informing us that there was in fact a whale shark there! Immediately butterflies filled our stomachs and the last twenty minutes of the journey seemed like an age as we prayed the whale shark would stick around. We geared up and performed our buddy checks as we approached the dive site. Shep, our dive master said that we wouldn't wait for the captain to moor the boat and we would just hop in as we cruised over the pinnacle. It was time and we all jumped in, cleared our masks, and deflated our BCs as we descended down equalising to make sure we had no problems with our ears. We all noticed a wall of bubbles the other side of the pinnacle and Shep led us in that direction. As we got closer to the wall of bubbles, that looked like an upside down waterfall, it appeared, around four and a half to five metres long, the blue-ish grey giant, splattered with a striking mosaic of white spots and lines unique to each and every whale shark. It cruised passed the flapping divers trying to keep up with it with a single majestic sweep of its tail, the excitement on Laura's face, in fact everyones faces, was priceless. We spent a good twenty minutes with the shark as it circled the pinnacle before it cruised into the blue beyond our reach so we carried on navigating the dive site and as we were reaching the end of our dive time it appeared again over our heads creating a stunning silhouette above us. It got to the point where we had to say goodbye to the shark and ascend back to the surface. 

However, during our surface interval, we spent about 40 minutes snorkelling above the whale shark, taking as many photos and videos as we could, who remained near the surface the entire time, even coming up to 1m below the surface right next to the boat so everyone, including the skipper, got a great view! We quickly geared up for our second dive with the shark, jumped off the boat and descended, quicker than ever before. Watching people trying to rush underwater is a pretty funny sight! One of the great perks of diving with Roctopus is that they leave about an hour after all the other dive schools, meaning that dive sites are quieter when we get there. By this point, everyone at Chumpon had finished there second dive and were leaving, allowing us to dive with the shark alone! Rather than having 30-40 divers crowding around the stunning, spotted animal, the five of us spent about fifteen minutes swimming along with the shark all to ourselves, getting some great photos and having as close a look as we could. Mikey, the videographer filming the open water students, said that his footage from our two dives that day was the best footage of whale sharks that his company had and that we were so incredibly lucky to spend so much time with the shark. All together, we spent well over an hour either swimming with or above the shark. As we clambered back onto the Roctopus boat, exhausted both emotionally and physically, we couldn't speak to each other for a good few minutes. Almost in shock, we enjoyed the boat journey back relaxing in the sun and talking at a speed we didn't even no was possible, about the morning. For both of us, it was the most exciting, memorable and special time of our trip. 

On arriving back at Roctopus and cleaning our gear, we were met by a lady who worked at Suksamran Villas, where we had previously stayed and were moving back to for the next two weeks. Having been told the night before that their standard air-con rooms were all full, they rang back to inform us that we could stay in there "very beautiful villa" for 1000 baht a night (the same price as their standard room). We were shown to the "room", which turned out to be the top floor of a huge villa and consisted of a king size bedroom, a stunning and CLEAN bathroom, a huge living area with a plasma tv, sky tv, dvd player and a kitchenette. Already on such a high after the whale shark, we didn't think our day could get any better….but it did! We also later found out that usually this villa cost 4500 baht a night! We spent the rest of the afternoon having lunch at Mint Kitchen and looking through the photos and videos. So excited to tell her parents, Laura rang them back in England forgetting the time difference and woke them up VERY early on a Sunday morning, putting them into a panic that something was wrong (sorry!). We then chilled back in our luxury villa, periodically pinching ourselves to check it wasn't a dream, before heading to Banyan Bar where we watched Mikey's film he made earlier that day and had a few catch up drinks with some Roctopus staff before heading out for dinner.

That Sunday was finally time for the long-awaited Sail Rock trip, a full day trip out to a pinnacle in the middle of the sea between Koh Tao and Koh Phangan where we had two dives. After a long boat journey we finally reached the pinnacle and had two fantastic dives, one exploring the "secret" pinnacle. We were astounded by both the number of fish in the gigantic schools that dwarfed those we have seen at Chumpon Pinnacle and the size of the fish, in particular the giant grouper. One of our favourite moments was when a huge school of hundreds of batfish swam straight past us in the deep blue. It was also great to see smaller things such as varicose wart slugs, indian cushion seastars and tiger cowries. In our surface interval break we enjoyed spicy penang curries for lunch, provided by the delicious Mint Kitchen whilst sitting in the sun. After two memorable deep dives, we headed back to the island for a relaxing evening.

The following day we had a day off diving, enjoying a lie in in the incredibly comfortable bed before heading down to the beach to sunbathe and chill in the warm water. In the evening we enjoyed a delicious pizza at the islands best italian restaurant and headed back to watch a film on our huge television. We decided that the chilled thai lifestyle definitely suits us both!

Back to diving, and we had another early start at Roctopus. We jumped on the boat with our gear and set off towards Chumpon Pinnacle again with our dive master Shep, a friend called Wes (who was with us on our whale shark dives) and open water students, including videographer Mikey again. Again, Chumpon seemed unusually busy and when we got into the water we realised that there was a whale shark circling the pinnacle again! This time we spent the first fifteen minutes with several other divers following the shark who seemed to be slightly more stressed than the one a few days before. People crowded around the shark, with some careless people even stroking it before being told off and put to shame by numerous other divers. We then went for a swim round the pinnacle spotting mackerel, batfish, hunting queenfish and rainbow runners.

The next four days were spent eating a lot of pot noodle and doing nothing but chilling in the villa and at the beach as we forced ourselves to spend as little money as possible and we decided we would spread our dives out over the two weeks that we had on Koh Tao. We also discovered the great restaurant called Pud, where we enjoyed a delicious meal costing less than one pound! 

The following two days consisted of more diving at sites such as Chumpon Pinnacle, Green Rock, South West Pinnacle and Shark Island. On the dives we were lucky to spot a yellow boxfish, porcupine pufferfish, lined butterfly fish, an enormous rhizostome jellyfish and a blue-spotted stingray which we hadn't seen in a while. One evening we managed to pursued each other to go on our first night dive. Rather than heading to White Rock, where most night dives took place, we stopped at Pottery due to the huge and unusual swell that was rocking the boat like a see-saw. We were handed the tiny torches (definitely not the flashlights that we were expecting) and were briefed on how to dive in the dark. We entered the water before it was completely dark, allowing our eyes to adjust underwater as darkness fell. We didn't see as much on the night dive, probably as during most of the dive we had to concentrate on not being thrown against the sea urchin-covered rocks, but we did spot a sleeping porcupine pufferfish, a blue spotted stingray with his eyes reflecting against the light, the largest hermit crab we have both ever seen, a scorpionfish, an eel and a baby octopus. Had there been no swell, we would have enjoyed this dive more as it daunting enough doing our first night dive and swimming against the huge swell was quite a struggle. However, we are proud that we did our first night dive which we would never have dreamed of doing before we started diving and look forward to the next.

On another of our days off diving, we decided to rent mopeds and ride to the south of the island with Wes (whom we had been diving with) and his wife Rachel. On arriving at Shark Bay, we were parking the mopeds when we heard the revving of a bike and turned around to see a young topless american guy who had crashed his rental bike into the wet cement of the road that some locals had just finished laying. Whilst the locals stood in shock with their mouths open, he scrambled out with his hands and feet covered in wet cement and started shouting "help! what do i do?!" to his friends and others that were staring at him, including us! With his friends just rolling their eyes and ignoring him, Rachel told him to pick his bike up and wash the cement off before it set. He rudely shouted "i need some water" to some locals as he pushed the bike back to his friends who were winding him up telling him it would cost at least 60,000 baht to fix to which he screamed "60,000 BAHT?! I don't even have that kind of money?!".  With Wes crying tears of laughter he put on his sunglasses and walked away, as we tried to stop ourselves from cracking up. Some of the locals starting bringing a couple of small buckets of water out for the workmen who needed to relay the cement, but were stopped in their paths by the american who snatched the buckets, poured the water over the bike and shouted back at them "I'm gonna need more water than that!". After five minutes of Rachel helping him rinse cement off the bike, and of us laughing at him along with his unhelpful friends who said that this might finally make him a man, we persuaded Rachel to stop. The boy never thanked her for the help and the four of us spent the walk down to the bay crying with laughter at what an amusing plonker the guy had been. When we got to the water we swam out into the middle of the bay where we spent about an hour snorkelling in search of the black tip reef sharks that are known to inhabit the waters. Towards the start of our snorkel Laura spotted the silhouette of a shark in the distance, but it quickly swam away. Eventually we decided to stop kicking and float on the surface as sharks are known to be nervous and afraid of humans, and within a few minutes a 1.5m long black tip curiously swam right up to us, had a long look at us and and with a few flicks of its tail he was gone. After riding back to our villa where we quickly showered and changed, we headed to Su Chilli with Wes and Rachel for a delicious meal. 

After yet another dive at our favourite Chumpon Pinnacle, we travelled back towards White Rock where we were to do our second dive at the wreck of HTMS Sattakut. We descended down the buoy line, hoping for good visibility which is very hit and miss at this site. We were thoroughly pleased to be greeted with great visibility allowing us to have a long swim around the wreck peeking through the port holes into the wreck which was full to the brim with fish. Once we had swam round the ship, we swam over the top, where we got some great photos of Charlie next to the guns! We then had a short swim around Hin Wee Pinnacle, next to the wreck where we saw all the usual suspects. We had a quiet afternoon before meeting up with Wes and Rachel at Fizz to watch the sunset with cocktails and a nice dinner before they headed back to England the following day. 

On our last dive at Chumpon, we had our fingers crossed for one last glimpse of a whale shark but saw only the usual fish and creatures that lived on the pinnacle. We then headed back to the shallow waters of White Rock, where we jumped in the water and straight away followed all the divers who were crowding around….a whale shark! Unusual to find a whale shark at this dive site so shallow and close to land, we were completely surprised and had completely lost all hope of seeing another one before we left Koh Tao. We managed to swim with it for a few minutes before it raced off into the deep blue, clearly on a mission. Three is the magic number! That evening we headed back to Fizz for cocktails and the sunset where we randomly bumped into Charlie's friend's girlfriend on the way and then Charlie's friend Simon at the bar! After a drink with Simon, we headed back to Nong for one of their scrummy pizzas for dinner.

For our final day Will, one of the owners of Roctopus had organised a special trip with a second boat taking eight of us to Laem Tien, a dive site on the other side of the island, in the afternoon for two dives and another delicious Mint Kitchen curry for lunch. Our first dive was off the beach of a previously deserted resort, an unofficial dive site, where four of us went off spotting a couple of harlequin sweetlips, several aggressive titan triggerfish, lined butterflyfish, orange-spined unicorn fish and copper band butterflyfish to name a few. Having spotted several new species of fish, our second dive was more of an obstacle course with less fish than the previous. We spotted our favourite nudibranch Jorunna funebris as well as both blue-ringed and six-banded angelfish and had great fun finding and navigating through three tricky swimthroughs. Sad to have finished diving on Koh Tao (for now) we arrived back on the island after a lovely, glowing sunset cruise. That evening we had farewell drinks with Will and Shep at Banyan before our final dinner at our favourite restaurant.

The final morning was spent packing our stuff before heading to the Mint Kitchen for our last pad thai in Thailand and to say a final thank you and goodbye to Roctopus. After bumping into one of the DMTs, we were told that the night boat south that we were supposed to be getting had been cancelled. We headed straight to the tourist shop where we got our ticket to ask how we could make it to Langkawi for the following day if the night boat was cancelled. We were told there was no way, and that our only solution was to get the night boat back to Chumpon, and then a bus down to Satun where we were to get the ferry to Langkawi. However, we would arrive an hour after the last ferry had left for Langkawi and would have to spend the night in Satun (not the most desirable place). This also put a spanner in the works as we had arranged with Robert (Laura's Dad) that we were going to surprise Kate (Laura's Mum) by showing up at the hotel 24 hours before she expected, and he had also arranged transport from the ferry and booked a hotel room! So, annoyed we had to spend a night in the dreary Satun and desperate to get to Langkawi, we informed Robert who luckily managed to cancel the room. Later that evening we headed down to the harbour and had a good few hours sleep on the surprisingly comfortable bunk beds on the air-conditioned night ferry. 

On arriving at Chumpon, we were excited to find that the bus to Satun left three hours before planned, raising our hopes that we might in fact be able to make the ferry to Langkawi. For a second time in 24 hours we told Robert that there was a chance we may actually make it to the hotel that evening but we wouldn't know for sure until we made it all the way to Satun and managed to buy ferry tickets. Our bus went via Krabi where we dropped passengers off at various locations before we were dumped at a random tourist shop. By this time it was 11.30am and we were informed that they forgot to book us a place on the bus to Satun that was now full and that we would have to stay there overnight. After a long conversation and several phone calls later, the couple at the tourist shop arranged to borrow their friends car and drive us all the way south to Satun themselves (for more money but well worth it). We made the ferry with half an hour to spare, went through border control on Langkawi (Malaysia) and after a 45 minute drive to the hotel we pulled up with butterflies of excitement in our stomachs to the Datai, Langkawi. 

West Coast of Thailand!!

We arrived in Phuket on time, early in the morning, found a tourist information shop and booked on to the next ferry to Phi Phi to meet up with Amy and James in their luxury resort that Heather had offered to pay for so we could be close to them (Thank you Ma!). The resort was set on Long Beach away from the rowdy and noisy cliche part of Phi Phi which we were more than happy about! An amazing air conditioned room and nice clean pool looking out to the perfect white sand and turquoise sea were added bonus'! Upon our arrival Laura was so excited to see her sister after three months as we pulled on to the beach by long tail boat. We jumped off the boat and after a big hug Amy then said "oh I feel like I saw you yesterday now I've seen you" and that was that! We checked in and decided to make the most of our stay here by booking a long tail to take us to Bamboo Island, one of the small islands dotted around like stepping stones in the surrounding sea. We had some lunch and then got our things ready to head off for our snorkelling trip, very excited to test out our new camera and housing! A short trip over and we were above some beautiful coral so we jumped in and swam around admiring the mass of fish attracted to the sheltered reef. There were many familiar faces, like the parrot fish that we had seen on Koh Tao but also some new fish to admire such as surgeon fish and another type of anemone fish that were swimming boldly high above their home. We snorkelled for two hours with James catching a glimpse of a shark, which we were gutted to miss, but suddenly right at the end of our time we came across 4 or 5 banded sea snakes which were great to see swimming around. With some great shots taken, over the moon with the results from our camera we headed back to the resort, showered and changed and went for dinner on the beach whilst watching a ladyboy show (one took a particular liking to James) and some thai boxing as a continued celebration of the Thai New Year. 

The following day, after filling ourselves up at the breakfast buffet, we made the most of the luxurious hotel, with hours spent soaking in the sun and splashing in the pool. Before lunch, Charlie and Laura decided to go snorkelling to try and find the single anemone, home to three REAL nemos, in the sheltered swimming area that James and Amy (also known as "Jamy") had found the day before. Using Amy's wonderful directions of "they're in the swimming area past the ropes and the anemone is in the middle but slightly to the left" we eventually found the small, solitary anemone swaying in the waves with three little faces poking out. After taking it in turns to try and get a good snap of them, which proved quite difficult with the waves pulling us around and a nasty territorial fish that was attacking us every few minutes, we left them in peace and began to swim further away from shore. Our snorkelling was cut short when we realised we were surrounded by an army of these territorial biting fish, who were annoyingly charging at us from all sides and managed to nip Charlies leg, so we called it a day and headed back to the pool. That evening we had dinner at the sea gypsies restaurant that had been recommended by Trip Advisor, where we all enjoyed Paneng curry and a couple of drinks on the beach.

After our last breakfast on Phi Phi, we were packed and ready for our early long tail boat trip round to Tonsai, the main pier on the party side of the island where we were due to catch the ferry to Koh Lanta. The trip was peaceful and we felt like tiny ants as we passed the towering limestone cliffs, stacks and arches formed over thousands of years by the aggressive waves and winds of the Andaman Sea. With hour an hour to kill, Amy and James put their haggling skills to test and bought a few thai beaters, and we found two of the tiniest cutest (and probably flea-ridden) kittens we had seen in Thailand! Whilst booking our ferry tickets, we were persuaded to stay at one of the hotels on the "beautiful beach of Khong Klong", with a pool, restaurant and a special price on the "deluxe" rooms. At the time, it seemed like a great idea to get somewhere booked rather than have to lug our heavy bags around in search of accommodation once we got there. We were also promised "if the rooms don't look like the pictures, you get double your money back". After a ferry journey on the most rustic, DIY-style bodge-job of a boat we were put in a taxi to our hotel, where we checked into our rooms which, as promised, did actually look like the photos. The afternoon was spent relaxing in the slightly scum-covered pool and the rocky sea, before booking a snorkelling and fishing trip for the following day. Dinner at Neng, another restaurant recommended by Trip Advisor, was delicious with the added bonus of the best mojitos so far on our travels at only 80 baht!

The following morning we were up early and excited for our fishing trip, something both the boys had been wanting to do for days! After a short taxi to the pier, we were met by a thai couple who were looking after us for the day and we began to cover ourselves in suncream as the sun was already burning in the sky. After ten minutes of cruising out to sea, the engine spluttered and eventually cut out leaving us all slightly concerned. As the couple spoke little English all we could understand was that a part had broken and that they needed to go to Krabi to buy a new one. As we waited for a long tail boat to come and tow us back to shore the thai lady, who seemed to find Amy hilarious, cooked us up a breakfast of thai green chicken curry, vegetable stir fry and rice. Eventually we arrived back at the hotel having purchased a couple of sets of bat and ball, and spent the whole day in the pool having tournaments before two little thai girls, who took a fancy to the boys, demanded to be constantly spun round and thrown around despite (worryingly) being unable to swim. Eventually they were shouted at by their mother, presumably to leave us alone, and the boys were free once again! The evening was spent watching the stunning sun set across the ocean, with an electric storm lighting up the islands off the coast, before strolling along the beach to find a unique restaurant with each table being completely different, in little covered huts, some on stilts and some on the floor. 

After our unsuccessful/short fishing trip the day before we were up early again ready to go fishing on the same boat that broke down the day before. We were picked up at the same time and taken to the pier. We boarded the boat and set off for the second time hoping to actually get out to the fishing grounds around the small islands of Koh Haa. We slowly made our way out of the harbour and in to the open ocean where the captain of the boat set out five lines, two deep lines with large squid lures, two shallower lines with smaller squid lures and a line none of us had come across, a wooden carved fish with large fins trawling a line of smaller lures. The captain set a course for the islands, around 19km off the shore, and the waiting game began. It took us around an hour to reach the islands without as much as a bite on any of the lines so the captain changed one of the mid depth lines for another of the top skimmer lines with a number of lures off the large wooden fish. Within minutes we were in with two small tuna in quick succession. Then again within ten minutes the line went zipping away, this time a larger tuna which put up a bit of a fight for Charlie. As with the first fish this was followed by another decent sized tuna for James to bring in successfully. As we trawled round the islands there was little action so James and Charlie sat up on the sun deck ready for the girls to give it a go. Charlie said to James "I bet you anything that deep line on the left is gonna zip away and Laura will get the biggest fish of the day" and as if it was rehearsed the line on the left screeched away as the fish below had taken the bait and run off with the line. Laura grabbed the rod and began her fight with the big barracuda at the end of the line. With the fish fighting and thrashing below the surface Laura began pulling the rod up to haul in the fish and, quickly reeling in the slack as she let the rod back down, she looked like a pro, maybe after catching the biggest fish in New Zealand! After a good fight the barracuda was finally in reach of the captain to bring in the fish. We carried on trawling for a while before we changed tack and tried fishing from the stationary boat in to the deep with squid as our bait. As with fishing in New Zealand, we were being had by the fish below as they just took the bait off the line, time after time. As Charlie let his line down a strange looking fish took the bait and was an easy haul in. The fish, that resembled a scribbled file fish that we had admired diving, looked inedible and too strange if not pretty to eat but as Charlie was about to throw it back in the captain stopped him saying it was amazing to eat on a BBQ, so baring in mind there were a number of them hanging below the boat we kept it.

With no more bites we brought in our lines and cruised in to the sheltered and stunning bay on the main Koh Haa island, the beautiful deep blue softened to a lighter blue before being broken up by the healthy coral and sprawling white sands that were met by high limestone cliff walls. This was a perfect location for some tasty thai lunch cooked by the captains wife followed by a nice long snorkel in the perfect and refreshing sea. We encountered several of the adorable seal-faced pufferfish, dory and memo, beautifully coloured starfish, a yellow-eyed moray eel and James nearly stepped on a huge scorpionfish! We enjoyed exploring the cracks in the limestone, floating above the stunning reef and towards the end of our snorkel we went swimming around the pinnacle that jutted out of the sea's surface. As we came round the corner the drop off was a shock! We all wish we could be diving as a few divers were cruising along below us. After a great snorkel we set off for another trawl making a few loops around the islands before heading for the mainland. It seemed like an age as we were all anxiously waiting for another fish when close to the harbour suddenly the line, top left again, zipped away at an astonishing rate, this was a big fish! We shouted for the captain and he grabbed the line trying to turn the fish, whilst shouting at his wife to slow the boat down, but instead of slowing down she sped up and as the captain was about to hand the rod to Charlie (we were going to let Amy take it as she hadn't caught a fish yet but the captain insisted either Charlie or James took it as it was so big) the line went ping as the fish, a large king mackerel, disappeared. We were all gutted, especially Charlie as he's always wanted to take in a big fish from a boat, but apparently not as much as the captain who was livid at his wife, after a minor argument in Thai and a huge apology from the captain we headed in to the harbour after a long days fishing. We thanked the captain and his wife for a lovely days fishing and took our catch back to the hotel restaurant and asked if they could cook it for us. They cooked up an amazing dish with the barracuda with a delicious thai style sauce over it, however after asking them to BBQ the tuna and the weird fish we waited for an age to finally realise they had just cooked the fish, failing to tell us it was ready and tucked in themselves. Obviously something lost in translation, we tasted the overcooked fish, which was still actually very tasty! Despite this, the meal topped off a great day and we were all proud of catching and eating our own fish!

After a night of little sleep with Charlie shivering in bed with a temperature, we managed to delay our ferry ticket by a day so that he could recover from the horrible sunstroke, as result of two full days in the scorching sun. After finally managing to get his temperature down using cooling gel pads, gatorade, cold showers and air-con, he spent the day trying to sleep off the terrible headache he was left with. Laura, James and Amy had an early lunch served by an incredibly rude waitress before James and Amy headed off into the jungle for their elephant trek to see a beautiful waterfall. Laura spent the day looking after a poorly Charlie and catching up with blog-writing! James and Amy enjoyed their trek, spotting a wild king cobra in the jungle, and had some typical Thailand traveller pictures under the slightly pathetic waterfall! We managed to get Charlie out of bed for a quick dinner next to the hotel, before having an early night. 

Another morning full of travelling with Charlie feeling much better and we eventually arrived on the beautifully unspoilt island of Koh Lipe, one of Thailands most southerly islands close to the Malaysian border. This time James managed to keep hold of both his flip flops and we all hopped off the long tail boat that had transferred us from the ferry to the beach. With an idea of where we wanted to stay, we headed to a hotel we found online that advertised lovely-looking rooms for unbelievably low prices in the low season, which had started that week. After a brief discussion from the very rude reception staff, we were shunned away and left on the beach in the blistering heat dragging our bags from hotel to hotel, trying to find somewhere to stay. We eventually found a perfect hotel with a swimming pool, breath-taking views out to sea and lovely new CLEAN sea-side themed rooms with air-con for an extremely reasonable price. That afternoon a typical tropical rainstorm blanketed the island and Charlie and Laura spent the afternoon in their room watching a film, whilst Jamy wandered along Walking Street where they had their second thai massage of the holiday. That evening, the rain was still falling and we all had a quick evening meal before heading back to the rooms as Charlie still wasn't 100% better.

The next morning we were up early to make the most of the all-inclusive breakfast in the beautiful sunshine and the morning was spent relaxing at the hotel whilst Jamy moved to a fancier hotel up the beach (they decided they would spend their holiday money on a nicer hotel room rather then doing their open water course…crazy!). After a quick and yummy lunch made by the hotel chef who was amazing, Charlie and I wandered along the beach in search of a dive school that had been recommended to us and discussed the possibility of doing a couple of fun dives with them whilst Jamy do a "discover scuba diving" day. Charlie headed back to the room as his headache was still pestering him whilst Laura and Jamy decided to go snorkelling off the beach. After about twenty minutes of trying to snorkel in water that came half way up our shins, with visibility no better than half a metre, whilst surrounded by rocks coated in sea urchins that Amy cut her leg on we decided to give up. We had obviously chosen to snorkel at the wrong time of day as the tide was out and apparently the snorkelling off the beach is infact very good. That evening we all wandered along Walking Street, the main cement road running across the island with numerous restaurants, gift shops and travel agencies. Charlie and Laura bought tickets to Ao Nang, their next destination, whilst Jamy bought tickets back to Phuket where they were to catch their flight home. After all of us had made our purchases, which included typical thai beaters, jewellery and a sarong, we looked for somewhere to eat. Before our travels, we had been advised to chose thai restaurants if there were a lot of people eating their and especially if the locals ate there. After choosing the busiest restaurant full of thais, we regretted listening to this advice as it took well over an hour for our food to finally arrive. On the plus side, everyone apart from Laura made great choices and enjoyed delicious meals.

The following day we had all booked to go scuba diving with Davy Jones Locker, a dive school recommended to us by Roctopus on Koh Tao. Amy and James had an early start with a crash course of how to dive in the shallow waters off the beach. With the basics covered, we had a quick catch up before Charlie and Laura were off for their wreck dive. Excited to be diving again, we geared up and stumbled down the beach with our kit to climb into the long tail boat. On our way to the wreck, our dive master Yuri gave us a quick safety briefing and informed us on what we should expect to see. With the loud racket of the long tail engine roaring behind us, we found it difficult to hear exactly what he was saying. Luckily, Laura just nodded along when she failed to hear him tell the history of the wreck. The site, known as "The Haunted Wreck", had sunken unexpectedly and divers were sent down to try and salvage the engine. They never returned…. Had she known this before she definitely wouldn't have been comfortable doing it! After falling off the long tail boat backwards, a new entry for us, we swam against the particularly strong current to the buoy line where we looked beneath us to see nothing but murky water (slightly different to the blue and crystal clear waters of Koh Tao). As we descended nervously down the buoy line with the surface out of sight and the light rapidly fading, eventually the black silouhette of the wreck came into view. With only 5m visibility, we had to keep close to Yuri in order to avoid getting lost, as well as keep our eyes out for the abnormally large lion fish that lived on the wreck. After a short twenty minute dive at 30 metres, we swam around the surface of the wreck spotting a few reef fish as well as a huge tuna, several huge lion fish which we had never seen before and several trevally. For our first wreck dive it was incredibly eerie, all adding to the experience and although we were nervous at the start we really really enjoyed it! An added bonus was that Yuri pressure tested our new housing at 35 metres and it was successful! Yay for Bangkok specials! 

Following the wreck dive we returned to the dive school to refill our tanks, where we bumped into Amy and James. Excited to all be diving together, we all climbed aboard the long tail after an appropriate surface interval and were off to the dive site. With slightly better visibility of about 10m we enjoyed a long and peaceful dive, letting the current pull us along. It was great to see Amy and James enjoying being underwater and we waved at them as we kicked past them, descending down to a deeper level. On our dive we were lucky to spot several more lion fish (two species), more nemos, some cute seal-faced pufferfish, porcupine pufferfish and various crustaceans. Suddenly, we spotted the tragic sight of a reef fish trap which was full of the beautiful banner fish, a couple of filefish and several other ornate reef fish. Charlie, the hero of the day, yanked the door of the trap off and the fish were free! With our air running low, we returned to the boat and spent the whole journey home chatting about our dives. With Amy and James now under the spell of diving, we felt satisfied and we all had a delicious meal of fresh fish at a table on the beach under the stars. Charlie, Laura and James had mouth-watering squid with chips whilst Amy splashed out on the huge tiger prawns, the biggest any of us had ever seen! It was a good job we only discovered this restaurant on our second to last night, otherwise we would have eaten here every night and spent a lot more money! 

On our final full day on Koh Lipe a storm lingered above the island for a grey and miserable morning, leaving Charlie and Laura to watch another film in the room. After a final scrummy lunch, cooked by the hotels incredible chef, we spent the afternoon playing bat and ball in the sea whilst the sun transformed Koh Lipe back into the beautiful island that it is. We chilled in the pool until the sun was setting, before showering and returning to the fish restaurant on the beach for dinner. This time Charlie and James had squid and king prawns, Laura had crab and squid and Amy had tiger prawns and king prawns. Full to bursting, we headed back to our hotels to pack our bags in preparation for our long journeys back up to Phuket and Krabi.

After a farewell to Amy and James, who were returning to England to revise for their university exams (poor things), we caught the ferry and later the bus back up the coast to Ao Nang, Krabi where we had three nights booked in a lovely hotel before heading back to the wonderful Koh Tao. In Ao Nang, a tourist-ridden town located on a not-so-beautiful beach, we found a great deal on a room in a lovely hotel with a pool. We were upgraded to a deluxe room on arrival, and spent the mornings relaxing by the pool before the sun was blocked from the pool area mid-afternoon due to the surrounding high-rise hotels. On our first night we discovered the hotel restaurant which, being empty for a reason, was revolting. Yet, we still ate our lunch there on our second day! Our second evening was spent wandering around the main street of Ao Nang, after a short ride in a tuk-tuk kitted out with disco lights and a booming sound system. We had dinner in a delicious italian restaurant, booked our transport back to Koh Tao, organised an elephant trek for the following day and bumped into Lulu the spider monkey whose owner charged us an extortionate amount of money for a blurry polaroid photograph with her (definitely worth it though!). After a final morning of relaxing by the pool, we were picked up and driven to the elephant park where we had an hour-long elephant ride through the jungle and along a river until returning to the beginning where we fed the elephants with some rotting bananas! After refreshments, we walked back to a deeper part of the river with one of the elephants where he was told to lie in the water whilst we took it in turns to brush, rinse and stroke the elephant. After some great photos, our favourites of the elephant squirting water like in the disney films, we headed back to our hotel where we ate pad thai and pancakes at a street side stall with tables outside.