shout out to the mothers....

Mum L - Happy mothers day, hope you got the card? Tried to call dads work phone to get through and then text but its proper expensive to call a mobile so would only be able to say hel............... (Officially the one time you not having a landline has been a pain). So i will call you tomorrow in the shop. Hope you have had a nice day?

Mum P - happy mothers day mum! glad you got the card in time (phew!!!) and bad dad for playing the ooo lea must have forgotten game!! hummmm...... hope your ok and no more earthquakes have happened :-( how scary!!!! dad - too much red wine and beer if you slept through it!!!! now i know where i get my sleep ability from!!.... hope you are having a lovely relaxing day! love you xx

After loving Koh Samui so much it was finally time to leave, it was hard but we got through it. Mid morning pick up (which was nice) for the epic travel back across the southern mainland towards Phi Phi. Ferry from samui was the best yet for 50 baht we upgraded to 1st class (less than a pound), Someone put a DVD opened a pack of oreo's (new favourite) and it was all golden. Ferry arrived all in good time and not sickness (oreo's and sea travel is a challenge) To the bus depot, about an hour away on coach, sorry tin can actually a metal cylinder, kind of like a petrol lorry with windows cut out of the side and seats rammed into it. As before, similar interior trimmings that resemble a very old persons lounge (not being ageist) with a metal edge to it. From there we stopped at a bus station in what must have been the middle of no-where to wait for the next bus (the nice one that takes us the bulk of the journey). It rolls up all looks good, we get on front seats = extra leg room (good work pike, pushing in is becoming a forte). The the un-thinkable happened, the driver put the TV on some local news channel, news loops none the less. He then reached for the radio and put that on some crappy music channel. Being at the front we had an awesome mix of news up-dates and mid 90's pop music. So when the driver got out for fuel, due to a dare, i got up and turned the tv down, The driver didn't notice. Joy, just mid 90's pop now. Bring on the chess (oh yeah we bought a wooden chess board in Samui after the checkers incident we'd dare not spend valuable hours making one for someone to steal it) It is also getting very competitive. We arrived at Ao Nang, (west coast of the southern mainland) again for the night stopover. Whilst waiting for the taxi/minibus to take us to the hotel, we got chatting to a girl (annoyed me straight away, ML) she had some how swapped passports with a guy in samui travelled all the way across Thailand, realised, called him and then told him to travel all the way across (10 hour journey) Thailand to swap back, which he did, to which she, (the dumb ass) was waiting at the wrong bus station and had no means of getting back in touch with him, seriously!! (anyway made us laugh/laughing at her)

Finally we arrive at our hotel for the night (after what is a pretty epic travel) to be met by a German/Austrian/Thai man with his hand together say "ahhh we've be waiting for you". Right we'll that's pretty freaky. the place was nice but the mad man was a little needy (we think we were the only guests) As we were having dinner he pulled up a chair to the table spun it backwards and sat on it legs spread (good enough mental image) and said (................insert your own dodgy accent) "you know its a shame you arent staying for longer, you know maybe 1 or 2 more nights, there is some beautiful countryside around these parts and i think you will really love it here" Firstly scary man you only met us 7 minutes ago how do you know what we like and also why are you so weird. Anywho, after much counselling we are over our fears of the scary/weird German/Austrian/Thai man. Up at 8 on the road again to phi phi.

Stupid ferry crossing again where, you have to get a long boat (old rusty thing i described before) to the actual ferry. but as you can image a ferry holds a lot more people than a 12 seater long boat, so you have to sit for a long time whilst these little boats cart all the people out, I think it actually took longer to fill the ferry than it did to make crossing. Efficiency isn't a Thai priority.

So we arrive had two more days in Phi Phi to try and cram all the stuff we wanted to do before but never had the chance because of the illness. Plans we set in stone First and foremost we wanted to go to the southern Phi Phi island (Phi Phi Lay) to see the infamous Maya bay (where they filmed the beach) and a new one on the list do some cliff jumping. Also was to walk up to the peak of the hill in the center of the island to wittily named "viewpoint". Check into, and follow the lady on a "short" walk up to our bungalow, carrying our backpacks, (shocking normally someone grabs it off you in seconds and carries it for you). "Short" walk was not for the light hearted, we thought for a second our bungalow was at viewpoint. So after lots of profanity and sweat (i was being a gentleman for a day and carrying lea's bag too) we now understand why they didn't offer to carry our bags. Bonus was we had a fantastic view of the whole bay from our room. Phi Phi underway and going well.................Que rain! Maya bay trip had to be scrapped, we didn't fancy our chance's getting in one of those Rusty little boats in anything conditions other than dead calm, and it was looking pretty choppy, and wet! Very Wet.

The rain did hold off the following day though and we began the trek to viewpoint. Man there were some steep steps (340 steps the a path) Although the weather was not crystal clear sunlight did break though every now and then in the distance. First lookout point reached, and some random monkeys came out of no where they were a mixture of cute and weird. All very playfull till food came out (realised later it must have been feeding time, don't believe the press, monkeys are not stupid, they didn't bite the hand that fed them). Lots of Territorial stuff between the big male monkeys then one of them took a swipe at a french girl (who in the monkeys defence, she stuck a huge digital SLR camera in his face a took a photo blinding him with a flash) So a little wary of the monkeys we decided to move on swiftly as feeding time was over and the local man was now holding a huge catapult and not a bag of nuts. So we carried on up to the top the view from viewpoint was amazing. We could see for miles right out over the bay and harbour, it was pretty much postcard stuff. Happy people, we had done something we set out to do on Phi Phi and the rubbish changing weather didn't put us off.

WE would like to thank our mothers on this special occasion, we would not be here today if it wasn't for your hardwork, commitment and love.......

Next stop Chiang Mai


Pics notes (in order)

• 346 steps in total and a lot more hills to viewpoint on PHI PHI - matt looks down on me :-( hehe
• I just look up to matt so much i often raise him up on a pedestal.....
• our infinity pool - matt tries to make it in time for the self timer but causes a wave (matt is not allowed to make a tsunami joke at this point!!! - but tries)
• rain rain GO AWAY!
• another arty pic from me - matt looks out whilst i hide behind some shells?!
  
• leanne dont do it!!
• we made it to the top! amazing views totally worth it!
• we left our mark :-) (until it rains.....which was pros 10 mins later!)
• killer monkeys come from the depths of the trees - very scary NOT CUTE! (this one was actually yawning not about to eat us)