Hey hey hey...

Well I'll try and keep this last posting for South East Asia quite short and leave pictures to do most of the work.

We arrived in Ko Pah Ngan, after a long, tiring journey and stayed in a nice hut raised on stilts. The view was rather good and the place had a lovely pool; it was also a couple of minutes from a quiet beach, shown below:




We hired a mo-ped and cruised around the island covering over 60 miles in a day, which was pretty good going on those roads! There's also a wicked little cinema, which has loads of films to choose from and has a phone next to your seat, so you can order food and drinks whenever required.

We stayed a couple of nights at a resort Reilly calls home (when not in England) and it was probably the best place we've stayed at; the picture below is of a sunset we saw from our little hut:




We then had a night in Krabi and quickly moved onto Ko Phi Phi; this is where 'The Beach' was filmed and is quite stunning. The pictures below help to show that one...








Because it was peak season when were at Phi Phi, the prices for accommodation were as much as three times as they would be in May, for example. As a result, we could only afford the bare minimum, which was a tiny little hut; we had to walk 30m to go to the toilet. It was fun times though and the pic below is off the inside of that hut.




Although we weren't keen on the idea, we had to spend Christmas in Phuket, as we had a flight to catch from there on Boxing day morning. In all honesty, Phuket was pretty dire compared to the other islands we'd visited, but that is due to the tourism there, rather than backpackers. The place was heaving with Europeans on holiday and was probably very similar to Benidorm. The picture below gives you some idea of the main beach....




However, we met up with Jess Callen from Uni and her boyfriend Gary, as well as Ruth and Burts again, so there was a group of us to get into the Christmas festivities  >: )

We didn't do an awful lot apart from lay on the beach and get a tan. Yep that's quite right, I have gained a tan! It's pretty impressive (for me) and gained many comments from Beth and Ruth along the lines of, "I really didn't think you could get one".

We saw Christmas in at an excellent bar near where we were staying and requested songs all night long. There was no way we could have an Xmas without hearing Slade, that was for sure. Below is a picture from the night:



Christmas came and went and we were soon on another plane to Bangkok, in order to catch a flight the following day. This is the part of the trip where I fly to Sydney and Beth flies back home to enjoy High Wycombe once more. It looks like she's going to experience a drop of about 25 degrees or more after 3 months of 30 degrees plus; flip flops for a wooly hat then....

So I'm writing this last blog for South East Asia in the same place I wrote the first one out here 3 months ago. What can I say about my time here? Well it's been pretty amazing and it truly is an incredible part of the world, but I'm ready to move on. It's great to see some of the sights out here, but it has been quite tiring at times having to haggle down the price of EVERYTHING you buy. The idea of being in Sydney, with no one trying to sell something EVERYWHERE, or having to haggle down the price, is absolutely fantastic.

A special thank you to a Miss Bethanie Drake, who provided excellent company over the last 3 months; I apoligise for getting up early every day to go and check footy news on the net  >: ) It meant a great deal to me, that you kept interuptions of my 'Net time' to a bare minimum (apart from below):




So I'll once more end a blog posting and stop rambling on. The next entry will be for what is in a sense, the second half of my trip; I'll be back to wealthy Western countries and will be on my own.

68 days to go.....