Local Thais say that the southern islands have 3 seasons, Hot, Very Hot, and in their own words F**king Hot… We cleverly timed our trip during the latter and have been informed that this is one of the hottest weeks as far as records show. Its sort of thundering constantly in the background, which is surreal considering the blindingly bright sunlight and blue sky directly above us. The humidity seems to rise and rise throughout the day and then overnight the thunder really comes rolling in. Our jungle tree house on Koh Phi Phi was a particularly spectacular place to witness the magnitude of these thankfully overnight storms, with thunder that literally rattled the stilts it was built on.

Our first island was Phuket. This was just a stop over for us really and a place to meet up with Jades friend Ibs and her boyfriend Tom. We chose to stay in Patong, the backpackers Bangkok of the south, an avid comparison as its just as dirty and noisy and probably not somewhere I would recommend for a long stay. Our accommodation had chosen the “crack den chic” look and really run with it, not an ikea piece in sight, which in Thailand seems to constitute designer – the ikea labels to Baht spent ratio seems to factor heavily in hotel ratings. As for our night in Phuket I really can’t go into any great detail about what we got up to here as my grandmother will be reading this and there are just some experiences that don’t need to be documented… Don’t worry Gma, none of the unspeakable stories involve me personally, I’m referring more to what we had to see rather than had to do. Flashbacks are unfriendly.

From Phuket the five of us took a ferry over to Koh Phi Phi. Most of our time spent here involved sweating. No physical excerise I have ever done, from weekends at Scraesdon Fort, the final Penhale Challenge, the hottest summer day shift at the Stars, nothing, nada, has made me sweat as much as lying still in our “fan cooled” jungle treehouse on Koh Phi Phi. It was an awesome place to be but, wow. We bypassed the 100baht (£2) longtail ferry service from the resort to the town pier and trekked across the jungle coastline instead, several times. This didn’t help the crying sweat glands but was beautiful. Our highlight on Koh Phi Phi was Bobs Booze Cruise. Bob knows what he’s doing, and despite the slightly teeth-clenching price, by thai standards anyway, I would absolutely recommend it if you don’t have much time on the island. As well as the all you can drink bar (cabin) he jam packs in monkey feeding, cliff jumping, kayaking, snorkelling and The Beach itself, Maya Bay via the tourist-free back entrance – a swim across an excellent snorkelling site, up a knotty mess of ropes ascending some cliff rocks, onto a sweet forest path and down to the beautiful bay, soz Leo. There is also plenty of time for chilling in the water with a beer and some pretty decent history lessons about bird nest thieving. Where the coastline overhangs the water it very much resembles the South Devon coast, lots greenery and limestone and granite, just like home? Minus the blazing sunshine obviously 😉 17 tourists crammed onto his small sail boat and enjoyed every minute, especially the unbelievable sunset, photos to follow. As soon as the boat began to head for shore there was no excuse to go lightly on the drink, resulting in a joint venture with our new Irish friends to a pizzeria (authentic) and that jungle trek home – ropey enough sober this was actually an awe inspiring feat. Genuinely, you should take a little reading break to applaud us…

Right now we’re on the secluded island of Koh Lanta. Greeted by the faaaabulous Chico, we were shown to our cozy beachside bure – Bamboo Bay heaven – the gift of air conditioning and laundry service a welcome delight. Despite being a relatively large island when compared to its neighbours, Koh Lanta hasn’t seen the same level development and no where near the same level of tourists. Another excellent recommendation by Mr Beard, cheers ‘en. Many of the resorts boast totally private beach fronts and the smaller ones especially have impressively few tourists to share with. We actually have our resort all to ourselves at the moment, on the southern tip of the island next door to national park land, far from any civilisation. Koh Lanta was hit badly by the 2006 Tsunami, many businesses were destroyed and 20 people were killed. On the boat from Koh Phi Phi I read a handy Koh Lanta pocket guide that described, among many things, the new Tsunami warning system – after our Earthquake experience up north this felt necessary. Essentially if any tsunami activity is detected then homes and resorts recieve information via sms, telegram, fax, intranet, TV, Radio, alarm systems and basically anything else faster than carrier pigeon. We heard alarms coming from the jungle on our lovely little beach stroll this afternoon… Suffice to say it obviously wasn’t a Tsunami, maybe we’re a little on edge?

Okay, the alarms we heard were probably birds… Wildlife here does have a tendency to control your heart rate (especially Alice’s) whether its a double winged dragon fly whos going where hes going regardless of who’s in the way, or those tiresome cicadas – I’m not for a second complaining about where we are/have been, but a night without a cicada chorus is an absolute dream to come. Not to mention the biters, its the price you pay and we are well stocked with various preventions and cures – alarmingly though some of the bites highly resemble hickeys, nothing like a sexy shin to get nibbling on?

Speaking of nibbling… After two weeks in Thailand I think we can all agree this resort has THE best food by far, so tasty and generous. The smoothie range is also deeeeeelish and with no ill effects from any dish or drink we are taking full advantage of eating fruit and veg – vitamins please. I’m especially happy as until now not one morsel of food consumed hasn’t raged war with my insides, suddenly I know what its like to actually gain nutrition from my food again and not be ripped off 20baht by a thai lady with bleeding gums to use a public bathroom in a moment where the only other option was an overflowing gutter or a stray cat. Dreeeeamy.

On a side note I may be building a passable tan… Then there’s the occasional patch of freckles who have joined up in some kind of pigment-love-fest, basically I look like I have patches of dirt on my face and arms -attractive. Although there is plenty to do on Koh Lanta our short stay has one purpose only, to relax doing nothing. So far we have achieved this, give or take a few walks along the shoreline, indulgent beach selfie sessions, and card tricks with barman “No” … Thats his name – he’s currently removing a crab from the pool and threatening to eat it. Clearly a lacking of customers to serve is getting to him.

Anyway there you have it, Island life so far, minus a few unspeakable details. Our next stop is Koh Phangan where we will get back to it with typical backpacker antics in the build up to the full moon party – not entirely sure what to expect on that front.

R.e. The photo gallery page, its exceedingly hard to update on any mass level. I will try to add as many photos as possible later on tonight but for now if you want visual aids then check our Instagram and or our Facebook pages.

Rose x