Day 26 Tue 18th May

Got up at the crack of dawn for our trip to Phi Phi Islands. Went to Phuket Royal Boat Marina with the Kamikaze bus driver and headed off to see Phi Phi Islands on a big speed boat. A couple of Ruskies barged passed and took our seats on the front of the boat, Buggers but well well we decided to just sit down inside and enjoy the boat trip. We arrived at Maya Bay for a spot of the tourist thingie and decided to have a look around and take some pics. Beautiful place and it was where they filmed the movie The Beach. We wandered around for a while before we boarded the boat to the next pit stop. Monkey Island but the tide was in so we couldn’t get off the boat. Not to worry as once you have seen one minky you have seen them all. We carried on around the island a little further and decided to throw anchor for some snorkling. The water was nice and loads of fish but I was having problems trying to get them to stay in one place for the photo so decided to give up on them. Back on the boat again to head off for lunch, The minute we left it started to rain, he he the Ruskies were up front with no cover to protect them from the rain. How happy were we ? Had our lunch which was nice then back on the boat again to Bamboo Island. Was still chucking it down rain and the snorkelling wasn’t good so sheltered from the storm in a wee bamboo bar before getting back on the boat again. Our last stop was Khai Island and before we got there the rain had stopped and the sun was trying to shine through, thank goodness. Da had thankfully told us the day before to take a loaf of bread to feed the fish. We really liked this island. You only had to wade up to your knees and there were loads of fish. We chucked the bread in and they surrounded us like Japanese snipers. We were really enjoying it until Angie let out a scream and run as fast as she could back to the beach. She’d been bitten in the back by one of the fishes, well so she says. You would have thought by the sound of her and everyone’s expression on their faces that there was a shark in the water. We decided to head back to our chairs before there was any more confusion on the matter. Had a nice cold beer and a barbecued corn on the cob before we got called back to the boat for the journey home. Only took about 15 minutes. As we approached the entrance to the posh marina we noticed signs saying speed limit was 5 knots – our driver must have been going about 20 knots or so but he was flying. So that was the end of our Phi Phi Island tour. Headed back to the hotel to catch up on our blogs (sorry if we’ve missed any!) and get ready for dinner. Hope you like the pics, more tomorrow.

Day 25 Mon 17th May

Got on the racing bike and decided to head for Layan Beach further North up the Island. Everything was going well until we realised we were on the completely wrong road. So we headed back down and took the right road or so we thought. Apparently we had ‘the best map oh Phuket’ but could we find this beach? No. And to make matters worse the heavens opened and we’d nowhere to hide. All we could do was stop at the side of a country road and try and hide under a tree. Pointless really as we were both soaked by this time and the tree wasn’t very waterproof. We found a pink polythene rain saver thing under the bike seat, Andy didn’t fancy wearing it so I stuck it on, dunno why as I weas soaked to the skin by this time. Were both really pis*ed off so left the shelter of the tree and headed back to Surin beach. The sun came out and we dried out so hung about there for a couple of hours. Went back to Patong and went to Da and Johnny’s massage parlour at Tritrang Beach Resort. I had a lovely facial massage from Wanna and Andy had a full body oil massage. I decided against the oil massage after my experience with Meta a couple of years ago. Meta was just learning her massage techniques back then and used me as a guinea pig. I couldn’t walk the next day!! She’s completely competent now though so I might have one before we leave. Went to the Hard Rock cafe at night and cost us a bloody fortune. And the waiters were completely over the top. I think they went to the American school of Hard Rock and won’t leave you alone to enjoy your food. They asked us about ten times if we were enjoying our meal and changed our napkins every 2 seconds. The meal was good though and the live band they had were excellent. The band were Thai and the two female singers were Filipino, absolutely brilliant. Had to head home early for our 8am pick up tomorrow. PS – Angie hunted the room for a pair of lost flip flops and the lost camera suddenly turned up. Can’t believe it but at least we now have our pictures of Bobby. Still no sign of Angie’s slip flops though, must have left them in Bangla Road somewhere!!

Day 24 Sun 16th May

Easy day, nothing much to report here. typical sunday but will be going to Patrick' to watch the F1. Bike and beach so hope the rain stays off.

Day 23 Sat 15th May

Woke up to find the skies had opened up and the rain was really pouring down, Just like home I guess but a little warmer rain. We waited for it to stop then headed down to Kata for breakfast and some strong coffee before driving back to Johnny's to say our goodbye's before he headed off back to work. He had been sitting there all morning waiting for the news that they had closed Bangkok Airport but sadly that news never came. Sad to see him go as we've had a great time but I guess we can sober up a little now he's gone. :)
Spent the rest of the day changing flights and hotels until the end of the week, now leaving on the 22nd so hopefully all the crap in Bangkok will be over by then.

In bed by 11pm so Sunday should be a nice day, weather depending.

Ps. no pics as the camera battery was flat,We used it all filming Angie dancing the night away the previous evening.

Day 22 Patong - Friday 14th May

Another easy day at the pool with Johnny. Had planned to go to the Thai boxing stadium that evening but Johnny got a call from work to say he had to fly to the UK on Saturday so he couldn't risk having a big night before he left. Met a few folk and had a good night. Da decided she was a bit peckish later into the evening so popped down the road for a snack to keep her going. She came back with a bag of bloody maggots - yuk!! She enjoyed them though but we declined them point blank. As it turned out Johnny didn't make it home 'til 3am - best laid plans!!

Day 21 Patong – Thursday 13th May

Before I start I have to say sorry to Johnny, no sooner had I posted the blog yesterday my phone was ringing, His motorbike was 110cc racing scooter with a blue Chelsea exhaust and not a 50cc as I had said. I managed to make it up to him be letting him borrow my sun hat so he didn’t burn his napper while sitting at the pool so he started to cheer up after that. Johnny said Da would give me a hair cut but I had to think about it, not sure how much I would have left if I went for a #2 on my napper, I would probably get burnt the same as johnny’s so still contemplating. Left the pool and decided to show face at Bangla again. Peter and Gaye were there so had a couple of beers with them, they leave Friday. Talking about dinner we all decided that a BBQ would be the food for tonight, no sea food I thought so this was defiantly a good idea and no way were they changing there minds. We took off on the racing 110cc scooters and headed for the BBQ bar. The food was brilliant and enjoyed by all. We left there dumped the bikes and headed off into Bangla again for a few beers to finish the night off. We met up with one of Johnny’s mates Neil for a couple of beers but decided to head home after Angie went off on one drinking Thai whisky………

Day 20 Patong - Wednesday 12th May

Johnny had let us borrow his bike for the rest of our stay, he said he would drop the blade off in the morning. Wow I thought, a Fireblade would get us tearing all over the island in no time. We met up and the keys for the beast were handed over. We went for breakfast then headed off to look for the bike, “don’t worry Andy you cant miss it, it’s the one covered in Newcastle FC stickers”. I looked for ages then found a scooter with the same reg plate then realized Angie had once told me that you get 50cc Air Blades over here. Things had already turned a little slower and we hadn’t started off yet. We headed off to Laem Singh beach for the day. Angie had forgotten to tell me how many steps you had to climb down as we might have reconsidered this road trip. Once we got down to the bottom though it was definitely worth it. It’s a really small, quiet beach. Probably because nobody can be bothered getting down to it. Had lunch there, Andy did a bit of snorkeling but kept getting battered against the coral reef so gave up in the end. Chilled out for a bit before tackling the climb back to the top, should have taken hiking boots not flip flops. We headed back to the hotel to get ready to go out. Johnny and Da picked us up in their shiny, new car to take us to a floating restaurant further up the Island. We eventually found the place (they hadn’t been before either) and parked up. We had to get a long tail boat from the jetty out to the restaurant. These long-tails are like huge wooden canoe things. They’ve got 4 clylinder turbo charged diesel engines out of a car or truck bolted onto a huge rudder. They go like sh*t off a shovel but you wouldn’t really think it when you look at them. The driver got us safely to the restaurant which was basically a big wooden platform in the middle of the sea. Looking at it and walking on it you’d think it would disappear into the sea but it must have been sturdy enough. Ordered our food which was only seafood (Andy was over the moon). Had soft shell crab curry (almost blew our heads off, even Da struggled), steamed fish, fish head soup and sea snails. Andy struggled through. It was different, that’s for sure. Jumped back into our long tail boat and went back home. Passed up on going to Bangla Road for a cold beer as we were all stuffed and I think Andy wanted to keep a low profile after his man-kini stunt the day before. So another early night for everyone.