Hello massaaaaaage.....

We've been in Thailand now for a couple of weeks and absolutely love it. It's got such a nice atmosphere and more laid back than Malaysia. Also the perv situation seems to have disappeared which is good!

I'll continue from where we left off. Penang Hill was pretty cool, except it rained and we got wet! :o( The bhudda was pretty impressive as were the statues surrounding it. The temple (South East Asia's largest apparantly) was cool too. We had to trek (yes trek) up this huge hill to get there, but it was worth it in the end. By the time we actually took the cable car up Penang Hill the weather got worse and the clouds were getting lower. At the top, we just managed to get a few snaps before visibility was reduced to about 5m, which isn't great when you have gone somewhere for the spectacular views! Typical Kyle and Jade luck!

We also checked out Batu Ferringhi beach resort which was skanky to say the least and not a reason I would go back to Penang for! Lots of dead fish on the beach and scum in the water! There were kids swimming in it, which didn't seem like the healthiest thing to do!

We caught a minibus to Krabi (10 hours) from Penang crossing into Thailand. We had the most uncomfortable minibus with the most annoying driver who refused to turn up the aircon even though it was nearly 100 degrees inside (I kid you not!). I was ready to spark the guy out by the time we reached Krabi!
Krabi was pretty nice, and we saw our first Boots (the chemist) since leaving England 8 months ago! It was such a novelty and we spent lots of money in there! :o)
We did a a tour of James Bond island by long boat, also going to a floating village called Gypsy village, as well seeing Monkey temple. Long day but worth it. Although my camera ran out of batteries before getting to the main part of James Bond island, so we have no photos of anything which was pretty annoying!

We got the ferry over to Ko Phi Phi island and had our first experience of being ripped off by touts! We were sold a ferry ticket to Phuket for 450baht which we were told would cost 500 on the island, but which turned out to cost 250 on the island! We wont be fooled like that again. We now assume that everyone that talks to us is a liar! :o)

Ko Phi Phi was really nice and we stayed in a room that was the best one of our entire trip, but still cost less than 7.50 a night between us! It also had sky tv with a channel that played continuous films 24 hours a day. As soon as the credits of one film finished the next film started! So we didn't get much sleep! All the films were pretty new too!
We did a tour of the 2 Phi Phi islands, Don and Leh and went to the actual beach from the film 'The Beach'. It was pretty good, but there was clever camera trickery in the film! The scenery around Phi Phi was amazing and the water was gorgeous. We did loads of snorkelling (which still doesn't beat Raro) and swam to a tiny secluded island. Jade also tried to feed the fish with watermelon, and got bit. You could actually see the teeth marks! What is it with Jade and getting bitten!?! :o)

We had 4 nights on Phi Phi before getting the boat across to Phuket. We stayed just along from the main resort at a place called Kata. It was really nice, although for some reason everything there was Danish. Never found out why either??? So if anyone knows, email us!
The weather wasn't that great while we were there as it is now heading into Monsoon season. We had to take our waterproof jackets around with us as it would just suddenly starting p*ssing it down.

We went to Phuket town, Ao Patong (the roudy resort) and Ao Karon. All ok, but not somewhere we'd go back for a holiday. No where near as nice as other parts of Thailand.

We then took a minibus from Phuket (west coast) to Surat Thani (east coast) where we caught a ferry to Ko Samui where we are now. It's really nice here and we have already bought quite a few bargains using our haggling skills. Weather still isnt that great here either, and is supposed to pick up from Sunday onwards, so we'll be hitting the beach then.

By the way, the title for this post is because in Thailand every corner you turn you are offered a massage. Well actually it's not a massage, it's a massaaaaaaaage! They either don't know how to say the word properly or they just like singing it to us! It's so funny.

Hope you are all well.

Take care
K&J
xxx