Beaches...beaches and "The Beach"....

Sawatdi Ka...

Hello y'all, well here I am back at "home" Bangkok - seems all routes in Asia eventually drag you back to Bangkok. I have just spent an awesome three weeks with Elaina and Millie and we've trawled around the Thai beaches... I think the last time I wrote was from Ko Chang which was amazing and chilled....anyway Elaina and I headed back to Bangkok and I took her on the whistle stop tour of the Grand Palace and Wat Po then it was off to the airport to collect Millie and (the little Minx!) her first words to me were "Oh my God Lillie you look like a bum!" (I was wearing my best clothes too! - I knew I should have packed my Versace!) She'll kill me for writing this but it was very funny and she hadn't seen my nose piercing either... anyway once we picked her up off the floor we all piled into a taxi and headed back to our "hotel" - yep hotel...(those places where they give you sheets and towels and loo roll and soap) ..... Millie had come seriously armed with all my favourites and when she opened her bag, out popped around 6 kilos of Cadbury's chocolate......YIPPPEEE! Stuff I'd never seen before, so with 2 of my bestest buddies and with all that choccie and Cheese and Onion crisps from Elaina and of course Marmite one could say I was a very happy girl...she also bought English newspapers and a copy of Hello (It's surprising I actually spoke to them with all that choccie and reading material!) Millie also bought me a totally gorgeous necklace for my birthday pressie and for a few days I must have been the only backpacker in Asia sporting a Tiffany & Co necklace...! Lush....The girls took some photos of me surrounded by cards, pressies and chocolate and the like and it will appear on the website shortly for you to have a giggle at....

Anyway next day we bailed Bangkok and headed off to Phuket for a few days which was pretty funky but absolutely packed and real busy and it's not even high season yet... we opted for Karon Beach out of Patong the main drag and spent loads of time relaxing on the beach and loafing around.. Elaina had me in fits every time she came out of the sea as those of you that know her will know she may not be great in height but she's great in other ways...(sorry Elaina you're gonna kill me too! But I do love Liverpool !@**!!) so, anyway, every time she came out of the sea she squeezed her bikini top and half of the Andaman ocean would pour out!! On the flip side and a total shocker ....picture the scene...you are lying under an umbrella on a sun lounger, beautiful blue skies, with the crystal clear blue waters of the Andaman sea only a stone's throw away listening to the waves break on the shoreline, and as you sit up to take a sip of a cool refreshing drink.....four enormous Eurpoean women with figures like the Two Fat Ladies stroll past you with their boobs sitting on their bellies AND WEARING THONGS !!!!!Uuuuurrrrggghhhhh! NO NEED! That's kind of what Phuket's like...

It really is a great place for food though and seafood in particular, we had some amazing food and we were recommended a restaurant by the guy at our hotel and funnily enough it was called the Red Onion...Thankfully the food at this particular Red Onion was awesome some of the best I've had as opposed to Guernsey's offering...Rob we went out and spent your money one evening in Patong thanks very much indeed and we even had Vite Vine!!! Yummy..... Millie had also pitched up with a bottle of Appleton Rum that I last consumed on her wedding day and still wasn't sure if I could face it again, we managed to nail that in 3 nights going back to the hotel for a "nightcap" .....

Sadly we had to say goodbye to Elaina at the end of our stay in Phuket as she returned back to Guernsey. Then Millie and I headed over to Phi Phi which again is well touristy and busy but still quite charming with narrow streets packed full of dive shops, restaurants, bars, guest houses and souvenir shops...a bit like an overgrown Sark...Phi Phi was gorgeous and we had amazing weather and the beaches are just stunning. We went on one of those all day boat trip things around the islands and one of the stops was at Phi Phi Leh and Maya Bay. Maya bay is the beach that was used in the film set of "The Beach" and needless to say it was absolutely packed full of boats and snorkellers and people on the beach.. but what can you expect really.. it is very beautiful though. We visited some other islands and the boat stopped at a few places for us to jump off the boat and go snorkeling and the guys on the boat would throw rice around you and then you'd be surrounded by absolutely loads of fish which was really amazing and the snorkeling was great too. Sadly I didn't have time to do any diving but will hopefully have some time later on towards the end of the year to return and do it as it looks amazing...

From Phi Phi it was on to Krabi and we stayed by the beach there instead of in the Krabi town. The weather wasn't so great there so we didn't get much time on the beach but we went into Krabi town and had a look around and spent a few hours on Raileh Beach. We were supposed to go on a tour to the National Park and visit James Bond Island but the weather was too rough and our trip was cancelled so instead we went for a ride on a elephant...

One of Millie's "must does" was ride an elephant and as she couldn't go to JB island (being a huge JB fan!) we went to an elephant camp and took an hour's stroll on an elephant and then met the baby of the camp who is an absolute star. He's called Chok Dee and is a cheeky four year old...He knows loads of tricks and we got to feed him and he just wanders around among you while you feed him and he bows and sqwarks at you...he's a real cutie.. Also at the place where the elephants were is the field that they used to film some of the scenes from the Beach...you know the ones where Leo Di Cap and pals first make it to the island and they stumble across a field full of marijuana and then later the group that come to the island uninvited all get murdered in the same field . Well it's right next to the elephant camp and the guy showed us some of the photos taken during filming....sadly the field is now growing the completely unintoxicating papaya...he showed us some photos and the way they did it was they grew marijuana plants in tubs and only lined the first few rows of the field with dope, the rest of the foliage is actually sweet potato, apparently the leaves look just like marijuana leaves....fancy shooting four people coz they stumbled into your crop of sweet potatoes eh?.. anyway after the filming was done all the dope was burned in one big bonfire and closely monitored by the local boys in brown!!! And I'm sure the elephants and all staff slept very soundly that evening....

Anyway next day it was time for us to return to Bangkok for Millie's return flight and sadly all flights to Bangkok were full so Millie was a real trooper and we took the bus for the 15 hour journey back to Bangkok....when we arrived in Bangkok the usual touts were waiting to pounce and Millie successfully managed to shoo them all away with a "Leave me alone I've just woken up"...the fools then tried to tell me that Khaosan road was 2 km away and they'd take us there for 100 baht...I told them to buy a map of Bangkok and study it because it was actually on around the corner and a ten minute walk....

Back in Bangkok I took Millie to the Grand Palace and Wat Po the "must" sees in Bangkok and Millie shopped and bargained her way through the Khaosan Road and emptied it of its contents..(well almost!) This shopping extravaganza meant that Millie now needed a new bag to put all this gear in and it couldn't be any old bag so 3 hours before she's due at the airport we are screaming across Bangkok in a tuk-tuk to MBK (very large shopping mall!) in order to find said bag......Anyway Millie's eyes light up with glee when the woman in the shop produces an enormous laminated card of all the bags she has in stock....so half an hour later and one holdall, one handbag, one diary, one key holder and god only knows what else we leave the shop, take another kamikaze ride across town and make it back with about an hour to spare before she's due at the airport...mission accomplished....Then it was off to the airport to wave goodbye to Millie and her excess baggage and crash out.....

So here I am in Bangkok, chilling out and organising where to go next. The plan is at the moment to go to Myanmar for a few weeks and then start to make my way south again and go diving for Crimbo and New year and then head into Malaysia...I've changed my flights now and am skipping Indonesia and flying to Darwin from Singapore on the 23d Jan so I've still got plenty of time to come up with a plan....

Finally, I 've been hearing from a couple of sources that some people are having difficulty mailing me...if you are one of those who is having troubles with underscores then you can use my other email address lillie@spaldingnet.net although hotmail is the main one I check.. I will get to you eventually...

Anyway time for me to love ya and leave ya as I've got to go and see a man about a Burmese visa and a nice man in uniform about a visa extension......

Take care

Laodsa love

Lillie, Lisa

xxx