Tinterweb.

We're riding on the back of free wifi signals on our iPhones whilst
we're down in the islands so there will be a delay with blog updates
until Krabi or KL & the formatting will most likely be all over the
place. The bad spelling is just me :-)

The islands of Phuket.

Por Pier (1 hour from Patong)

Up to Por Pier and on to our speedboat for a day of island hopping. We
did a loop northwards along the west side of the island and back
southwards down the east, here's a summary of the day:

Panak island
Climb through the bat caves to the open lagoon in the middle.

Hong island
There's a rock on top of the sheer cliff that has been formed
naturally (a bit like stalagtights) in the shape of scooby doo!! No
kidding!

James bond island
Ok let's stop here a sec, this was one of the highlights of the trip
for me. The island has a proper name, which I can't remember, but
anyways, they renamed it the James bond island after the film.
Unfortunately it was full of tourists, and everyone but everyone was
doing the photo coming out of the water with the rock behind - so I
got mine too! There are more caves on the island and an internal sheer
rock face with buddist prayers carved into the rock. FAB.

Between the islands

Between the islands rainforest grows and a swamp in the sea with
lagoons and mangroves. We jumped on kayaks and got canoed through the
lagoon, monkeys live in the trees and feed on the walking fish you can
see crawling up from the external roots of the trees!

Panyee island

Panyee island is a colourful Muslim fishing village, it's tiny but we
docked here for a lunch break.

Lawa island

The last island on the list and a great place for snorkelling & sunbathing.

By the time we headed back to Por Pier, the monkeys had come down from
the forest, they're really wild around here so it's not wise to
approach them, not unless you want the females to attack you. We made
our way back to Patong - we've got plans to see the tame monkeys on
monkey island & in monkey bay in a future trip.

The southern islands.

Phuket

Patong beach
Bangla road
Patong bayshore
Rat-u-thit 200 Pee road food Market

A 1 1/2 hr plane ride and we arrived on the island of Phuket. On a
side note Thai airways are one of the best airlines I've flown on!!

But I digress..

As we drove through the busy island I got a gut feeling the busy
streets and bars around us were not about to get any better - even
more so as they became English and Irish bars of late 80's holidays
long past.. but there's always a bright side, and that came in the
form of our hotel, a proper little oasis with a lovely pool in the
middle of what could be any bar resort anywhere in the world.

So for the next two days we pretty much stayed around the pool, we did
spend a morning on Patong beach and go to see the lady boys on Bangla
road in the evening (the 7-11 is the local pick up joint).

I may as well mention at this point we have eaten every Thai dish on
the menu, in the most basic street stalls and it's all been really
nice, really cheap and not a belly ache in sight (for now).

Sawatdee krab (hello/goodbye) (girls end with kah)
Kaup khun krab (kah) (thank you)

A quick Thai lesson from the lady we book our island trips with, but
more about that tomorrow.

Sawatdee krab!