Week 2...Cheeky Monk!

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Hello everybody

another great week in this amazing part of the world.

picking up from where I left off... Penang. Not the most amazing of cities in the world, we decided after half a days travelling that we were in much need of some normal food, so we went to a fairly posh restaurant and all had chicken burgers!! ahh embracing the local culture!
saying that, we ended up at night going to an outdoor food court which was really good, had some local delicacies and a few drinks.

The next day we got up, checked out and headed to the airport. On the way to the airport we spent a good chunk of time chatting to the taxi driver, who weirdly was an ex RAF engineer. now he was driving taxis around Malaysia!
after arriving at the airport, we discovered our flight had been delayed by about 3 hours... 5 hours later and a few macdonalds we were finally boarding. the flight was amazing for me and anthony as we were flying quite low over the various thai islands.

we got to Phuket and after an hour taxi journey, arrived at Baan Suay, where we met Matt and Marsh! lovely little hotel for 6 quid a night! after watching the England game and us winning a dismal 1-0 against Algeria, we thought it was a cue to celebrate and so went in the pool!

the nextb day was horrible. got up at 7 in the morning, travelled the width of thailand and got to my destination at 9 o clock at night. however, there were some funny moments on the various forms of transport. we decided to get the cheap bus whcih said took 5 hours but we got there in an admirable 7! along the way, a cheeky monk came on and decided to sit next to Matt even though the rest of the coach was unoccupied. he then proceeded to offer Matt a tasty and nutricious leaf to eat...Matt refused! after texting his mate with his nokia, he then got off. when we got to Suratthani, some geeza got on the bus shouting "Koh Phangan...GET OFF!" so we were bustled off and into a shop where we were told to pay 500 baht and then shoved onto another bus not knowing where we were going. luckily this bus took us to the ferry terminal and then we were moved onto a completely over packed ferry and taken to the island.

Koh Phangan was a nice little island but very english and commercialised. we spent 5 days there in little bungalows on the beach. One of the days was Kat's birthday and the full moon party. about an hour before the full moon party i was not feeling well and ready to give in and not go. but as soon as i got there and got a thai red bull in my belly, i was raring to go. that stuff is unbelievable!

after Koh Phangan, we moved over to a tiny little island called Koh Tao....what an island. me and matt did some snorkelling and got cut to bits by all the coral and rocks but we saw some amazing fish and matt claims he caught a fish! after lounging around on the beach and playing a bit of footie we have now moved on from Koh Tao

everyone is high spirited and we are looking forward to whats ahead... love to all my family and friends

Josh x

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