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February 8th 2008

Published: February 8th 2008

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Andy501

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Back in Bangkok

Hello everyone. It seems like ages since I wrote my last entry although was proably less then 2 weeks ago which I'm sure will have just flown by back in England. Anyway thought I would just write a short(ish) entry now on what I've been up to since my last one. Gonna summarise it as best I can anyway.

After staying for a few nights on Koh Tao we headed to the nearby larger island of Koh Samui. Chilled out there for 3 nights at a resort on the beach and one day Mark and I took a trip round the island. This included riding and elephant (which was mental - at one point the rider/jockey just jumped down and walked off to take some photos leaving me and Mark up there in what I suppose you could call "control") We then moved on to swim in a mountain waterfall and see a buddist temple amongst other things plus we got a free lunch - great day!

Anyway, after Samui we traveled back to the mainland and headed to the Khao Sok national park. As with a lot of this stuff my words cant do

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it justice and probably neither can my pictures. It was AMAZING! A huge lake in the mountains covered in huge rainforest covered cliffs coming straight out of the water. We took a trek up through the rain forest and then into a huge cave which took about and hour to walk through and included a swim in the freezing water in the pitch black (but for our torches) It was hard work but so beautiful! In the evening we stayed on little floating raft houses on the lake where there is no electricity once they swicth the generator off after 10pm, the whole thing was brilliant!

Moving swiftly on, after the jungle, Mark and I split off from the other 3 (as MArk now only had a week or so left so we needed to try and squeeze in as much as possible before he left) and headed over to the town of Krabi on the west coast in order to take a ferry to the island of Ko Phi Phi (where the filmed 'The Beach') We only spent 1 night in Krabi and not much to report other than the amazing pizza I had and so the next

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day got an early moring ferry to the island where we spent two nights. Ko Phi Phi is BEAUTFUL! Although there were still a lot of tourists it didnt feel as resorty as we had been to before, we took about trip around the island stopping off for snorkeling over the reefs (incredible, so many fish) and a few beach stops (including the famous one where they shot the film) and all in all great two days.

With Marks flight now only a few days away we took an over night bus back to Bangkok for a couple more days sight-seeing. (see attached photos) Yesterday we went to the Grand Palace and main temple in the city which altough has tourists coming out of its ears was spectacular. We then took a boat trip round the citys canals and in the evening went to a ridiculously fancy restaurant which mark knew about on the roof of a 64 floor building. It was mega-expensive but the view over Bangkok at night time was something else and the meal was awesome!

Finally (coming to the end now, stay with me) today we took a day trip 2 hours north to

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the former capital of Thailand Ayutthaya. Huge old runined temples/palaces which would have been fully functioning 500 years ago. The heat was almost unbearable but was still a great trip and something different from the beaches and mountains we have seen over last few weeks.

Anyway, that me up to date now, sorry about the long entry and thanks for sticking with me (unless you just skipped to this bit and thats fair enough) Marks flight leaves tonight so I'm off tomorrow to the east to stop at the Island of Ko Chang to mee Rick, Fliss and Lisa, before we all enter Cambodia!

There should be some pictures attached on here of the last few days in Bangkok, as always thanks for reading, miss you all! Let me know if its snows!

Andy

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