Muay Thai

Thai boxing looks just like this! The guys have 8 packs!

Marina Resort

Our new hotel/resort is nice... but in a different way to the last one. This one is packed full of Euros! Everyone is from Germany or Denmark etc. At the pool all the chairs have been 'reserved' by Euros - they put their towels there and then wander off for hours. So when we first went to the pool all the chairs were taken, but there was nobody around - in the pool or out of it. Very strange.
We have a little house/room, a bit like a cabin in a caravan park up on a hill that overlooks the beach --> that is view I have out of our window. Everything is really spaced out at this resort but in a good way. You have to walk down this wooden walkway through the trees to get to the beach and the pool and the restaurants. There are some kind of monkey that runs around all over the place in the trees. It looks a bit like a possum, and there are lots of lizards and frogs. This morning I was going to reception from our room and Chris said "Look!". I thought he was showing me another lizard or something, but it was a baby elephant! He was just standing there next to reception with his owner who was feeding him bananas. I patted him and then we went back to our room to get him the complementary bananas that were left in our room. He mashed up the whole hand of them and ate them. He was really cute.

Last night we went to Muay Thai Boxing. There isn't that much boxing though - mainly kicks, elbows and knees. I thought it was quite good. Basically the rules are that you can fight however you like, but you can't hit/kick the back of the head. It sounds much worse than it really is though. I thought there'd be blood and everything, but there wasn't any and not one KO either. There were 7 fights, starting with 12 year olds, and then 14 year olds, 16 year olds, 19 year olds and up to an international fight between an Aussie (who was crap and lost) and an Thai. On Sat there is Lady Muay Thai, between the champion, an English lady, and a Thai, but Chris doesn't want to go again :( Cheryl, I think that could be a new sport for you! You would have abs of steel!

Basically apart from that we have just been sitting by the pool and drinking delicious Mango or Watermelon shakes. It is mango (or watermelon) blended with ice and sugar syrup. It's sooo yummy. It's super hot and humid in the middle or the day though so we try to stay in the air con.

Our hotel.

This is our hotel now, and that building is our room! :D

Phi Phi & Phuket

This morning we got up early, checked out of our resort and set off in a long tail boat --> like that one, for Phi Phi Lai, exactly where that photo is. It is where The Beach was filmed. It looked just like that. We didn't have any snorkling stuff or googles, but you could see big blue and red parrot fish as big as your foot while we swam around in the water.

We went early because it gets really busy as the day goes on. Lots of Chinese tourists were there when we were leaving who spashed around in lifejackets and made a hell of a racket. They all came on big speed boats too, so that spoiled things a bit too.

After we looked around the rest of Phi Phi Lai, the long tail boat driver took us to the pier at Phi Phi Don (the main island, the one we stayed on) and we waited for the ferry to take us back to Phuket. Then we got a taxi to the hotel we are staying in just for tonight. This hotel is GREAT! The pool is really nice and our room overlooks it and Patong beach which is down the hill. Unfortunately we are leaving tomorrow for another resort down the road, although we both hope it is going to be as nice as this one. This one has a complementary mercedes car that takes you down the hill whenever you want to to the shops at Patong.

We just came down in the car (which Chris loves) and went to Carrefour supermarket. They had all sorts of great things in there that we don't have :( Swiss biscuits, lollies, German chocolate, a trendy tennis racket device that electrocutes fly and mosquitos when you swat them. People have been using these tennis racket things in ever restaurant we've been to and Chris was just dying to get one for himself. Everything is supercheap too.

Before we left to go to the supermarket I had my first meal, consisting of boiled rice and a watermelon juice for 2 days. I am finally feeling better, although still not perfect. I have hardly been able to drink water until this afternoon. I guess it was just a 24 bug. The man at our hotel nodded knowingly when we said I was sick and had come from Phi Phi.

More on Phi Phi

Well today I am sick. I think it was the water from the shower or something that might have gotten in my mouth accidentally. I also got Chris's cold yesterday and I got a bit sunburnt at the beach yesterday too. So today I am really feeling bad.
For breakfast I could only manage to eat a bit of watermelon and pineapple, and then that made me sick. For lunch I had a little bit of dry ginger ale - and then that made me sick. I ate one oreo biscuit later, and then THAT made me sick! Now I am not eating anything. At least my cold is much better now.

Tomorrow we are leaving Phi Phi for Phuket, and going to visit the other island before we go which is meant to be really beautiful. It is where they filmed The Beach movie. I don't know if I will have the strength to do much though, so I'll just sit on the boat if I can't do anything else.

The tides here are really huge. When it's high tide we can't touch the bottom, the water is about 2m deep near the island. Then at low tide all the water is gone and you can just walk out for 200m along the sand towards the reef. It's nice at high tide, and the water is cooler too.

Ok well, I'm off to watch Chris eat dinner. There is a terrible band playing where I am now. They are AWFUL! I thought it was kareoke. Hopefully we won't be able to hear them down at the restaurant!

Phi Phi Island

Firstly, if you have been trying to reply or post a comment, don't bother, because apparently you have to create and account and log in... etc etc so just email me if you want to say something.

We are at Phi Phi Island now and it is really nice. A REALLY nice resort is next to ours (the one we were originally going to stay at in October but the price has now gone waaaayyy up!) so we are sneaking in there to use the pool and the restaurant! It is so yummy. This resort is nice... but not as nice as that one. We have the same beach though and it really does look like the photos. This computer is super slow so I'll just post a pic in Phuket when we get there in 3 days.

Anyway, we are having a good time and are back to sit on the beach again now!

Bangkok

Got to Bangkok last night at the new airport and eventually reached out hotel after a crazy high speed taxi ride.
It is nice and warm here and the food is much nicer than anything in HK or Macau.

ATM we are looking for markets and just wandering around the street. Tonight we are going to try and find a lady-boy show to see.

Feel free to write comments!

Hong Kong and Macau

We are now in Macau and the weather is cold. Hong Kong and Macau are both smoggy/hazy so it looks overcast all the time and the visibility is very bad. We went to the top of a mountain to see the view of HK, but you couldn't see very far due to the haze. We went shopping in Hong Kong for most of the time in the 2 days that we were there, although we ended up not buying anything as where ever you go the shops are all designers (Channel, Gucci, Salvatore Feragamo, Dunhill, etc) and as such are very expensive.

Macau is full of casinos. There are some shops, but not really much else.

The beds in both of the hotels we have stayed in have been ROCK hard, so now we are both tired since we don't want to stay in bed for a minute longer than you really have to - it is like lying on the ground! I hope in Bangkok (where we are off to tonight) the bed is soft. We are also looking forward to the Thai food.

Ready to go!

We leave for Hong Kong on Monday flying Qantas. I hope it's a good flight.