Thanks for the memories

London ho. I have reached the motherland in one piece. So far it has been pretty relaxed spending much of my time wandering around the local area (Ealing), doing a bit of shopping and surfing the net from Dave's couch (thanks Dave!). Am setting the wheels in motion for the next few months, which should include a brief sojourn to somewhere cheap inside Europe before I commence work.

And so, back to Thailand briefly. After Ko Pang Nga, the rest of my time in Thailand was spent in Phuket. I hired an apartment for a month with a lady friend, where we spent our days in an extremely relaxed fashion. My money was running out at this point so relaxed was definately the order of the day. I got through all my books, and ate like a king some of Thailands finest and most luxurious markets and street vendors.

Despite the mandatory requirement for 300 baths per day, we did manage to get out of the house and do some touristy things. Incidentally our room wasn't as scary as they look in this corridor, the rooms were clean and we even had sunlight in ours! Anyhow first off was the butterfly house. Sure enough there were lots of pretty butterflies, and I even caught a couple during foreplay!

I swear, it's just not fair to keep a big ol' spider next door to rows of pre- packed butterfly dinners. Unfortunately you can't judge the scale and it's out of focus, but that chap was rather large. They also had a rather impressive beetle collection.

We visited a temple and took some photos. I could have sworn the monks looked pissed off despite the assurances that it was ok. I'm not feeling particularly wordy today so I hope you enjoy all the photos anyhow.

I booked a trip on the last week to Phi Phi island. We did some snorkelling and swam with schools of brightly coloured fishies - saw some pretty interesting coral too. At one point I found some divers who had stopped somewhere, so I positioned myself just above where there was a massive swarm of bubbles. It felt really weird as if I was being tickled all over by a hundred tiny fingers!

The landscape here was really beautiful as you can see.

This is one bay around from where The Beach was filmed (Maya Bay). I didn't have my camera ready at the right moment so you'll just have to suffer! Waaaah!That be a cave inside there!

I'm going to miss Thailand, it is a really captivating place. Most of all I will miss the pace there. For me anyway, I will associate Thailand with a complete lack of stress which is something new to me over the last 5 or so years. I think it's clearly different for those who have to make a living there, but even those who know they aren't going to recieve any money from you are very friendly, and take the time to shoot the breeze. If you can get passed the language barrier, otherwise a lot a smiling usually goes on.

I take with me the collected email addresses from fellow travellers, and offers of places to stay throughout Europe so things are off to a good start. I hope to be back next year for the Songkran festival which is basically a week long waterfight across the whole country. Next time I will go up North where I will ride on some elephants and do some trekking.

Feeling a little homesick at the moment. Missing you all heaps and my thoughts are with you.

Be good!