Thailand

We left the beautiful beaches of the Pehentian Islands yesterday, we had a wicked time there but had to leave before Nikki completely melted. We were supposed to go to Thailand a couple of days ago but some of the girls we were with on the island got message from the UK to say there was alot of trouble in Thailand. We did our research and sure enough there are riots, bombs and a British murder or two happening in Thailand. We were getting a bit stressed, especially as all international flights to all Thai airports had been cancelled. We were also very surprised that we hadn't heard anything from friends or family at home (both HK and england!) Anyway because of all the trouble we weren't able to cross the border into Thailand on the East side near the Pehentian Islands so we had to go west to avoid the chaos. So, we went back to Penang on the west side of Malaysia. We returned to the banana hostel in Georgetown were we stayed in February (but we missed the rest of the Georgetown crew!) We got up early this morning to head to Thailand. Unfortunately we had to stop off at Hat Yai, which is a bit of a war zone but we managed to miss all bombs and riots and get out alive.

We did, however, gain a stalker. We had an hour to wait in Hat Yei so went for a KFC (no this is not on the travel budget but we thought we desereved a treat seeing as we were in a warzone). They obviously don't get many white people n KFC in Hat Yei because as soon as we walked in everyone stared at us, the girls at the till ran into the kitchen to tell everyone to come and look at us...and they did. It was very wierd. We orded our food and sat down whilst being watched by all the staff as if we had just landed from Mars. A few minutes later one of the staff came over and asked me for my email adress and phone number for her friend. I nicely explained that seeing as i dont know her or her friend, i didnt want to give her my number or email address, (I think thats a good enough reason to not give my phone number out to a complete stranger in the middle of a warzone!). She continued to ask, i continued to say no. She then started to beg and bring over drinks for us. She then stood at the table at stared at me whilst we finished lunch. It was very bizzare, and a little uncomfortable to say the least. We were certainly glad to leave Hat Yei.

We arrived in Krabi a few hours ago. Its monsoon season here so you can imagine the rain! it makes last year's Sheffield floods look pathetic. So, we are staying in Krabi town tonight as there wasn't much point heading to the beach huts. Hopefully it will be a little drier tomorrow so we can go to Koh Pi Pi. We'll keep you updated on all travels and riots...