Happy New Year!

Slowly sinking

Phi Phi island, the set for the film ‘the beach’. We took a short hike through the jungle to a view point, knackeringly steep but we passed one spot where butterflies were everywhere to be seen, a very magical moment. However the views where spoilt by development from tourism, it was raining and too busy for our liking especially as I was suffering from the 3 weeks in coldy-flu thing, so we headed to Ko Lanta, a bigger island with a more relaxed atmosphere.

After dismissing a dingy, dark and dirty beach bungalow that James was already moving into and agreeing a price for us to stay for the next three nights, all because the price was right (cheap) we headed slightly further up the road to find a lovely place called Jai-Dee Home with a room to rent. Light, clean,and spacious, ironically for exactly the same price as the bungalow James was so keen to stay in with burn holes in the bed sheets that looked as if they had never seen soap or sun!

James hard at work

The owner Goong (a wonderful Thai lady and fabulous chef) and James (an English roadie who has recently been on Faithless' last tour of south america and worked with madonna, kylie, prodigy, the charlatons, Stevie wonder... the list goes on.... will be popping back to europe in Febuary for Faithless' next tour....... not a bad lifestyle eh?) helped quicken my recovery from the lurgy, with the most welcoming atmosphere and lots of films. James was very happy to indulge in some western delights such as cheese and ham toasties, of course with a little help from the bar’s cat - such a cutie!

Our new years eve was something between the cheeriest of beach parties and a war zone. We headed back to Phuket to spend new year with Paul at kata beach. The fireworks were amazing, some taking up the whole sky. Beautiful, but without a police man in sight, at time it was quite hazardous.

When walking along the beach a little, unbeknowst to us, we were wandering through someones firework display.. a firework went off at my feet. It was like bombs going off, everyone made a run for it, I have never seen James run so fast! The girl we were with got hit on the cheast with a nasty burn and I got my scarf set on fire and a very deaf right ear. All was well in the end the hearing came back and the girl was treated. Such a beautiful sight seeing so many glow lanterns going off and swirling around the bay in a spiral. We will add a video later on... I need James and his magical IT skills to sort that that one out.

New years day feeling a little weary, we were in search of food, with little luck as every where was closed, but we stumbled apon a gem, Michael's Bar, with tons of ex-pats and a buffet of cheese (stilton, chedder, emmental, edam, brie, smoked applewood) grapes, French breads, smoked salmon, cured meats (chorizo, salami, garlic sausage, Serrano ham) and butter! James was the happiest man alive when the lady at the bar told us the food was free we only had to pay for drinks. The only other payment was chatting to some overly rich and pretentious guys, and hearing all about one 50-year-old guy from belgium's 24-year-old Thai model boyfriend (!), another guy's yachts.... a small price for great cheese and smoked salmon!