The Beach.

The Josh Franco Section
We went to The Beach. Leonardo DiCaprio was in The Beach. Leonardo Di Caprio is NOT Tobey Maguire.

First things first. I am pooing fine now. Thanks for the support though.

So where did we leave you? The islands. After leaving Koh Phagan we journeyed across sea and land from the Gulf of Thailand side of the island to the Indian (Is that the PC Term?) Ocean. The journey was pretty much without incident though the mini-bus driver did stop a number of times to drop brown paper packages into slightly dodgy looking locales.

Eventually we reached our next stop which was the sea-port town of Krabbi. The hotels for this leg of the trip where booked in Bangkok through the mysterious Mister PK and they haven't dissapointed. Our room was massive with a bed that could probably fit four comfortably and about twelve if reproductive organ to ass spooning was going on. The only down side was the hotel was in the shadow of an even more luxurious hotel which led to some 'grass is always greener' syndrome. Anyway, the area was nice but didn't have much to distinguish it from the town areas we'd already been to with entrepeneurs on every street corner pushing their 25% discounts and fine suits. The most exciting thing that happened was when a man placed his moneky puppet on Nic's shoulder... except it wasn't a puppet. Nic was living her monkey hug dream but didn't even realise it. In fact it was more a monkey hug nightmare with the man quoting prices for photos and the monkey looking like it might do a poo out of fear. I of course wasn't jealous because I had been pooing by now. The other distinguishing thing about the area was that we began to understand why they call this time the rain season with some sudden violent outbursts of water pouring down every couple of hours. This would affect the next leg of the trip.

Whilst I enjoy travelling my parents / girlfriend / friends will tell you that I'm not always the best at it. Nic knows my sicky face well. It was something she saw on our boat trip from Krabbi to Koh Phi Phi. On a rickety old boat with the winds raging outside we were tossed side to side as water poured in from the front. The crew members laughed but more like men staring at the abyss than like they were enjoying themselves. The tipping point came when people behind us started being sick and they began to hand out bin liners. As the smells crept into my nostrils I thought I would be next. Nic advised I lie down and try and go to a happy place. So much like a rape victim I lied back and took it. Unlike a rape victim I listened to Explosions In The Sky to calm my heart rate. Nic of course had a nice nap and was quite surprised I was in such a state when we reached shore. Still we survived and I wasn't sick. I deserve a medal.

Koh Phi Phi Don was an incredibly different experience to anywhere else we've been. A tiny island with no roads and a busy and populated centre of winding streets filled with shops, restaurants, tourism offices and diving schools. Stimuli everywhere competing for your attention. Unlike other places though the hustle and bustle was kind of enjoyable making you feel like you were in a pirate town. Our bungalow accomodation was just outside the busiest area and was again top notch. This was also the first area (apart from Bangkok) we'd been to that actually seemed busy which again was a welcome change.

Phi Phi Don has experienced a boom in tourism in the past ten years after the release of The Beach. Though the film is set on a fictional island on the other side of the country it was inspired by Phi Phi Don's neighbour Phi Phi Lay. We journeyed here to do some snorkling and for a bit of a The Beach experience (Making up for the earlier Titanic experience getting here). Like the film it's a veritable playground of caves and lagoons. As we went past a rickety pier on our long boat it did feel a bit like we were on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. To get to The Beach itself there was a rope structure set-up through caves and over a wooden ladder. Quite inspiringly our guide gave us no instructions leading us to think it would be an easier jounrney than it looked. It wasn't. After making our way through a small National Park jungle we reached the beach itself. It's quite hard to describe how you can get such a remote and peaceful place. To go with a Jersey description it's a bit like round the back at Greve times a hundred. I think Nic's photos do a better job of capturing it (one at the top of this post). It's probably my favourite thing we've done so far.



On the island Nic also went through with her promise that she was going to get a tattoo. She was at first reluctant hoping to find a tattoist who didn't have any tattoos / piercings himself and spoke English as a first language (preferebly with a degree). Eventually she settled on a grungy place playing Rage Against The Machine / The Libertines / Placebo. (Our current hotel has James Blunt on repeat. You win some, you lose some.) She got 'Wray' tattooed on her wrist (See photo). She once again shot down ' Josh Franco Sucks' and I can only presume chose this as a mispelt tribute to her favourite character from hit sitcom 'Everybody Loves Raymond'.

We are now in Phuket which in't prenouned as funnily as it's spelt but is still a funny name (Poo-ket). This is a much larger island than Phi Phi and although we were only there four days came as a bit of a culture shock. Here the weather seems even more volatile but that means there are some gnarly (oh yeah) looking waves that I plan on throwing myself into later.

In a couple of days we leave Thailand and head onto Malaysia. We have tickets booked for the final of the Malaysian Tennis Open so if you fancy getting up at 8.30 on Saturday to watch it on Eurosport 8 or whatever then look out for us!

Internet time is running down now. Again thanks for the comments and please feel free to leave some more.

Missing you all,

Steve & Nic

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