Thailand...Koh Phi Phi - The Andaman Coast

Sawadee, We spent the 1st night in Thailand in Bangkok, which was interesting going out at night etc, lots of bars, everything was opn the move. Now we are in Koh Phi Phi. Sam and Jack took a half day snorkelling trip to Maya Bay on Koh Phi Phi Leh (where the beach was filmed) and to Bida Noi, a small island off it. We didnt see anything spectacular like a shark or an octopus or anything but it was fun. Then the next day Sam and Dave went to Maya Bay just to chill out because we had been there with Fallibroome, Jack wanted to chill out in the room. Its 33 degrees on average everyday which is nice...Tex now organises activities for the children at the Phi Phi and Krabi school as he doesnt have the orphans anymore because they now live in the community.

Sam and Dave went back to the school today to take some pictures and too see if anything has changed. Cutting to the chase...the path is still there! The sun was reflecting off the perfectly level concrete in all its glory that it was left in. We met up with the headmaster and he took us into the office and he was looking in the book that all the voluteers at the school have written in for the memories and by sheer chance he was reading Sams entry.

He then took us round the school and explained all the building work thats still goin on. They are moving the nursery block to make room for a secondary school, so they had to take out the play ground that we put in, but its been put in another place so the kids can still use it. They also have a new gate that goes all the way along the entrance to the school. The headmaster was really please to see that we had come back, he remembered us from when we last came with everyone Fallibroome. He was so pleased in fact he offered us a free ride on the schools longtail boat for the whole day tomorrow to go to Monkey Beach, Bamboo Island and Maya bay (The Beach) again, which was fantastic. We kept offering to do something at the school, but he insisted on the boat ride as we had already done work there, but we are sure we can do something.

There is the full moon party on in Koh Pangyan tomorrow, but we wont be there unfortunately so the 40,000 people that will be should have a good time on the beach. On Monday 5th we are leaving Phi Phi for Phuket and spending the rest of our time there and not going to Koh Samui because of time and its on the opposite side of Thailand to what we are on now.

The trek ends...Thailand begins

We got back from doing the trek yesterday and now we are back in Kathmandu. We stayed in tea houses the majourity of the time. It costs about 1 pound a night to stay there and for the cost it was basic, but the beds were clean, food was good, we had a hot shower from time to time. So for staying at a place on the Himalayas it was pretty good. The group we were trekking with were great and the guides were funny teaching us nepalese games and songs. On the 1st day of the trek it snowed at the start point which it hadnt done in 20 years so that meant it was 10 times worse up at Annapurna base camp, which was the goal of the trek at 4130m above sea level, we trekked up to 2800meters, but then had to turn back because there was a risk of avalances if we went on, so we had to walk all the way down to then go back up a different way. We did that and we got to another point at which we had to turn back again because of the weather so we never made it which was pretty dissapointing. We just ended up going around the foothills of the mountains for the remainder of the time. It was still good though, we had a laugh and we saw some great fantastic views of the Himalayers of which Annapurna is part of.

We are flying to Thailand today. We have changed out itinerary a bit. We are going to Ko Phi Phi 1st of all just to see the school that Sam and Dave went to with School and We are meeting up with tex one day because he now doesnt have the orphans as they are living in the community so now he organises activities for the children of the school on Phi Phi every saturday so we are going to help out with that. We are in Phi Phi for 5 nights and then we go to Phuket for 4 nights and then we go to Ko Samui for 4 nights, so its a bit of an island hopping holiday. Cold snowy Himalayas to tropical beaches will be a nice change, but Nepal has been great and we will post again when we arrive in Thailand!!!