Wondered around yesterday and I'm getting the same reaction the last time I was here. It's not enough of an adventure. Its too busy and you can tell its a typical tourist place. The funny thing is that it was quite hard to find a resturant that served a chicken Thai Green curry! But there was Starbucks which to be honest, I didn't care for! So I might head off to Phi Phi a day sooner (on Monday), I'll see how things go...

Organised to meet up with Dave last night and we had such a blast! The beers went down real well and generally had a good time. Dave starts his training with the Thai Boxing school on Monday. I also met up with 3 Irish lads who were quite funny... They thought I was an actor they recognisd! Hmm... I found a good place that does excellent foot massage, so I think I'll be visiting them again sometime today.

I've organised a half day trip to some islands today, but its raining at the moment :( Just about to head off to that and see what photos I can get. Hopefully the day will clear up. Yesterday it didn't rain at all and was lovely and sunny.

What a fantastic flight!!!! Once I boarded the plane and sat down in the only occupied seat in the isle, I got prepared for resting across all 3 seats for the flight ahead.... but I was later joined by a very nice chap, Dave. We got on straight away! Yeah! This was going to be an excellent flight before we even got off the ground. We talked about all sorts of stuff and even take off was distracting from real conversation!

Dave is currently out here in Phuket for 6 weeks to do some training at one of Thailand's leading Thai Boxing schools. Here's a pic of Dave and I...

Later during the flight after I got some sleep, we were joined by a Simone who was traveling to Krabi(not too far from Phuket) for 3 months. She had been in a troubled relationship and joining her folks who have retired in Krabi was her new start in life.

Dave also took the pic below of all 3 of us... By this time, the beers were flowing and good chit-chat was the name of the game! Between all of us, we made a 12 hour flight seem like 8 hours which really helped.

Arriving in Bangkok was very quick as we pretty much went straight through to the gate. Feeling that warm humid air is quite refreshing after having such a crap summer in the UK this year. The last leg of the journey I was finished! iPod in ears and off to sleep I went. iPod's a real saviour sometimes!!!

The journey by car to the hotel took around 50 minutes and I'm now checked-in to the hotel and waiting for the room to become available. The hotel has Wi-Fi access so getting online should be fairly easy...

I will hopefully be meeting up with Dave later tonight...

I am now really looking forward to my trip to Thailand! I'm in the departure lounge on my laptop waiting to board in about 15 minutes (from Heathrow Terminal 3). One of the main reasons for going back is to check out Phi Phi island (about an hour's boat ride south east of Phuket). I was due to be there 2 days after the tsunami which we obviously did not do (which is why we went to Boracay, Philippines). The island was badly hit during the tsunami and I want to find out how it is now (4 years on).

My flight to Bangkok is about 14 hours and then 1:15 hours from Bangkok to Phuket. I arrive in Phuket around 08:40am on Saturday (local time).

I will blog more when I get to Phuket...