Fire Dancers and Old Friends

Guess who we bumped into on Phi Phi Island!!! It's Jess Tan from the String Quartet and her boyfriend, Mark (Westy)! We've had a lovely time catching up with them and exploring Ko Lanta, another small island off the West coast of Thailand.
Since we last blogged we've stayed in Ao Nang in a lovely little bungalow with no hot water and a great fan (all we needed) and went on a long boat tour of 4 islands in the Andaman Sea. Greg was able to snorkel for the first time in his life thanks to the wonderful invention of contact lenses. Jane is totally addicted to spotting Nemo. Many many beautiful looking fish but sadly a lot of the coral here is dead. Jane went to the Barrier Reef with the Mitchell family 10 years ago and from memory, the colours there were much more remarkable.
After Ao Nang we went to Phi Phi for several nights. Some of the artists looked about 12 years old!! Phi Phi was hit very very hard by the Tsunami in 2004 adn is still recovering. We think it needs a little more time before its worth the visit. Everything is about twice the price and accomodation is especially difficult. We are doing this Thailand tour by the seat of our pants (ie. nothing booked early) and therefore we did get one of the last available rooms on the island. We heard that some people who arrived later had to sleep on the beach so we shoudl count ourselves lucky. Cockroaches in the shower were not great company though.We watched some fire dancing in a bar on the beach at Phi Phi Island too (See photo).

The last two days have been very relaxing here on Ko Lanta. It is much less frequented by tourists and is perhaps more suited to families than young partying creatures. There are still plenty of night spots and lots of bars and restaurants set their tables up right on the beach at night!!