Krabi

Yesterday Tom and I left the islands on the east coast to go over to the west coast to see the islands over here. The most famous of the islands is Phi Phi. Phi Phi is the island out of the blockbuster film The Beach with Leonardo Decaprio. Krabi is the main port that the ferries sail from so we got the bus there. We arrived there at about 9:30 in the evening. To make it over to Krabi we got a shuttle bus, a ferry, a tuk tuk, a coach and last but not least a school bus.It took about 8 hours. We arrived and found a hotel which was terrible and had some food. As soon as the lady had closed the door to our room Tom caught a glimpse of what he would be sharing his bed with that night. A cockroach, right over his pillow. We turned the room inside out then went to bed. The next day we got a taxi down to Krabi town centre and booked into a hotel for the night. We went out on a long tail boat ride up the river that runs next to the city. The boat driver took us to a few places the only one worth mentioning was a kind of fish farm where he got a blow fish out of the water and made it blow up right before our eyes. Tom and I both found this amazingly funny, he even let us take some photos of it while we held it. I'll have to post them at a later date. Were planning on going over to Muang which is the beach resort area of krabi tomorrow.

Koh Samui

Ben and zulu left for koh Samui a couple of hours before the three of us so we said we'd meet them at there place in lamia called lamia chalets. When we arrived it started 2 rain and ben said he'd go and speak 2 the owner 2 see if he had any rooms available. He managed 2 get us a bottom of the range chalet for 200 baht a night which is less than £4. It had its own toilet and cold shower and thats it. The complex has a swimming pool, laundry service and restaurant and Thai massage area and is about 6 feet from the beach. As you may have guessed our accomodation is basic, but great if your on a budget. That evening we went out with a few of the other people staying in the hostel. We walked in to Lamia town center and managed to catch a few fights of Muoy Thai which is the martial art of Thailand. While i enjoyed the men fighting i wasn't the womens and childrens bouts. The entry fee was you had to buy a beer and seen as we where all doing that already that was no great shakes. When we decided to walk back to the chalets at about 3ish Ben convinced us to stop at a Thai massage place and have an oil massage. I know they have a seedy reputation about the end but i can assure you that i didn't partake in any such sleazey activities. The massage was excellent and we all laughed and joked all the way through. I'd been and used the internet that day to tell Ms Carter where we were staying as she was planning on coming 2 the island as well.
Ben and i got up early the next morning to the beach and have a lie down because the weather was amazing. About 11 o'clock Tom came down and said that i had a visitor. As soon as the words came out of his mouth i knew who he was talking about. I rammed my stuff into my bag and ran up the beach to see Rebecca. We hugged for ages then i gave Jess a hug and she started crying. No tears from Rebecca but you could see in her face and smile that she was as happy to see me as i was to see her. I introduced her and the rest of her team to my team. When they'd all unpacked the nine of us went down the beach and layed about catching up and going swimming in the sea which was really warm. That evening we all went into Lamia for a few drinks which was a really good laugh because there was so many of us.
Over the next few days the boys played football and the girls sunbathed. We started all going out for meals together in the evenings which was a really good laugh. The first night we all went out we walked along the beach to a restaurant called the Black Pearl. We all sat around one big table and had a really good time, we ate drank and got very merry. Thai people walk along the beach selling lots of different stuff so i bought a lucky lantern which your supposed to set on fire and let it float of into the sky because it brings you good luck. When we got back 2 the hotel i got a pen and we all wrote a message on it before sending it into the night sky. We all had a great time doing it and there was even some Welsh banter about the flag. We stayed up late that evening playing drinking games and larking about.
We also got mopeds again but this time not everyone got one. I took Rebecca on the back of mind and Zulu took Jess on the back of his. It took ages to get to places because I nor Zulu wanted to damage our cargo. We stopped at a few waterfalls and even drove to the top of a mountain where we stopped at a cafe that poked out of the surrounding jungle which offered spectacular views across the island.
That evening we drove to the largest town on koh Samui called Chaweng. We had food an a white sand beach which was stunning. The seafood was amazing but quite spicy. We all had a really good evening, most of us didn't have a drink because we were driving and in need of a night off.
Once we'd dropped off the mopeds the next day a few of us went to the driving range which was really cheap. Rebecca was hitting the ball the furthest followed by me then foxy. It was Ben and Zulu's last night so we all went for another meal in Lamia which again was stunning.

Koh Pangnan

Tom, Ben and I went to a half moon party on an island off the south east coast of thailand called koh pangnan. We were staying in the coco bungalows just outside a small town Haadrin. The bungalows themselves were air conditioned with a bed that tom and i were sharing which is the biggest and most comfortable bed i think i've ever slept in.we were staying about 25 feet from a nice beach where the water is crystal blue. The complex has got a bar thats on the beach and a small cafe and tv area. The food is relatively in expensive and very nice. This place can be best described as paradise. The best thing is its all for £5.50 a night. The half moon party is about 15mins from where were staying and its in the middle of the jungle. Five of us went from our bungalows. Ben, Tom, Zulu, another Ben and myself. When we arrived we got in the queue which was really long. When we finally got into the party we got all uv paint up our arms and on our faces. Its basically a legal rave in the middle of the jungle. The type of music they play i'm not that keen on but when your drunk as a skunk it doesn't really matter. There's lots of small food shops and bars to get a few beers in. All of the people i have spoken to about the party said that the half moon is better than the full moon and black moon parties. We must have gotten back 2 the bungalow about 5 in the morning before getting into bed partied out and sobering up. When we awoke the next morning myself, Ben and Tom went for food in the bungalows before the boys turned up and persuaded us to rent mopeds and drive around the island. On the way around we saw elephants and monkeys on the back of motorbikes which was hilarious. The five of us visited a few beaches and went to the small town and beach area where the hold the full moon parties. We dropped the bikes back a day later without incident which was a relief because they cost loads to repair if you fall off.

Thailand and the journey to get there...

Tom and I are in Thailand and now and its really hot, not that I'm complaining because its a change from the 6 weeks of winter we had to endure in the vans.
The trip from Auckland was a bit of a pain. We had to checkout of the hostel at 9:30 and then wait for 12 hours to go to the airport where we would have to wait another 8 hours for our flight to Sydney. As you can imagine this is going to be a really long day. When we tried to check into the Auckland to Sydney flight we needed to go to the Qantas ticketing desk to get our ticket number. The lady who was going to serve us was some old woman who had way too much makeup on and moved at 2 speeds. The first was an impressive glacial speed and the other coma. As you can imagine i wasn't a happy bunny and got rather arsey. We managed to make our flight which was a relief as this meant that i wouldn't have to decapitate her in the middle of the airport (i can't imagine that would have gone down very well with the airport staff).
When we arrived in Sydney, which was good news, however there was an element of bad news that soon dampened our spirits. We had a 10 hour wait for our connecting flight to Thailand. We still had visa's for Australia so we left the airport for about an hour before going back into the departure lounge. At this point i thought i had swine flu. I'm not sure if it was it was because I'd been up for so long or because I wasn't in a happy place. Thankfully that passed about 4 hours later.
The flight went fine and we had a few drinks and even some shut eye, which was a great relief. We arrived in Bangkok and as soon as i got off the plan i broke out in the most hideous sweat. It must have been a really muggy 28 or so degrees. When got through customs fine and then managed to make it to the taxi rank and meet 2 guys called Ben and Chris to share the taxi with to Ko Sahn road which cost us about 2:50 each. They hadn't booked anywhere so they ended up staying in the same place as us for the first few days. We went out for a couple of beers in the evening and walked along the famous Ko Sahn road. It's a dirty road with lots of bars and street stalls selling anything you can imagine, from images of Buddha (very cool) to tazers (very very uncool). We had a few beers on the street which cost about 80p before going to a place called spicy disco which I think is a favourite haunt for the majority of Thailand's lady boys. It's really weird, they kind of stick together which means they are essentially pack hunters. A very scary thought as you can appreciate. We got a tuk tuk there and because we were all drunk and a little pumped up we paid the drive extra to do some wheelies and stuff on the way.
The next few days we spent wondering around the area looking in stalls and we even went to the Grand Palace but when we got there we found out you have to be totally covered up which then stopped us dead in our tracks. The four of us also meet a tuk tuk drive who very kindly offered would we like to go to a travel agent to see about booking our trip. Believe it or not the guy was from Wales and coached Tom in rugby when he was a nipper. That didn't stop him from trying to rip us off. So we disregarded everything he told us and went to the shopping mall called MBK to meet some other people. I've never seen a place filled with so much stolen phones and pirated software in my life. It's crazy, they even had a full copy of Windows 7 which isn't even out yet.
We've also been to a ping pong show most disgusting spectacle I've ever seen and I'll never go to anything like that in the rest of my life. That's all I'll say about that.
The plan now is to go down south to Koh Pangna which is an island of the east coast to go to a half moon party. Will be another update when the parting's over and done with.

P.S Can i please see some comments, I really miss them. Thanks

Summary of New Zealand

The North Island
Auckland is an amazing city, plenty of culture and i would say is the most business orientated city in NZ. As soon as you head north say goodbye to the beautiful skyline and massive harbour you instantly get stuck into the beautiful country side NZ has to offer. Rolling fields, snow capped mountains, stunning blue sky's and vast crystal blue lakes. The bay of islands in truly awe inspiring, especially on a clear day when there isn't a could in the sky. NZ is very accommodating for campers, you can camp most places just on the side of the road and not get bothered by the police.
The people aren't i regret to report as accommodating or friendly as they're Australian counterparts. We'll the Mauri people aren't friendly but the European Kiwis are a little better. I must say that the Mauri culture is a lot more respected than the Australian Aboriginal culture. I spoke to a kiwi and he said that it's forced down they're throats more than accepted but that may be just his opinion.
The South Island
The south island in my opinion is more picturesque than the north island. It's slightly rough and tough on the account it has more mountains and ski areas. Queenstown is my favourite town in the whole of New Zealand, it's not that big but because it's a very ski orientated town, plenty of hire shops as well as the majority of the bungy jumps. The glaciers are also an amazing site, they aren't that far from the sea. The truly sad thing is that they will disappear in my life time so I'm really glad that i have seen them. The people on the south island are slightly more friendly but i have that impression because i haven't meet that many on the south island. If i had to recommend one of the two islands it would have to be the south island because its more extreme and the majority of amazing sights are here.

The bungy jump...

Well from the moment I booked it, I had the greatest fear of doing it. Think about, the human boby is programmed from birth to fear 2 things, loud noise and heights. So knowing that i was about to jump of a bridge that was over 125 feet tall with nothing more than a large amount of elastic bands tied to my feet was going against human instinct for survival. Tom on the other hand didn't seem that bothered. The fear i felt was at least a 100 times greater than the skydive over Las Vegas. The biggest fear factor is perspective. 15,000 feet is a number, looking down at a person in a small dingy makes you know exactly how high it is. When Tom did his first jump I was trying to take photos but i was shaking like a leaf. He loved it. When it was my turn i was so scared. Tom's second jump he turned his back to the drop and lent out. The Welsh man working on the bungy was holding onto Toms waist harness to stop him going, started talking to Tom, winding him up of course, and said "oh one la" (meant to be "oh, one last thing") and let him go. The guy didn't even finish his sentence. When it was my second jump, they welsh guy was abusing me about not wanting to go backwards, "Better role your selves up James, your going to hit the water." Then to make things worse he starts the countdown to me jumping 5-4-3-2-4-3-2-5-4-5-4-3-4, after about 30 seconds he said 5-4-3-2-1 jump. So i did, well sort of stepped off. It's so much fun. If i can work out how to upload the video of me jumping I'll get it on here for you all to have a good laugh at my expenses. I would definitely recommend doing it, but only once, you really don't need to go through with it that many times, i can't imagine it getting any easier the more times you do it.

Me doing my first jump

Note: Flapping you arms like a bird DOESN'T slow you down

Tom getting ready