Some shots from Central Thailand (waterfalls in Erawan National Park, Kwai Bridge, Death Railway) and some shots from South Thailand (basically beaches, islands and wakeboarding around Phuket :) )

Saturday 18th May, 16:50, by Amy

I have a feeling that the stream of nerdy posts may have to permanently come to an end... depending on your definition of what is 'cultural'. If it is visiting temples and museums, then yes. If it is sunbathing on a beach and watching local breakdancers, then no. Whatever the change, we're definitely having plenty of fun!

Before we left Bangkok for Phuket (which Mamie has already spoken about) and after we visited Kanchanaburi and Ayuttayah, we did spend an afternoon in Khai Yai National Park. For me, this was a particularly memorable afternoon as I've never held so many weird creatures in the space of a few hours. We felt on the edge all the time; we came across a suspicious number of creepy crawlies, probably courtesy of our banterous guide Jo who we loved (and hated slightly). Whilst I was about to have 'Jimmy' (a creature I can't remember the name of - I was slightly preoccupied by the number of legs) on my hand, I thought I'd ask the question: 'is Jimmy poisonous and will he bite me?', just to be safe. I mean, I thought I knew the answer. Jo replies 'yes and maybe' followed by a slightly devilish giggle. To this day, I don't know at what points he was joking. So now I have held a scorpion spider (the one that gets tortured in Harry Potter), whatever 'Jimmy' is and a rather large millipede... also placed on my neck - this was before I saw the parasites crawling all over it! We also saw a tarantula.

All of this took place while we simultaneosly attempted to dodge guano falling from above. That's right, we were in a bat cave! The biologist in me got quite excited. It was also a unique bat cave because it was one where monks come to meditate. We struggled to see how anyone could relax in a dark cave with diving bats, creepy crawlies, snakes and spiders, but fair enough.

Another highlight was witnessing millions of bats flying across the sky from their cave, periguin fawlkans circling around them. The shapes the bats created reminded me of sparrows back in England. It also happened to be a night when termites fly (rather like the night of the flying ants) which was amazing to see, if slightly uncomfortable. Mamie had a slight freak out. This was an interesting backdrop for our night swim in a natural spring, which ended the nature-filled afternoon.

This was, if you consider India, the last 'cultural' thing we did!

Saturday 18th May, 16:50, by Amy

I have a feeling that the stream of nerdy posts may have to permanently come to an end... depending on your definition of what is 'cultural'. If it is visiting temples and museums, then yes. If it is sunbathing on a beach and watching local breakdancers, then no. Whatever the change, we're definitely having plenty of fun!

Before we left Bangkok for Phuket (which Mamie has already spoken about) and after we visited Kanchanaburi and Ayuttayah, we did spend an afternoon in Khai Yai National Park. For me, this was a particularly memorable afternoon as I've never held so many weird creatures in the space of a few hours. We felt on the edge all the time; we came across a suspicious number of creepy crawlies, probably courtesy of our banterous guide Jo who we loved (and hated slightly). Whilst I was about to have 'Jimmy' (a creature I can't remember the name of - I was slightly preoccupied by the number of legs) on my hand, I thought I'd ask the question: 'is Jimmy poisonous and will he bite me?', just to be safe. I mean, I thought I knew the answer. Jo replies 'yes and maybe' followed by a slightly devilish giggle. To this day, I don't know at what points he was joking. So now I have held a scorpion spider (the one that gets tortured in Harry Potter), whatever 'Jimmy' is and a rather large millipede... also placed on my neck - this was before I saw the parasites crawling all over it! We also saw a tarantula.

All of this took place while we simultaneosly attempted to dodge guano falling from above. That's right, we were in a bat cave! The biologist in me got quite excited. It was also a unique bat cave because it was one where monks come to meditate. We struggled to see how anyone could relax in a dark cave with diving bats, creepy crawlies, snakes and spiders, but fair enough.

Another highlight was witnessing millions of bats flying across the sky from their cave, periguin fawlkans circling around them. The shapes the bats created reminded me of sparrows back in England. It also happened to be a night when termites fly (rather like the night of the flying ants) which was amazing to see, if slightly uncomfortable. Mamie had a slight freak out. This was an interesting backdrop for our night swim in a natural spring, which ended the nature-filled afternoon.

This was, if you consider India, the last 'cultural' thing we did!

Friday 17th May, 13:18, Khao Lak by Mamie

Where are we, what are we doing?

We're in Khao Lak because a nice lady told us this is where we stay if we want to kayak in the Phang Nga Bay. Turns out we passed that 65km back and now it's raining heavily so we're stuck in this little, and expensive, town. Lets go to the beach! we said last night...

Urgh. Missing our Power Storm Crew back in Phuket.

In more positive news, we actually spent five pounds EACH last night on a meal. It was the most amazing luxurious meal and we felt like royalty.

Thursday 16th May, 11:33am, Phuket, by Mamie

We've been in Phuket, a hub of trashy tourism and revolting ping pong shows, but we've had a really brilliant time here. Our first night led us to some street performers breakdancing. Putting that aside for now, we then began roaming Bangla; the road of nightclubs, bars and the part of Thailand which Amy and I really hate; the culture for Thai girls to be strippers and performers and literally sell themselves for cheap, all for the shitty tourists who encouraged this business. Anyway thats a whole chapter to itself and not something I'm going to go into. Instead, we made some friends and went clubbing at 'Seduction' which became our go-to every night following. It was here that I recognised the dancers, and perhaps a little alcohol fuelled (sorry parents!), said hello and told them about how I used to breakdance. Of course, standard, the next day we end up in a breakdancing lesson with Rain and Mikey. As embarrassing as that was, we remained friends.

That night we watched their dance show in Seduction like groupies from the side and later were shown a cool local club. The third day was one of our favourites on this trip. They took us wake boarding and we got to properly meet the entire crew. These are their nicknames by the way, their real names are much more difficult: King, Mikey and Hsk (brothers), Rain, Porn, Extra and Twister. To put it simply, they're just really really cool. They're also through to the next round of Thailand's version of Britain's Got Talent. They're all really close and it's so cute it's almost as if it's from a movie. That night at the club there was some fierce competition. A weird (maybe French?) man attempted to impress us with some weird body rippling and locking stuff while some other men were also trying some odd moves. Our boys looked on for a while but eventually it got too much and they decided to shut them up. One second Amy and I are laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation and the next minute we're cheering on Rain who's spinning in the middle of the dance floor with some really impressive breakdancing. Boom. We felt like groupies at first but that night, went home feeling proud of 'our boys'.

What's kind of interesting is that we can parallel the group to the Nepali boys; Sagar, Santosh, Prashant and Smiley. The Rapidrunners team is a large group of boys who have worked together for years and formed a strong bond. While we only met a couple of them, we still felt the impression of that bond and now we can compare it to that of the Thai boys. It's been really fun here, and though they invited us to watch them in the big competition in Bangkok, unfortunately we have to stay down South. We're going to miss them but good luck for their competition and maybe we'll come back to Thailand one day.

As for the wake boarding, Amy struggled to stand up while I managed that part but got really pissed off at the corner of the cable ski. Fuck you corner. It was definitely something I'd like to try again but my body is now whacked after both that and the breakdancing. I might go find Amy now and beg for yet another massage...

Today we planned to get up at 7:30 on only a couple hours of sleep. Of course, it's now 11:30 and we're still lying in bed. We're now heading to the Ko Phi Phi island today for more beautiful beaches and sun. Wooo!

Friday 10th May 10:23am, Kanchanaburi by Mamie

I don't have much to say today, but I feel that this needs to be posted.

Amy fell out of bed this morning.

I found my eyes opening to the sight of Amy lurching off the edge of her bed. I can't forget her face of bewilderment, panic and surprise before she climbed back into bed and dozed back to sleep. Maybe it was more of a moment thing, but it was hilarious and has to be shared.

In more cultural news, we've finally begun exploring Thailand and its beauty. We've explored the town of Kanchanaburi where I have finally begun to enjoy the local food and appreciate my love of Pad Thai. Yesterday we headed out to the Erawan Waterfalls which involved a rocky but fun trek up to the seventh tier. We swam in this seventh tier which was small but beautiful, and we also decided to bathe in the fifth level for the sole reason that it had a natural slide. Later we experienced the Death Railway and the bridge over the River Kwai, famous from some film that Amy and I have yet to watch. The railway was cool but I particularly loved the small little jewellery market which I found hidden round the back. Just behind the market was a beautiful and colourful Chinese building. I think it was a temple or chapel but I wasn't sure and didn't have much time. I have found that one of the best bits when travelling is spontaneously finding these random, hidden and non-touristic areas.

That's pretty much it for today. We're now heading to Ayutthaya, the ancient capital, and then soon after that we go down South for the beaches. Exciting!