3rd - 6th September, Koh Phi-Phi

After making my way back to Thailand I headed down to the Andaman coast for some beach time.

I took an overnight bus from Bangkok all the way to Krabi. I needed a sleeping pill as the roads and drivers were making me really anxious. We did some damage to the front of the bus by going over a bump at one stage but all was fine apart from that. Met a couple of cool Germans and the world's most boring Canadian on the way. Was really glad the little man inside the luggage compartment didn't steal anything from my bag which apparently happens very often (ref: Duncan Blair).

From Krabi I took a ferry to Koh Phi Phi which is a couple of islands where 'The Beach' was filmed. The surrounding islands are beautiful and the main inhabited island is nice, esp as there's no cars or motorbikes - just small walking lanes everywhere. There's just so much rubbish on the beaches though, it sux.

So many Israelis! To the extent that I'd be walking with another guy who's blonde down a lane and a vendor would call "shalom!" out to us, perhaps the two least looking Israeli people in the world.

Had some nice seafood, saw some cool fire shows, had a Thai massage and drank a lot of beer.

We were talking with a lady from one of the guesthouse's who was telling us what it was like when the tsunami hit, pretty crazy that over 1,500 people died on that small island alone. She showed us some quite disturbing photos. There was still a lot of rebuilding going on and there's now tsunami escape routes signposted around the place.

Took a boat trip round the islands on one of the days and hired a kayak on another. As well as a fair bit of snorkelling the boat trip consisted of a stop at Monkey bay where the monkeys jumped on the boat as soon as we landed, I got fright and some Israeli's laughed. It was funny watching one of the monkey's still scrounging around on a boat as it was departing. It was trying to weigh up what it should do as it got further and further from land... it finally decided to leap from the stern, arms flailing above its head, and swim back to shore.

Cormac Flynn is a gaybo.