Merry Weirdmas!

On Christmas Eve my sister, Joanna, and her boyfriend, Tom, arrived on Phi Phi island to visit me over the festive season. I waited at the pier with fresh coconuts for them to drink but they didn't turn up! I'd been out the night before with some people I'd met in my hostel and was feeling worse for wear so I made my way to the hotel we'd planned to stay at and connected to the WIFI straight away just in case anything had gone wrong with their two day-long slog from England. Luckily they were ok and the boat was just late but when they turned up they were extremely tired (and drunk....very drunk). They presented me with a mound of Christmas cards and presents from themselves and people back home! Even after a bit of a sleep none of us were feeling on top form so, although it was Christmas Eve and everyone else was running rampage in the street, we had a civilised seafood meal near the harbour where they were blasting out cheesy Christmas songs and then we went to bed whilst the bass from the neighbouring bars pulsated through our tired bodies.

Being in Asia during the lead up to Christmas has meant I've barely noticed what time of year it is and haven't succumbed to the countdown excitement as I usually do back home. We wanted Christmas Day 2014 to be a little different so we booked a trip on a long tail boat; donning gold, light-up Santa hats we went cliff jumping and snorkelling as well visiting Maya bay where "The Beach" was filmed; I was expecting to be disappointed by this as I assumed it was another one of Asia's abundant tourist traps however we all agreed it was absolutely stunning as we ate our chicken sandwich on the sand in our swimming costumes (I did perve over the thought of a proper Christmas dinner though!).

Unusual Christmas lunch!

Merry Christmas from "The Beach".

Xmas Snorkelling.

We watched the sunset from the boat and once it was dark we all plunged into to deep, black water with our snorkelling masks on and were told to look out for bio-luminescence; as our hands and feet moved through the water tiny plankton lit up all around us causing a magical glow - I felt like a wizard swimming in glitter. We all kept reminding each other how surreal it was that this was happening on Christmas day! On the way back our boat broke down and it started raining so we waded through the sea to shore and back to our hotel room where, after a long, action packed day, we had a much appreciated shower. Joanna and Tom treated me to a steak dinner in the evening and, because I've been eating on a cheapskate backpacker budget for so long, I felt like I was in heaven! After several drinks and a bit of dancing in some of Phi Phi's bars we found ourselves in a tattoo parlour! Five hours, five (hundred) beers and five tattoos later and we emerge at 5am on Boxing Day being able to tick 'Christmas Tattoos" off our bucket lists!

Xmas sunset.

They did the tattoo with bamboo which means it takes longer, hurts more but doesn't fade or get infected.

The tattooist needed breaks so we used the opportunity to turn the shop into a party!

Boxing Day was, unsurprisingly, a write-off for us because we were extremely ill (severe, self inflicted, alcohol-related 'illness') and the day after that we began our journey to Koh Phangan island on the other side of the mainland. We all got burnt on the boat on the way over and, because of the hoards of sweaty twenty-somethings also on their way to the party island for New Year, the bus and boat journey took much longer than it should have done. Joanna and Tom had rented a bungalow by the beach on Phangan for us to stay in (which was quite a change from the manky hostels I've been lurking around) and when we arrived we went straight to sleep to prepare ourselves for the week of partying ahead of us!

Bye Phi Phi!

Our first swim on Phangan - we were determined to get involved despite the rain!