Landed in Phuket International Airport at 15:30 local time after a 16 hour journey from Dublin via Istanbul.

Met Savannah in Arrivals (!) and took a 1 hour taxi from the airport to Lub D Patong Phuket where we checked into our room.

I showered, freshened up and we went for dinner in Number 6 (recommended by the girls on the reception desk. There was a queue outside but it moved quickly and both Sav and I ordered Pad Thai (delish!)

We then roamed around Phuket for the first time. It was busy along the bar strip and the smell of sewerage was not good.

There were so many fresh fruit stalls that we decided to buy some. I bought some mango and Sav bought pomegranate seeds. We got a free sample of guava although we thought the lady kept saying (wah-wah) LOL - this was my first time using the Thai BAHT currency and Sav was able to bargain with them and get it for 10BT cheaper. She also bought a pretty seashell necklace.

We decided we wanted to do a day trip to an island close by while we are here and so we have booked Phi Phi island + more for Saturday. Sav also needa to do laundry and it’s very common and very cheap to get it done for you at the hotel which is handy.

We stopped at 7/11 on our way back to the hotel and got bottles of water and bug spray. The air-con in the shop was amazing as there was 30• heat. We are going to roam around and take it easy tomorrow so hopefully the jet lag doesn’t hit too hard!

Me and Sav slept in this morning and got up at midday.

We took a Grab taxi to the Cafe Phuket viewpoint and ordered our lunch - I got Pataang curry chicken with an iced macchiato and Sav took a Pad see ew with a (very strong) traditional Thai coffee. The views were amazing.

We met a couple from Brussels / Morroco called Fatima and Yusef who are photographers / content creators back home. They took some drone footage of us and we chatted to them for a while.

Later, we ate some guava (lol) and watermelon and caught the sunset.

For dinner, we walked down the street to Fat Mama’s fast food place and ordered a burger, chips, onion rings and cheese balls. I then bought flowy purple and green pants at a stall and Savannah went for a massage. We went to Tops instead of 7/11 for bottled water today.

Today we took a day trip to Phi Phi Islands. We had to get up at 6:15am in order to be picked up from our hotel. It took one hour to be transferred from our hotel to the dock where our boat was. We met a guy called Roberto who was originally from El Salvador and now living in Amsterdam.

We checked in for our trip and got on our boat. It took one hour to get to the first stop, Bamboo Island. This was a beautiful beach where we even got to see a water monitor in the wild! Sav and I bought a Magnum ice cream just before we left and then we were on to the next stop!

We then got to go snorkelling which was incredible! I saw black/yellow fish and some holographic ones too. We did that for about 45 mins and then got back onto the boat. Next, we saw Camel Rock and then stopped at Koh Phi Phi Don to eat a buffet lunch (I didn’t eat much lol). Sav and Roberto also got coconut ice cream.

After lunch, we sailed over towards Monkey Island where we got to see monkeys roaming in the wild. We were not allowed to get off the boat as they are not domesticated but it was cool to see them in their natural habitat. The others then did some more snorkelling but I was so tired from the jetlag that I snoozed on the boat. I also passed up on seeing Maya Beach as I was really tired but I got to chill out on the boat for 40 mins before heading back towards Phuket pier.

It was a long boat ride back, and both Sav and I were not feeling well. We just about made it back to the pier, although our transfer back to the hotel took much longer than expected because of traffic :-( we were then stuck to the bed for the rest of the night as we were unwell and got a good night’s rest at least. I’m sure we will laugh about it in time to come lol.

Today we checked out of Lub D Patong in Phuket and took a four hour bus journey to Khao Sok National Park. We stayed in Chillax hostel for the night and ate Italian food in the village.

We left at about 9am to head out to the jungle. We took a transfer to the pier with a group and met our tour guide, Noochie. We started our journey by taking a long boat out towards the water and it took us about an hour to get out to the floating bungalows. When we arrived we had lunch in our groups, and then Sav and I relaxed for the evening. Dinner was at 6:30pm and it got dark shortly afterwards. The weather was pretty cloudy but it still looked beautiful. The bungalows were very basic, and there was no electricity from 6am-6pm every day. I went to bed as I wasn’t feeling the best after snorkelling.

Today started early with a morning safari at 6:30am. We piled into the longboat and were taken around by Noochi. We saw monkeys and goars in their natural habitat. We got back to the bungalows at 7:30am and had breakfast.

I chilled out for the day and we met some two Irish people called Hazel (Cork) and Stephen (Tipperary). They were travelling from Australia to Ireland for Christmas. We ate dinner again at 6:30pm and played cards after dinner.

We got up again at 6:30am for another morning safari where we saw goars and a toucan. We packed up our stuff when we got back and sailed back to shore at 9:30am. We ate lunch at about 11:30am and took a transfer to Surat Thani airport where we waited to board our flight to Bangkok.

We got into Bangkok at about 7:30pm, checked in to our hostel a while later and then headed out to Kao San Road where there were loads of street food vendors and souvenir stalls. I bought a hair clip and bracelets before eating Taco Bell and then headed back to the hostel.