Since South America, we've not taken a long bus journey. By that I mean a 10 hours plus one. Normally we'd travel in a large bus, which makes the journey more comfortable. When we got picked up in Penang, a small minivan turned up. I was hoping it would drop us to the bus terminal, but no it didn't! There was no space for luggage, so we had to have all our rucksacks taking up the floor space and they crammed all seats full! That was one of the most uncomfortable journeys we've taken yet! We had to change bus in Hat Yai, where the driver just dropped us off not telling us what was happening. Then we got another minivan from there again, all cramped up with no space. If this is the way to travel in Thailand, i'm going to hate it!

So anyway, after a very bumpy ride, we arrived into Thailand early evening. We had only just booked our hostel when we waited for the bus to pick us up in Hat Yai. We found it, B Trio, which is a little boutique shop and hostel. It's a small family run business and we were really pleased with it. They had some cute children playing around in reception. When we checked in, the host told us there is a festival going on here at the moment as it's the Thailand new year from the 13th-15th April, so we've arrived just in time.

We got told there's a night market with lots of street food stalls here, so we headed out to check them out. We headed towards the river and saw those kind of rock formations that Thailand's synonymous with, big limestone karst. I expect we'll be seeing many more while we're here in Thailand. We carried on and found a band playing and lots of stalls selling food, drinks, gadgets, clothes, you name it, they sell it. John found another sushi stall, so ended up buying loads of that. There was a grilled meat stall, so we got chicken skewers, and one selling the famous Pad Thai, so we got some as it would be rude not to here in Thailand. It's still really cheap here too, but seems to be a bit more organised than the street food in Penang.

Just a random thought, but ever since we left South America, all countries we've been to drive on the left; New Zealand, Fiji, Australia, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and also Thailand, which I was really surprised about. It's a good thing, but would be chaotic driving in these countries, especially Bali. I expect it will be on the right hand side after Thailand. It was certainly an experience driving in Flores all 15 of us on scooters.

The next day, we have to sort our where we're going the day after. Our hostel is fully booked for the new year, so we can't extend here unfortunately. They said there is a big celebration going on in Phuket the next day for the new year, so we thought we'll go there. We spent some time planking and researching things and booked our next place. For the rest of the afternoon it was so hot, we didn't want to be out in the sun too long. We grabbed lunch in a cafe across the road, which had lush smoothies.

After lunch, we walked around krabi town for a while. I heard they have Boots in Thailand and came across one, so excitedly went in for some familiarity. A girl still likes looking at beauty products, even if she can't buy them much anymore! It's strange here as the shopping mall is just like one big department store with lots of small sections of different shops. The Boots was one tiny corner compared to a whole Boots shop back home.

Once I got my shopping fix, we carried on walking though Krabi and found a beautiful temple. We walked up to it, but the gates were locked, so we just walked around the outside of the building. There were a couple of monks there either praying or meditating. It's such a hot day, so we didn't want to be out in the sun too long, we stood in the shade for as long as possible. There wasn't really much information written in English to understand what it was, but from what I gathered, monks inhabited the temple as a form of refuge years ago, and have continued to live in the temple.

On route back to our hostel in the afternoon, we stopped by the river and walked along the beach. There were some weird little creatures jumping in the sand like mud flappers. They were swimming in pools of water and rolling in the mud. They had eyes like frogs, sticking out of their heads and had gills and fins! I've never seen anything like them before, like little sea monsters they were. There were plenty of crabs there too all playing and hiding with these mud fish! Later that evening, we wandered down by the night markets, went out for dinner.

The next day, we wanted to leave to get a bus to Phuket. We went out for breakfast, and everyone passing in the streets had water pistols and were squirting anyone who got in their way. I was just eating breakfast, when some cars drove past us and soaked me! It happened twice, but John avoided it, with his luck! Basically they celebrate Thai New Year with a water festival, so it's traditional to get people wet! We heard the place to be in this area of Thailand is Phuket, so that's where we're heading for it.

Just before we left our hostel, the lady there made us a handmade necklace of flowers. She gave one to each of us, which must be for the new year. Their kids were out in the street with water guns, so we joined in the fun and got some pistols to join in too. We had a mini water fight with the kids in the street, they are so cute! As we were leaving, the lady said her husband will give us a lift to the bus terminal as there were no local buses running until this afternoon to Phuket. They are a lovely family and it's a lovely little hostel. We left and said goodbye to the mother and kids, while he dropped us up the station.