Now the liquor tasted good and the women all were fast

Like Gordon, I won't be catching a jet plane out of Thailand. I just couldn't justify the price and you can't jump a jetplane like you can a freight train. So I'm on a 14 hour overnight bus from Krabi to Bangkok tomorrow (following a ferry ride from Phi Phi). From there I hope to find transport to Cambodia. I suspect I'll enter the country as the French left it, by road across the Thai border, although most likely not in a Khmer Rouge accompanied convoy.

I've had a fun time on Ko Phi Phi. It seems so long ago that I first stepped off the boat with Jon (from Wales) and my new guitar and, I suppose, it was. I've become quite at home here now. I've made some good friends at the dive shop and around the island. The Thai lady at the market stall knows to make my dishes extra spicy. And my friend whose internet cafe I always use has made a habit of waving away my attempts to pay her (an exaggeration; she only does this occasionally. But while the official price is 2 Thai baht per minute, she always, without fail, makes up prices significantly below this which have no relation to the actual time which she, once again without fail, records on a stopwatch).

And while I'll miss the diving and the friends I've made, I'm excited about leaving. Life moves at an incredibly slow pace here. I can see how the island is an attractive tropical paradise getaway for a week vacation, but I fail to understand what motivates the large number of long-term Europeans who are not involved in the island's dive industry. Day after day I see the same people handing out advertising flyers in the evening and getting drunk in the night.

So diving (and a few friends) aside, I'll be happy to leave. Cambodia promises to be exciting.