Our friends James and Corinne left on Saturday after some great days catching up over a “few” Singha beers. We had quite an energetic week; exploring a large and slimy network of caves on Ko Lanta and going on a boat trip to snorkel around some nearby islands. The trip also included a visit to the Emerald Cave - an 80m swim through pitch black tunnels trying not to lose sight of our guide’s torch ahead of us or bump our heads on the low cave roof. After what I found quite a scary few minutes we swam out into daylight and found ourselves in an enclosed bay with steep cliffs on all sides, reminiscent of Alex Garland’s Beach. We weren’t alone though, every other tourist in the area seemed to be there dressed (sensibly, unlike us) in bright orange life jackets. Their method of getting through the tunnel was to form a huge chain and be dragged through by a couple of guides, I don’t think many could swim and dreaded to think what would happen if one broke the chain and slid off down the wrong dark tunnel. We remained intact on the way out but I found it just as scary, and was relieved to see the bright turquoise water at the entrance.

James and Hamish invented their own version of beach tennis, battling it out each evening and I’ve continued the battle with Hamish “Agassi” Oag every evening since, before enjoying a sunset Singha.

We have continued to hang on here in Lanta for ferry news. Alan, our agent, is at the mercy of the Indonesian ferry company and it’s difficult to get any definite news. Over the last few days we’ve been through plans A – Z; Laos, East Malaysia, straight to Australia, Northern Thailand to name just a few but this morning, for various practical reasons, returned to plan A - back to Penang and a face to face chat with Alan to see if there is news either way.

Our visas for Indonesia expire on 23rd May so if nothing happens by then we will be forced to go straight to Australia, but at least we’ll have given it our best shot. We almost left for the airport this morning, before deciding to give it just one more week.

For some reason it is almost half the price and a much faster process to ship from Malaysia than it is from Bangkok so at least if we are in Penang it’s not too far to get back to Kuala Lumpur airport. One other issue is time, even though we’re really flexible we’ve made plans according to weather and climate patterns in South America and don’t want to leave things too late.

So tomorrow morning we’ll finally be back on the bike - who’s been waiting very patiently - leaving the beautiful beach and the dog who’s been following us everywhere since the day we arrived. We're both in good spirits, getting great tans and looking forward to the next bit!

(Emma)