The Whitsunday Islands.

The Whitsundays are a chain of islands off the coast of Queensland near a town called Airlee beach. There are loads of boat companies offering tours but we were booked onto the "party boat", The Clipper. It holds up to 50 people, has a hot tub and a water slide. Airlee beach is a great little place. Theres only one main street but theres a really good atmosphere as people are either waiting to do their trip or have just come off it and are going on nights out with people they met on the boats.

We stayed in a Nomads hostel on our first night and had a dorm with 3 Swedish guys and 2 English girls who we went out with that night. The 2 English girls, Anne-Marie and Laura, were from Bolton and we've kept bumping into them all the way down the coast.

The next day we got up early to get our alcohol supplies for the boat and to go to the harbour and check in. As soon as we got aboard, we hit it off with a group of English guys. Charlie and Sam who were posh farmer boys from Bedfordshire and absolutely hillarious. There was also Chris, George and Gravy (named that because he wears and "I love gravy" t-shirt) who were all 18 from the South Coast.


George, Chris, Gravy, Nash and Me.



The Clipper

After being introduced to the crew, we made our first stop on one of the smaller islands which has nothing on it but a little 30 bed resort. It's run by this crazy Aussie called Benny. It was a beautiful resort and we were pretty much the only people there at the time. We had a few sangrias by the pool and then got put into teams for the games and talent contest that were happening that night. Me and Nash were in team Wankish with 4 girls, all from Wales.

Benny's resort.

We jumped back on the tenders and headed back to the boat for our first snorkelling trip. It was also the first chance we got to jump of the 8m top deck and make use of the water slide. The snorkelling was really good, probably better than it had been on my dive trip in Cairns as it was much shallower and less damaged by cyclone Yatsi as it was sheltered by the islands. We saw clown fish in an anenome with its babies, sea turtles, reef sharks etc.

Me, Gravy and Nash three-way water slide.

We got back on the boat for a baked fish dinner and after that started playing a crazy drinking game that Gravy made up on the spot. I couldn't begin to explain all the rules again but it was the best drinking game I've ever seen.

"Poke-ball ring of fire"

By the time 9pm and the talent contest cam around everyone was pretty drunk which made it even funnier. Team Wankish did a mini cheerleading routine followed by a Chris Nash striptese to some poor girl we dragged out of the audience. It's in everyones interest that I don't put photos of this on here. We won the talent contest easily because of his performance though.


Cheerleading with Sarah, Briony, Lauren and Cath.

All through the games it had been raining sideways and even though we were under cover on deck, everyone was soaked so we all headed for the hot tub. It's supposed to hold 13 people, the previous record was 18 but we managd to get 28 people in there. That night, Nash was sick in our cabin which resulted in a $50 fine for him and us having to sleep on deck for the 2 nights because of the smell of sick.


We were woken up at 6.30 by crewman Steve's version of Tom Jones - Sex Bomb. After a good breakfast we were in the boats heading to Whitehaven Beach by 8:30. Whitehaven beach is listed in the top 5 beaches in the world and has the finest sand of anywhere in the world except for one beach in the Carribean. Even though the weather wasn't fantastic, it was still the best beach I've been to with pure white sand and clear, warm water.



We had a couple of hours to chill out on the beach and the professional photographer from the boat was with us to take some cool photos. We had to wear stinger suits whenever we went in the water because Box jelly-fish float around in the water in the summer months. While we were on the Clipper, a German guy from another boat got stung in the face whilst wearing a suit and had to be airlifted by helicopter back to hospital.

Me and Gravy.



Charlie, Sam, Gravy, Me and Nash.

We got back on the boat and had some time to sun bathe before lunch. After lunch we had our second snorkelling trip which was even better than the first. We got dropped off on a tiny little beach on another island for a few hours to snorkel and relax. The snorkelling here was even better than the previous day.

The sunset that night was pretty special and we all sat on deck watching it with a few beers listening to a Live Lounge album. That night we saw something that was out of a David Attenborough documentary. At night the crew shone a big spotlight off the side of the boat into the water. A school of fish were sticking to this light so that they could see and were being attacked and eaten by about 10 squid. Suddenly the squid disappeared and 2 reef sharks appeared and started diving into and catching the fish. This went on for about 10 minutes before a dolphin came from below the school of fish and jumped up out of the water. The sharks, dolphins and squids carried on attacking the fish, who stuck to the light so they could see and meaning we could see everything. It's pretty hard to believe that we actually saw this.

One of the dolphins.

That night was fancy dress night and there were more games and competitions to crown the King/Queen of the Clipper.

Fancy dress night.

The next morning, we were woken up early again and were in the water snorkelling by 8:00! We were all pretty nackered but there is definitely no better hangover cure than snorkelling on the great barrier reef in a little bay with only a handful of other people with amzing views like this.

One of the private little bays where we went snorkelling.

After snorkelling, we headed back to the mainland and got off the boat. That night the boat company rented out a bar in Airlee beach and we had a party with the crew and free dominoes pizza. The Whitsunday's was one of the best places I have ever been and I met some amazing people. Saying bye to some of them after the party was pretty hard because I got to know them all so well in such a small space of time. It will be hard for anything else I do out here to match the time I had on the Clipper.

Same, Me, Nash, Charlie, Gravy and Chris.

Ko Pangnan

For our first night in Ko Pangnan we stayed in a hostel in a town called Haad Rin, where the full moon parties take place. We wanted to be in the middle of all the action and get a crew together to head to Half Moon with. We met a group of German's, of who Franz was the nicest. Never met a German who understood the English sense of humour as much as him. We pre-drank on the street at a place called chicken corner, which turns into an outdoor night club because of the music from all the bars around.
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We headed to Half Moon party and as soon as we walked in, Nash bumped into some of his mates from uni who he didn't even know were in Thailand, let alone going to Half Moon that night.
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Half Moon was good, but not as good as Tubing and the English girl who was in our dorm and came out with us had her drink spiked so me and Nash had to carry her home.

A killer Changover (hangover brought about by the consumption of Chang beer) was occuring the next day and we had to check out a lug our stuff on a walk to the other side of the Haad Rin peninsula to find our accommodation for the next couple of days.


As soon as we walked out of the trees and saw this view, the hangover didn't seem so bad anymore. One of the best beaches I'd ever seen and was only 10 minutes away from the full moon beach.

Walking out of the trees onto the beach.

By the time we saw the view from our bungalow, at a place called Lighthouse Bungalows which was on the rocks above the beach, the hangover was gone.




Amazing beach!



The view from the terrace of our bungalow.





It had amazing views out to see and over to Ko Samui. It was almost like camping though and at night was pretty scary as it was in the middle of nowhere, pitch black, and pretty exposed to all the lizards, birds, bats and insects that were around. Totally worth it to wake up to that view every morning though.



e spent a couple of days chilling and recovering on the beach. I rented a moped for a day and drove around the island a bit which was loads of fun. We also went on a snorkelling boat trip. The captain was giving out free weed as well which Nash gladly accepted.

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On our last night, we met up with Franz again for another night out, this time on the beach. In Haad Rin, there is always a party on the beach. On the night we went there was a huge foam machine at one end of the beach. After sharing a bottle of rice vodka (3 quid a bottle) on chicken corner we had some buckets on the beach.

The next afternoon we started our horrific 24 hour boat-minivan-bus journey down to Singapore.