Falling Back To Earth

I guess when you ride a high, there's got to be a point when you should expect a fall. Nothing is so good it lasts forever.

The problem I found was the higher the wave I surfed the more it hurt when I came hurtling back. I pretty much crash landed.

Boy, did I feel the pain.

Travelling has done me the world of good. I was never unhappy ever, but things like the rain at home would bother me, or if there was a delay on the tube going into work. It's the little stresses that I didn't realise I was having.

Asia has been amazing and care free. I've been having the time of my life. Some days I wake up in the morning (with a hangover) but my mouth is sore at the edges from where I've been smiling or laughing so much.

If anyone needs therapy - I recommend travelling... honestly.

We'd had a chilled couple of weeks in Phuket, after deciding to avoid Bangkok and the riots with the Red Shirts.

We'd had fun at the Thai Water Festival, Songkran, where everyone goes around with water pistols and squirts each other. It's supposed to be a spiritual cleansing warding off evil spirits on the hottest day of the year - but I know it's secretly a huge water fight and a day off!

Here we'd managed to find ourselves a really nice hotel for cheap - it came with a kettle, which is an absolute luxury (heaven - see what I mean, tea on tap - doesn't take much to win my heart!)

I was just getting into the swing of being away from home, work, life in general - I'd reached my peak of happiness.

So hearing about the delights of Phi Phi - white sand, calm clear sea, no roads, absolute perfection..... I should have known something was bound to happen. Leo thought he had found his Utopia in the film The Beach, but he, like me found that there is such thing as the curse of Phi Phi. It lures you in and then it all goes horribly wrong.

So getting off the boat at Phi Phi, we had a little drama trying to find accommodation, but once that was sorted I was ready to get stuck in - not stuck on the rocks!

What a silly move. I don't know why I thought it'd be easier to climb over rocks to get to another beach, when there was a path connecting the two. I guess I thought I was being clever. I literally hit rock bottom scrambling over them.

So it was done, I had to stay in bed for a few days. This nearly drove me insane.

Poor Lynsey, sitting by my side, she must've been going out of her mind.

The doctors splinted my middle toes and then strapped them to my big toe for support. I was given crutches and anti-inflammatory tablets and antibiotics for infection.

I hardly slept at night because of the pain. I was drugged up to the eyeballs and a complete invalid. I couldn't move about and when I needed to I had to be wheeled around in a cart - there are no cars on the island.

How could I complain though? I was in paradise.

I guess it was my punishment for having such a great three months before hand. Surfing my mountain of joy, I slipped off the board and landed down with a thump - on my toes!

It's made me appreciate my whole trip a lot more, I'm never taking for granted how lucky I am again.

Thank God for my feet too - without them I'd never have been able to walk myself around Asia in the first place!