Ok...so first I think I need to address the anarchy on the message board which is largely if not solely the work of my two best friends! I think criticisms are most unwelcome, our blog is not for your entertainment but to keep you updated in our absence and if it provides some light entertainment, then all the better! Now...let's move on!

Well then Blogspotters and in particular Message-Boardists!! Here we are in Phuket, our final Thai Beach destination!! We're staying at the rather fancy Kata Sea Breeze Hotel - IT HAS A POOLSIDE BAR!!! :D

More on this later though, I return now to where we left our last post in Ao Nang. Our couple of days were spent quite lazily (a habit from Ko Lanta I think) though of note, Katie endured further massaging while I perused the local shops in search of something for Katie's birthday (3rd June). I'm aware this is early, but bird catching the worm etc and also, I wasn't sure if I'd have the opportunity to get what I was after elsewhere! Fortunately, all is well and now we eagerly anticipate the day itself!!

For our trip here, it was another case of getting minivans that take you to agents who try to wangle some money from you, but prepared now, we dodged a bullet and said we had a booking already!! Ha ha! A genius ploy...

So, we loaded our bags in the back and got in the van...I won't bog you down with the dynamics of what occured, but basically a Thai girl went nuts at us for sitting where she wanted her friend to sit! Indignant at this outburst, we stayed put which of course enraged her further. She was joined by an English guy (clearly she's his bit of 'Thai fluff') and his mate and she started blubbing to them, and then to the driver. All of whom were uninterested and told her to quieten down! Stupid mare!

Anyways, drama over, we set off to Kata! On arrival, we were again shown to a travel agents who told us that if we hadn't already paid for our accommodation (which of course we hadn't) she could give us a good deal at the Kata Sea Breeze, so on inspection of the brochure, and quite impressed here we came! Having now checked out the website, we really do have it for a bargain price - HALF!!! It's mental, we just hope no one else here is paying the extortionate online price!

The only other thing of note is that last night, we went a wanderin' and ended up at a fancy restaurant that we decided to dine at, I rather ambitiously chose crab and although what I could get at was delicious, it was FAR more effort than it was worth and will probably stick to less fiddly food!

As always, love to all

Nick and Katie

xxx

Hello all (except Morten and Guy - I am not talking to you two...) yes we are here in Kata and it seems rather nice, we checked out the beach and it seems to be full of surfers! I think when we get to Bali we may take a surf lesson as it's a very popular place for it, I'm sure that will cause muchos pain/hilarity at the time...!!

One other thing that Nick did not mention was our slight trauma last night...after he had demolished his crabby dinner we headed back to our room and as I was getting ready for bed I suddenly noticed something on the wall - a HUGE spider!! Aargh!! It was horrible, soooo big and just sitting there looking at us!! We quickly decided that there was zero chance of either of us challenging Harry, as I had named him, so after taking a few pics as proof (!!) we tried to ignore him and just go to sleep...and this morning he had indeed disappeared...but sadly this means he is clearly still in our room somewhere...!! Fingers crossed he won't be making another appearance later...!!

Anyway...we've not been here long enough to do much other than laze by the pool and check out our surroundings...but we will report back after our week here and let you know what we get up to!

Bye for now!! xxx