Well we arrived in Kho Pha-ngan via mini bus, a double decker VIP bus, a normal bus, a ferry and finally a pickup truck which took all of 9 hours door to door so not bad going really. On the ferry over to Pha-ngan we spotted rain clouds in the distance and feared that we may be in for some wet weather - how right we were!

The website for our xmas accommodation the 'Drop in Resort' looks pretty good so we were more than shocked when we arrived to discover that we were staying in a building site (OK so we obviously haven't read the website quite as well as you Mum!!!). This time the building work is a new hotel, an extension to our resort. To make things even worse our 'suite' backs onto the building work and it sounds so loud. The actual room is really pretty but the noise is horrendous! As we checked in another couple, Andre and Nicole from Switzerland, were also checking in looking equally as devastated. The silver lining was that the catastrophe brought us all together and we ended up spending the next few days hanging out with them - take a look at the photos!

On xmas morning with a mild hangover I was awoken by builders at 6.30am - they may not celebrate xmas but I flipping do!!!!! That was it, enough was enough, so D and I were down at reception and even before we'd eaten breakfaxt we'd been upgraded to a suite with a private jacuzzi - bring it on! Over breakfast we told Andre and Nicole our news and within an hour they too had been upgraded - Merry Christmas everyone!!!

On our first evening we ate in the resort restaurant - I decided to go for a Tom Yum, a sweet and spicy soup. Oh good grief - D couldn't eat more than a spoonful, whilst I managed about half of the bowl but I paid for it - my face was beetroot red and I lost all feeling in my lips and tongue. The chef, seeing I was in pain came and told me that he had halved the spices in it so it was more palletable to the western tongue - think he needs to halve them again personally! Despite my warnings Andre went and ordered it the following evening and had to give up before he'd even started. I'm sure the chef gets some secret pleasure from the pain he causes!

On Christmas Eve we had our mandatory banquet where we shared a table with Andre and Nicole. They were playing christmas songs and the atmosphere was really good. After the meal we headed down to the beach for the famous beach parties - this time instead of a full moon party we had a christmas eve party. The beach was heaving and the atmosphere was really good. D bought Nicole and I a dayglo bracelet to get us in the party mood - well it was nearly christmas day! The Thais do seem to have an unhealthy obsession with fire - wherever you go they seem to be throwing it in the air or swinging it around their bodies - and Had Rin beach did not let us down with a burning skipping rope for revellers to jump over and a burning stick for them to limbo under. We gave the skipping rope a miss but did have a go at the Limbo - when it was quite high up granted but we still did it!

Christmas Day came and by midday we were down on the beach sunbathing until at 1pm our worst nightmare happened - the heavens opened and it started raining and it rained and rained and rained. Following the mass exodus from the beach we ended up in 'The Lazy Bar' where we had a proper turkey christmas lunch followed by christmas pudding and cream. To really make us feel at home they even put 'Only Fools and Horses' on the DVD player. The best bit about the day for both of us were the calls home - brightened the day up no end! In the evening we had to resort to wearing our attractive plastic ponchos as it was still raining!!!

On Boxing Day we spent the majority of the day on the beach. My only issue is that the beach is not properly cleaned after the night parties so this beautiful beach has a slightly grubby feel to it in fact I'd go as far as to say it is sticky (best not to ponder on the reason)! I really was all beached out today so we came home early to take advantage of our jacuzzi - the problem is it was absolutely freezing so we only lasted about 10 mins in it after waiting an hour for the damn thing to fill up!

On the 27th December we woke up to a storm - it was unbelievable!!!! Fortunately we had won a free meal at the resort restaurant at the xmas eve banquet so we at least didn't have to travel far for food. The meal was really good - one of the dishes was deep fried lemon grass which was absolutely gorgeous whilst D's favourite meal was shrimp in taramind sauce (we think!).

We took advantage of the inclement weather today to plan our trip for the next 2 months so we have decided to cancel out new year accommodation in Koh Samui and get travelling again. So watch this space - first stop Koh Samui, then Bangkok, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.