Hello all,

Here we are in Thailand finally ! Flew from Manila on Sunday night and arrived in Bangkok at about 11.30pm. (BTW we are now 7 hours ahead of you all)

When we were at the airport we decided to give our families a quick call. It was really nice chatting to you all (sorry it wasnt for long - we are on a tight budget you know!) hehe Especially sorry to my mum (dina) cos i think wer got a total of 1minute to talk before my credit ran out-but we wil speak again soon

Bangkok was OK...nothing to rave about. We had a nice-ish hotel with a large room and air con.. There was a swimming pool on the roof which came in very handy on Monday afternoon!

Cos Monday morning we got conned by the tuk tuk man....

As we were heading for our brekkie a real nice thai guy began chatting to us asking where we were from etc! He offered us a ride in his tuk tuk for 10baht each (about 20p) and he said he would take us to 3 or 4 sights ! As we ate our brekkie we said that it seemed to good to be true....but against our better judgement we decided to take him up on the offer...hmmm...

He took us to the Big Buddha and the Lucky Buddha which was great! we got a few pics and had a chat with a guy who worked on a stall next to the Lucky Buddha. He was ace and told us a few stories about the Buddha.

Then we got back on the Tuk tuk and the driver took us to a suit / tailor shop!!! Argh ! We were polite for about 10minutes to the guy in the shop and then told him thank you but no thank you (we didnt come here to buy a suit!!) He got VERY grumpy and threw the calculator on the table. Dom muttered 'thank you' and we scurried out of the shop......

Next we got taken to a Travel Info place....we thought this was very odd and Dom said 'we dont want to go there!' but the driver took us anyway. There was a welsh guy who worked there who sat us down (dom and i still a bit confused) and he started writing out an itineary for the whole of November and December of what we should do in Thailand... It all sounded very good until he told us it would cost us over a thousend pounds each ! Shyeah righht!!! So we (again as polite as possible) told him we thought it was a bit too structured (and also very expensive)

He said 'ill give you 20minutes to discuss it-no pressure' He walked away and Dom had enough by now ! He stood up and said 'look its a lot of money - we wanna leave! We'll let you know what we decide' kinda thing.... the guys attitude totally changed with us and he wrote his mobile number down !!! We never called him... needs to sort his attitude hehe

After what turned out to be a wasted morning we asked the tuk tuk man to take us back to our hotel! wed had enough and just wanted some food and a beer!

The afternoon we just chilled out and sunbathed all afty trying to figure a way to leave Bangkok as soon as poss

The night really picked up though - we headed down Ko San Road and it was packed full of people ! Every bar was heaving. We sat down at a table on the edge of the road, drank Tiger beer (dom was pleased) and ate spicy thai food. We had a real good night and Bangkok went up in our estimations...

Anyway, the next day Dom spoke to Mr Thai (travel agents!!) and booked us on a one way trip to Ko Samet!!! And here we are...

The bus (or should i say mini bus) driver was crazy....im not too sure if he wasnt drunk.... he kept swaying the car in the middle of the road... Dom didnt seem to notice too much but i was gripping onto my seat!!! And the guy next to me looked a bit scared too .... hehe

Then we got the boat...ahh yes the boat.... it had about 20too many people on it...and you have to CLIMB onto it whilst its rocking in the water..anyway we began to move and it started making wierd noises !!! We stopped.... and then the Captain of the ship (hehe) disappeared under the deck and pretended to be fixing something when we both could see he didnt know what he was doing...the boat hit the pier with a THUD !!! oops but we got moving eventually (still making a few wierd noises) but we made it in one piece!!!

When we got here we jumped in a Jeep with some Ozzies and got dropped off at a little 'hotel' (bugalows) which are a stone throw away from the beautiful blue sea!

Our room is nice and big and has lots of windows (unlike some places weve been to) and a little balcony !

We spent yesterday afternoon on the beach up until about 7pm - then on the evening went and sat at a beach bar. There were giant candles in the sand, and the seats were like cushions on the floor! It was very cosy (and romantic) and we laid on these cushions until late drinking cheap beer (im slowly learning to like it)

Today we have done ...well....nothing !!! We have been catching some rays and every now and then decided it was time for a quick dip in the warm sea... Oh and thats pretty much the plan for the next 2-3 days before we move on to somewhere else and do pretty much the same thing there hehehe

Thats all for now ! We'll update you again soon.

Lots of love xxxxxxxxxxxxxx Beth and Dom xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx