Mmmm beaches . . . . mmmmm sunshine!

We had not originally intended to come to Thailand but what are plans if they are not for ripping up and changing (more on that another day)!! Also, after all the exploring and fast paced moving around to date we decided that we fully deserved a holiday from all that.....holidaying! - and Thailand seemed like just the place.

Having visited Bangkok and some of mainland Thailand earlier in the year we decided that we would pay a visit to the islands down the East coast this time around and basically, just use and abuse them for nothing more than their beaches and sunshine! And that is pretty much all we have been doing since!

We stayed in a great little resort with bungalows on the beach in Mae Nam which is on the Northern, quieter side of the Koh Samui and this proved well up to the job for all that nothingness!

We spent the first few days just chilling out on the beach and only venturing off to sample the odd bar or restaurant. The best of these was a cool little place on the beach at the end of our bay - mats and lanterns laid out on the sand and cold beer flowing - paradise! We did however notice that for some unexplained reason we had become light-weights in Thailand. Obviously not by Gem's mum's standard of course (sorry mum, but you know it's true, and I don't know what you're laughing at Katrina!) but we were starting to notice the effect of the normal pre- and post-dinner drinks. It was only after a few days that we discovered that the local Chang beer is 6.5% - bit more than our usual tipple when consumed in it's usual quantity!

On our last full day on Samui we decided to have a look around afterall and hired what turned out to be the worlds worst jeep. We should have probably guessed this on the basis that we hired it for less than a tenner a day from the local corner shop/laundrette/internet cafe/tour operator/money exchange shop/off licence! This was certainly not like vehicle renting we have done before - just hand over the money and the jeep is yours! - no driving license checks and not even a glance around the jeep when taking it back! Graham was pleased to find that he could still remember how to drive and somehow, the jeep did manage to make it around the island without falling apart completely (though we did have to pop the passenger window back in, on occasion!). We followed the coastal roads and stopped off at loads of different beaches - ranging from beautiful isolated bays to the full on party resorts as well as the odd venture up into the hills (at which point Gemma nearly had to get out with our bags to enable the jeep to make it!). It was in the busier resort of Lamai that had our first real financial drama when a hungry ATM ate Gem's cash card! Despite assurances from the bank (which we had to find down the road) that they would put an out of order sign on it, when we wandered past some time later it was still in use and another panicked looking tourist was shouting down the phone pacing around it!

Koh Samui is certainly very beautiful but is equally mega touristy these days and not very Thai. Having said that, we did find it pleasantly less built up than we imagined - we were expecting to find high rise hotels by now! The days drive was well worth doing but, by the end of it we did conclude that we were glad that we had picked to stay where we did over the other resorts - perfect for a quiet unwind for a few days.

After another morning of lazing on the beach we caught the catamaran for the 30min trip across the bay to the island of Koh Phangan to do.....well.....nothing for a few more days!