We arrived in Ko Samui on Saturday midday after a 14 hour bus journey and a two hour boat ride! phew! We got to our resort and as expected we had been conned! you walked into the room/hut/shack and had less than a foot either side of the bed to move around (literally nowhere to put our bags unless the bathroom could be turned into a bag room?!) and a little fan! After such a long journey we were knackered and i was gutted by the fact we had so obviously been done out of at least 60 pounds by the travel agents. In the end we upgraded our rooms so we had space to move and air conditioning, so we have gone over our budgets a bit but after the last couple of days im glad we did, here's why-

it has been a very up and down last few days, firstly the location is gorgeous, we are literally on the beach and when you're sunbathing there are no other people around for about ten feet either side. it is a very peaceful beach?with pure white sand and blue sea - perfect! there are thai massage huts all along the beach (i had one today and it was lovely!) and restaurants open up at night onto the?sand so you are sitting under the stars with only candle light to see by! (any sunburn is nicely hidden thankfully) oh yes and they love to play out robbie williams while you eat - how very Thai of them!?

We rented a motorbike out for the day which came to less than 3 pounds! so we visited the beach on another part fo the Island called Chaweng. We much prefer ours as it is a lot less quiet but Chaweng beach does have clearer water than ours so we were a little jealous. the Nightlife looks like it would be good though here as ours is predominantly restaurants with little bars attached.

unfortunately and as no surprise to the rest of the Doyle family with every good thing there are always a few bad things to follow (haha!)

By day one both ben and i realised we had gotten very sunburnt on the boat over to the island so sunbathing was out of the question for the next few days at least, which was fine cos we read our books in the shade. However, by day two my forehead had swollen to almost a centimetre more than its?normal size! i can only assume i had some allergic reaction to the sun! by day?four my forehead had gone down but the swelling had moved to around my eyes- i looked like i'd been in a fight without the bruising... as ben so nicely put it! so yesterday was spent in Boots pharmacy waiting for the pharmacist to turn up for her shift at one o'clock- but u guessed it - luck wasnt on my side?and it turns out it?was the one day she was running very late so i had to speak to her over the phone, it wasnt the?easiest of conversations! spent yesterday afternoon?relaxing with ben reading our books (thanks tash i finished my book in 2 days!) and my eyes finally returned to normal this morning. oh and since saturday i have counted over 30 mozzie and ant bites on my legs- very attractive, and guess what... ben has a grand total of... 0! im going to spray him with perfume tonight! haha!

Today has been great, we took a trip to the ATV driving range and had a go driving around the tracks! alot of fun. then we had an elephant ride by the Muang waterfalls which was very pretty but afterwards?no one wanted to swim in it with me?(think they were scared of monsters in the water) so I had a little sulk!?This afternoon I had an aloe vera massage to help with the little sunburn i have left and i will be going back tomorrow for a traditional thai massage- cant wait!

Although our budget is quite tight at the mo we havent been able to go out drinking as such but since im starting to look remotely normal again and am no longer?overdosing?on anti-histamines we feel we should go out and celebrate tonight!

UPDATE: We went to Chaweng for drinks last night and found the Green Mango - thanks jen! It was wicked, lots of bars to choose from and lovely cocktails, so we got suitably drunk and have been recovering today! i had a thai massage to speed up the recovery process... bliss!

Wil be in touch when we reach our next destination- Koh Phanghan! gorgeous island near to here where the famous full moon parties are held!

Hayley.xx