Today we woke up fresh... We had fallen into our old routine of who ever is up first makes the tea so I a woke to a nice brew courtesy of Steven. We packed up our belongings and left them at the front reception and headed to the beach. We were off back to Saladan later so thought we would make the most of the pool before we left. Steven went for breakfast and I sipped my tea and checked my mail before we hit the pool. The pool was fairly busy with holiday makers eating breakfast and applying sunscreen so we grabbed the last two sun loungers and sprawled. While I was sitting in the pool enjoying my book I suddenly heard Steven say "Laura Laura" I looked at him and he was pointing to a the pool behind me and on turning I saw a huge lizard swimming through the water towards me ....I jumped up ever so fast and moved out of his was lol... He then sauntered out and dried off before climbing a tree nearby. Was quite cool seeing him swim.

For most of the morning we alternated between lounging and reading our books and jumping in the pool. Stevens reading his girl with the dragon tattoo trilogy and I'm half way through Jane Eyre. Shortly after midday Sarah joined us with her baby oil and we chilled out chatting and discussing plans. The rest of the group were off on a boating trip today and Kieron was getting his foot wound dressed. It was his last day of antibiotics and he was planning on getting leg less (excuse the pun). At about one ish Steven headed off to get some lunch while me and Sarah soaked up the rays... Shortly after he left a guy came over and started talking to us about his poor English and how the thai waitress couldn't understand him. I told him not to worry I would understand him fine but the problem normally occurs when you get two non English speaking people trying to communicate. I said it was probably because she was thai and he was French.... (He was Italian...oops!). He wandered off looking a little indignant that i hadn't picked up on his italian charm and I think I lost a friend haha.

Steven returned shortly after with cornettos and they were lovely... We chilled a bit longer but it was soooo hot we were both drenched in sweat so kept jumping in and out of the pool. At about two ish we decided to try and FaceTime our families as we could catch them before work and there was free wifi at the pool. We couldn't get hold of Mum or Auntie Pat and we knew Virginia would already be at work but we managed to get hold of Mumsie and Hannah so had a nice chat with them while showing them the sea next to us. It was lovely to catch up with them... Miss them all so much. Afterwards I left Steven to try and plan the next leg of our trip (he never shuts off) and retreated to the sun lounger... This travelling business is tiring lol.

At about three thirty we decided to try and grab a taxi back to Saladan. We grabbed our bags... Topped our water up and tried to hail a taxi. Soon a tuk tuk was by outsides and requesting three hundred baht to get us back to town.... I said under no circumstances are we going over two hundred baht as that is the correct price. He wouldn't lower his price which was fine as we would just go with somewhere else. We walked a little way up the road and bumped into the same guy who kept saying he wouldn't lower his price... Some drivers would but he wouldn't in a slightly aggressive manner. In the end I simply said to him that that is fine, its completely his choice but he started talking to me! And I had accepted that fact one hundred yards down the road.

About a minute later a car four by four taxi stopped and requested three hundred to take us back, again I specified I wasn't going over two hundred (which is already overpriced) so take it or leave it. He then tried two fifty and two forty but again I repeated two hundred... Between us! He agreed and we jumped in. The guy was very nice and had his pleasant wife with him. We stopped about tens mins up the road while they filled the tank and then carried on ...a very stress free journey and much more comfortable then a tuk tuk.

On arriving back we checked in and I was pleasantly surprised to see we had our air con room with a balcony. I was under the impression we only had that on the second night and would have the windowless fan room tonight. It was a nice room and cheap. We unpacked a little and then did a bit of planning (and a bit of face booking) before freshening up. It was our 100th day on the road and we were off out to celebrate, with food rather than alcohol lol. We headed out and went to explore the market, I still had my little shopping list and hadn't managed to purchase anything. I found a small jewellery stall and bought two very pretty turquoise beaded bracelets for a hundred baht before we went in search of food.

We wandered in the opposite direction of the pier and found a very nice family run Thai restaurant. The waitress was lovely and very friendly so we instantly warmed to the place. The menu was vast and looked delicious and to our pleasure it was all Thai food, no western food in sight. We dont really like it when a menu is crammed full of western food like pizzas and burgers (normally costing the same or more than at home) while the Thai food is in the back like an after thought. The menu looked delicious and was very cheap at forty baht for a chicken noodle soup. We both ordered one... Steven yellow noodle and me red spicy noodle as well as a sticky rice and fried egg each (hey we were pushing the boat out for our 'anniversary'). The food arrived ...it was fresh and very tasty and we throughly enjoyed it... I think I'm beginning to have more pictures of our delicious food on my camera then beaches and wats.

After we had finished we chilled with our sodas and watched the goings on, nearby were a couple of cute kids who were playing while their parents worked in the restaurant. I love that about Thailand how the restaurant is a whole family affair and although working the mum can still be with her kids. We watched some of the cooking and it looked and smelt amazing. The air was warm with a slight cool breeze that would intermittently waft over the spicy smells of a massaman curry or the zingy fragrance of a Thai salad. On a table nearby a young couple were eating their meal and we couldn't help but laugh at the guy who would try to discreetly refill his glass with water he had bought with him. An easy feat I hear you cry... Not when your water is being transported in a five litre bottle haha we couldn't help but laugh... And take a sneaky pic.

After we had finished we decided to take a wander towards the sea front and take in the sights and smells of the lively Saladan market place. We stopped at a 'shopping centre' ...I use the term loosely and looked inside. The shop was crammed with everything you could ever need including sarongs, sunscreen and fake Tiffany's. I noted a beautiful sarong that I had been eying up in most of Thailand normally selling for six hundred baht before haggling. I had always said I would pay two to three hundred for it as its very pretty but they had it here for one hundred and fifty. I decided that was a steal and bought it, the girl also had really nice loose trousers that weren't too 'backpacker' (I can't carry them off to save my life... Its funny to realise that I'm as unable to carry off the trends here as I am at home. If i wear fisherman pants or Ali Baba pants (extremely baggy with a low crutch) then I just look stupid... Yet everyone else suits them. The girl was selling them for four hundred and fifty and wouldn't go below three hundred... I left and bought a nicer pair next door for two fifty.

We wandered towards the Pier admiring the cool cafes and restaurants while trying to find Steven some tee shirts. They were quite pricey here although on reflection we were probably just being tight, so we may head back tomorrow. By now it was after ten so we took a slow walk back to the hotel and had a coffee (how old are we???) before retiring to our room.

We laid in bed chatting and uploading a weeks worth of blogs before it all kicked off. The walls here are pretty thin so there are posters everywhere (well there are generally posters everywhere in this hostel... She loves her laser printer) but there are quite a few in the bedrooms stating the rules. One says to be quiet after ten pm in respect to others, which is fair enough given the paper thin walls. However a German girl didn't quite get this and way after midnight returned to her room (slamming the door... one of the rules) and started skyping or Facetiming someone. She didn't even wear headphones so both sides of the conversation were heard. It didn't really bother us as we were awake anyway and Steven had just returned from downstairs (how polite is he?) where he was face timing his mum. Anyway this girl was about three doors down and was really upsetting the couple next door who kept shouting at her in German, this did not cease the conversation and she carried on shouting to her computer. In the end the girl next door had decided enough was enough and banged the wall so hard I thought she would end up in the girls room lol. This did cease the conversation eventually though and made everyone a little wary of turning over and making the already squeaky beds squeak louder.... This girl was obviously a light sleeper and a bit hormonal.

We couldn't stop (muffled) laughing and after uploading the blogs and a million photos fell into a deep slumber.