We arrived here last night about 6 pm. The ferry left about 45 mins late but the crossing was nice and smooth, although there were no seats inside so for much of it were outside in the hot sun. It took about 2 hours.
Got a taxi - very expensive for taxis in Koh Samui - he wanted 400 baht for a five minute trip, got it for 350, about $11 which was still ridiculous really. But they all seem to be the same here, much more expensive than other parts of Thailand.
So now we are in our beautiful house in Bang Por Beach. And it is just gorgeous. I am sitting on the balcony outside our bedroom upstairs, which overlooks the pool and the sea, having my morning cup of tea. The house has 3 bedrooms all with their own bathroom. Upstairs is the master which has a king bed with the balcony, (has a small table and 2 chairs as well as 2 lounges on balcony!). Master also has a dressing room/robe and bathroom with two basins. Also upstairs is another bedroom with twin beds and full bathroom. Then downstairs another double bedroom and bathroom, full kitchen (same size as average kitchen at home) and a lovely living area with windows all around. Then outside a large veranda with table and two cane couches - very comfy - we sat out there last night. It is a very peaceful place. You could easily have 6 here and have plenty of room for everyone.
There are 8 houses here, all about the same size and all share the pool which is very big. We went for a swim in the pool last night as we were so hot and sticky after the ferry ride. It is crystal clean.
We need to get some supplies in, as we don't have much yet, so will go down to find some shops and also where to change money as we don't have much left. One of the neighbours here, Ian, looks after the place so we will go over and introduce ourselves to him and get his advice on where to go etc. Also we need to phone a guy called Matt to arrange our wifi for the week.
It is becoming a bit cloudy now, and there is thunder in the distance so we may be in for a storm, was sunny earlier. Apparently it has been raining heavily here the past few days, when it was fine and sunny in Ko Tao.
It is now after 6pm. We met the housekeeper, Lek this morning and mentioned that we were going to get a motorbike. She said that she could get one for us and next thing it is here. 180 baht per day, $6.00. And we didn't have to worry about leaving passports or anything. So we took off for the afternoon. First we went up to Fishermans Village - a lovely spot overlooking Ko Phangan. There are lots of restaurants overlooking the water, so we decided to go there for lunch or dinner soon. We then headed back towards Maenam and happened to see Ray, the Canadian from the last resort, they had come over on the boat this morning. We kept on riding till we got to Nathon and then went to see a waterfall near there. Was quite a long and winding walk in the forest to get to it, took about 35 mins each way so we have now had our exercise for the day!! It was quite nice but not that special. We did see some spectacular butterflies along the way though. Tried to get some photos but it was difficult to get them to stay still for long enough. One huge one was black with brilliant blue wings.
We then went to a Tesco supermarket in Nathon on the way home and stocked up for the week. Four bags of groceries on the bike back.

Went for a walk up the beach to the Bang Por Seafood Restaurant for dinner. It was very busy and packed with locals which is a good sign. Food was great, baked snapper, and prawn noodles, and rice with crab meat. Really tasty. Our table was on the sand right next to the water. Full moon night so lovely atmosphere. Cost about $10 each and we couldn't fit another thing in.