Merry Christmas and a happy new year! We have been very lazy with updating this site recently, I would like to say it's because we've been really busy, but in reality we have been lazing about on a variety of beaches and couldn't bring ourselves to move, sorry about that.

After leaving Malaysia we ended up with a bit of a mammoth journey to Ao Nang beach in Krabi. The beaches were lovely, clear water, clean sand and huge limestone rock formations jutting out of the sea. We ended up spending 7 days there, enjoying some delicious Thai food at the local market and testing out our new snorkel. Jon is now an expert at doing handstands underwater, now I'm teaching him how to do forwards rolls. We've learnt a few words in Thai from a lovely man at our hotel who taught us one word a day as that's all we seemed to be able to remember, despite his best efforts.

From Krabi we headed across to the opposite coast of Thailand and after 12 hours on various forms of transport arrived on the island of Koh Samui. The area around Lamai beach was a bit of a shock, no signs of any Thai life not related to the tourist market, bacon sandwiches on every corner and a variety of drunken English and German men. Most of these men appear to spend their days riding motorcycles around town and their evenings in, erm, other pursuits. Fortunately we escaped all the madness and spent 5 nights at a nice resort out of town as our Christmas present to each other. We felt absolutely spoilt rotten with air-conditioning, beautiful surroundings and a view of the beach from our balcony. Christmas Eve was spent initially at a "gala dinner" around the pool, followed by a speedboat to another island for a beach party. Unsurprisingly, Christmas day was then spent recovering, and despite the tropical paradise, we really missed being at home for the day - hope you all enjoyed your Christmas dinners.

Wishing everyone a happy and successful new year,

Jon and Sarah

xxxxx