Well, since we last wrote we visited La Mai on the east coast of Ko Samui - a quaint town with a lovely beach and slightly less touristy than Chaweng with its british pubs and gogo bars!

Despite Chaweng being so 'touristy', We have been spending our evenings at on the beach in their numerous beach bars which are lovely!! The one we have been in
has nice loungers you can lay on with cushions so you can sip your cocktail and watch the waves lapping against the beach (just so you can picture it back home :O)

On Tuesday we took a bus to Mae Nam in the North of the island as this part is not in the main tourist area and was distinctly different to La Mai and Chaweng.
There were no tourists! Just us and the locals - we stayed in a beach bungalow, which although being only 8 pounds for the night was very very basic and we had our own pet lizard!! eek!
Anyway it was literally right on the beach so we spent time relaxing on the beach and obviously i had to have a Traditional Thai massage for a mere 6 pounds and spent an hour being massaged right by the sea :O)
Not much cultural stuff to report - just been long hard days relaxing on the beach and readingour books- nearly there with Harry Potter :O)

Wednesday we got up bright and early to catch a bus to the Na Thon, teh ferry port, where we boarded our coach to take us to Penang (a 12 hour bus journey across thailand and crossing the boarder into Malaysia).

The journey was not too bad and we survived the bus driver driving predominantly on the wrong side of the road, travelling over the speed limit and refuelling at the petrol station (if you can call it that) with a lit fag hanging out his mouth, while he attempted to fix the fuel spillage that was squirting petrol all over the floor and him!! So
Hem hem, anyway,despite this we arrived in Penang last night and went out for dinner in a place called the red garden - an unusual dining experience consitibg of many stall like places selling a fusion of malay, chinese and indian foods = yum! A meal and drinks cost 3 pounds for both of us! Bargain!!

Anyway, we are loving Malaysia at the moment and are off to explore today!!!