Our trip to Koh Samui was longer than originally planned. And we hadn't originally planned to come here at this point if at all. We didn't know what to expect from Koh Samui, we knew there were lots of resorts and after our Phi Phi experience and with it being so close to Koh Phangnan (full moon party island) we didn't know whether it would be our sort of place.

The journey across was a whopping 13 hours from Koh Lanta. We got to Krabi easily but when we tried to get transport to Phuket we found it a tad trickier, so with the next bus leaving for Samui we just jumped on. The booking we had made on the bus over had suspiciously gone awry but luckily the hotel over the road had dorm beds so we gladly took them and headed out for a much deserved dinner. We walked along Chaweng Beach road strip, oh how we took walking for granted at this point, found somewhere nice, local and cheap - our favourite- and a lovely walk home and to bed. We were sharing the six bed dorm with an older Italian man and a Canadian guy. We were all really annoyed at being woken up by them both in the very early hours, but the Italian later helped us with a camera memory stick crisis and Tyler told us that the other Canadian had woken him up to show him the enormous Thai spider he had caught in the bathroom. He was our best friend after that and forgiven for everything!

The next day shall always be remembered as possibly the worst day of the trip. And yet we had such a great time too. A day of two, completely opposite, halves. We all went to the beach during the day and enjoyed laying lazily in the sun, another thing we took for granted, reading and playing cards as this would be one of the last days as a foursome before Tori and Tyler left for Koh Phangnan and us for Bangkok. We decided to share pictures and this was when I realised I had left our memory stick, with all our photos of our trip so far, in the internet cafe in Koh Lanta, 13 hours away. Needless to say we were stressed out but determined to get it back we phoned a nearby restaurant we had eaten a lot of breakfasts at to get the number for the net cafe, then phoned them and the really really helpful girl in our hotel restaurant translated for us, and with a few baht we managed to arrange for it to posted to our current hotel. After a lot of panic we were ready for a drink or two.

We split up for the evening meal as we were meeting Sean's family friend, Chris, and his wife, who live on the island. They took us to a lovely little local place and we tried some new dishes, some local curries, Chris's wife has them VERY hot! We were then shown the Green Mango and the surrounding bars which is the party street on Samui and had a few chilled Chang. They dropped us home and we were straight back out with Tori and Tyler to show them our new find and to have a celebration of our two weeks together. We were all fairly tipsy by this point and that is our only defence for clearing the wristband stall out of Tottenham merchandise. Tyler was drinking God only knows what from the same stall holder, and that is his defence for his poor performance, having to leave only an hour later. Laura and I stayed and got chatting to an Irish couple we had shared a Songthaew (jeep taxi) with the day before. Changs were flowing as was conversation and stories of travelling and Britain. We went to the club briefly before it closed, and then, feeling very merry, we toddled off to Burger King and then towards home.

On the way home disaster struck. For some unknown reason, apart from being a blind bat, I managed to stand on a plank of wood, complete with two rusty nails. The whole ensemble came with my foot as I tried to move like some sort o horrific homemade ski. Think Home Alone (when Marv walks up the stairs in the basement - remember that noise he made? yes it's authentic). After screaming at Sean to stand on the wood to get it out of my foot, we hobbled to the nearest Family Mart and we tried to look at it, Sean claimed he couldn't see anything, who's the blind bat now? Because of the late hour and the pain we decided to visit the hospital which was only a dodgy wobbly moped taxi ride away. A quick clean up and orders t clean it every day or come back to get it checked we were off to bed just before the sun was up. Sean said that it would not have happened if I were wearing 'Crocodile Shoes', (took me a while to get this one...).

Our last day with our Canadian friends started late with big breakfasts in the hotel. I had never experienced a hangover like this before, usually drinking much more and feeling much better. A few hours of feeling, and being, sick, but I guess it could have been worse, could have trodden on a nail. (Sorry Laura!) I did take care of her a bit, we went to the beach, but just sat in a hotel, still in the sun a bit but taking it easy.

We all went for dinner later all just about over the Changovers. And then had to spend the last night as we started, all together in a room with double bed and one single bed (having been kicked out of the dorm - luckily this room had ac!) For old times' sake we played Deal, hearts, and showed Tori and Tyler how much Sean looks like Mark from Westlife. Our last supper was breakfast the next morning and they left for the party on Phangnan and we looked into leaving for Bangkok. We quickly 'popped' to the hospital to get the wound cleaned. And good job too. We were told it was badly infected and the infection had to be cut out. A bucket of anaesthetic was squeezed into my foot using giant, horse-sized needles, and the operation began. Sean, my rock, had to leave the room after five minutes and was taken care of by the nurses outside. When he came back he looked paler than did. In his absence I hummed the Duran Duran back catalogue to distract myself. He says he was too warm. My bed was in front of the air-con unit. A very uncomfortable half hour later, and we were back at the hotel, extending our stay for a while... We stocked up on snacks and settled in for a few days in front of the TV. Law and Order re-runs on the only English speaking channel, or BBC World Service, or a couple of very dubious music channels. Unfortunately the antibiotics meant I felt sick most of the time and couldn't eat for 3 hours at a time. I taught Sean how to play Canasta so that occupied us for a while.

And this was our life in Samui from then on, apart from our daily struggle down to the hospital. A 2 minute walk which for me on crutches was about 25 minutes. We got to know the hotel menu very well. Sean managed to escape our cabin fever one evening as he was invited out for a drink with Chris and some of his mates. Laura wasn't really feeling up to it (and obviously can't get enough Law and Order). It was nice to get to know Bob, who would be taking us on our visa run the next day. I felt a bit bad leaving Laura on her own, but soon got over that. No joking, I felt bad but it was nice to socialise and walk at a normal pace and not snail's pace. Joking, I did miss my Jimmy Nail. Left early for our early start the next morning, slightly worried about whether Bob would get back safely having necked a few bevs and getting home by motorbike.