Merry Christmas from Koh Samui!! We'd love to say that the weather is as good as the picture here, but we've had quite an English Christmas as regards the weather - absolutely lashed down!!! Streets were flooded and, as per usual, didn't have a coat, so we looked like drownded rats walking home! Xmas Eve: Started Xmas Eve with the "compulsary' gala dinner in the hotel we were staying in. Food was lovely, but the rest was extremely lacking! Had the worst 'entertainment' in the west, no free booze, and Santa's present (which we were well excited about) was a measly sparkler and jelly sweet (which were Dracula's fangs, think they were stuff left over from Halloween and Bonfire Night!) How rude! To top it all off, they'd newly re-varnished the chairs especially for the occasion, so Nat, who was wearing a long skirt, also ended up with a ruined skirt - just what Santa ordered! Needless to say, we left then and went to The Islander to get throughly pissed! All started well, beers were flowing etc, then the Christmas music started, some rowdy Irish lads started singing and Nat's tears started. Only a little bit of a cry though, the Jack Daniels soon sorted her out, especially when some Scottish lads took pity and started buying more! Went round to the main strip of bars, got more drunk and danced with randoms, hardly noticed the rain!! Eventually rolled in about 6am, when Anna received a drunken phone call (cos we love you loads!) Have to say though, we really missed the traditional Priory piss-up, but drinking helped block the pain! Xmas Day: Eventually dragged ourselves out of bed to go for our Xmas dinner in The Islander. Was fantastique! Felt throughly stuffed afterwards, but gave it a bit of time to settle, then felt adequately rested enough to start drinking again! It was at this point that we realised we had become regulars in the Islander, when we didn't have to give our drinks order in, a bottle of Tiger beer and a bottle of Chang just appeared!! Was just going to have a few, but the rain grew steadily worse until it was a downpour, so we got rained in again! Made a dash for another bar when we eventually got chucked out, and got throughly drowned! The rain eventually lessened about 6am, so we went home in a sodden heap - we looked stunning! Boxing Day: Was spent mincing round the hotel room, not watching HBO (cos they didn't have it - ruuude!), but watching BBc world - very informative. Hunger forced us out at 4pm, we then booked our PADI Scuba Diving course in Koh Tao for the next day. Then we eventually made it to, yep, you guessed it, The Islander to watch the footie. Was a fairly quiet night, as we had to be up at the crack of dawn to catch the boat, so not much beer. All in all, we had a good Xmas, mostly spent in a drunken stupor or in bed (not much different than at home then!) We're off to Koh Tao tomorrow, so won't be much drink consumed while we do our PADI course - don't want to scare the fishes away with morning after rough looks!