f*** it, let's get a bucket...Koh Samui and Koh Phangan

Next stop was Koh Samui which meant another 2 hours on the rough Thailand seas. We have decided that the only way to beat sea sickness is to sleep, even if this does pose a high risk of being seen sleeping mouth open and/or dribbling on public transport (again). I guess it's better than throwing up on public transport (again Lodge).

Samui is lovely again, but larger and much more built up that Koh Tao. While in Samui we're staying on Chaweng Beach at the Chaweng Palace - this we were looking forward to after four nights in the 'garage' but it seems a fair amount of artistic license has been used in the naming of the place. It's not quite a palace, but it's nice enough and the bathroom even has hot and cold water...or at least we thought. After six days withour hot water, we were excited about a hot shower but it transpired that our room had no water what so ever. The man at reception (who slept on the floor under his desk) was in no rush to do anything and said he'd sort us out a new room the next day. Cold water showers we can deal with but if he thought we were going to wash our hair with the butt gun he had another thing coming! So we got ourselves a new and much nicer room, this one even had windows. Wowzer. It was even worth the move down four flights of stairs laidened with half unpacked backpacks, a beach bag and a handbag each, a bag of crisps, two vodka and cokes...all with Lodge in a bikini (who ended up dead ant style on the first landing) and me in a towel!

Our first day in Samui, we walked to the beach a few minutes from our palace and treated ourselves to some beach towels and a bat and ball on the way. I also decided I'd have an ice cream...what a big mistake. Having bought a Cornetto from Sot, an ice cream man walking up and down the beach, he proveeded to sit on the end of my towel and watch me eat it while attempting to talk to me in very bad English. Lodge found this hilarious and being a good friend, went back to reading her book while uncontrolably laughing at my attempts to get rid of Sot. He ended up sitting with us for an hour and a half and offered Lodge 200 baht (about four pounds) to buy me...well this is what we think he meant from his very basic English and his attempts to write to us in the sand using Thai words. I got back to writing in my notebook, hoping that ignorning him might make him go away, instead he insisted on helping me by holding the pages to stop them blowing in the wind whilst signalling to LOdge over my head that we were "good friends" and he loved me. I tried to tell him I had a husband but I think he took this as "will you be my husband" rather than "f*** off". He even offered Lodge 30 baht to go and sell his ice creams for him so he could sit with me alone, thankfully she was having too much fun encouraging him to pose in pictures with me so he stayed. He eventually got the message and left, but not before making a date for 7am the next day to meet him back at the beach. So on Tuesday in an attempt to avoid my potential Thai husband (sorry Jen, I know you want a Thai brother in law) we went to a beach 10km away just around the island in Lamai which was idyllic, really quiet with golden sand and clear water and most importantly - no Sot. So this is where we spent our second day.

Night times in Samui are much more lively and we found a place to have a little boogie. Chaweng in almost like a mini Malia in the centre, so we spent both Monday and Tuesday night there. We met a couple of English guys on the first night, Ian and Laurence (or Peter Crouch as we liked to call him) who was 6'8 and then met up with them again the following night too. It was in Samui we had our first experience of the Bucket and Thai Red Bull - which sent Lodge even crazier than her normal self. In the end, two heavy nights caught up with us and the Wednesday we spent incredibly hung over (especially poor little Lodgie) and asleep in bed. Thankfully, it was absolutely pouring with rain outside so we didn't miss any sunshine.

Thursday we headed to Koh Phangan for the Black Moon Party. Only a half hour boat ride away and a smooth ride this time so we were at our hotel and on the beach by lunchtime. In the evening we made friends with some others staying at our hotel and had a few drinks with them before heading to the party where we met up with some other friends from Samui. Much like the full moon parties, it was on the beach, everyone was covered in Neon body paint and drinking from buckets. It all resulted in a very large hangover the next day and a pile of Lodge's clothes soaking wet from her swimming race back at the hotel swimming pool with Dan, one of the guys staying opposite...which she only marginaly lost because he was "longer" than her.

On the Friday we braved our hangovers and headed out on a mini Moped adventure around the island to find bottle beach with our new friends Ed, Dan, Harry, Ian and Laurence but after taking the longest, bumpiest and hilliest route possible, we came to a dead end (neither Lodge or I had anything to do with navigating before you ask!) so a few roadside snacks later we gave in to our need to nap and headed back only to find that our pick up for the boat the next day meant a 6am start...the news of which almost made us faint so we were home, tucked up in bed by 8:30.

Next stop, Krabi...