Hello everyone,

Hope you are all well and had a great Christmas; it’s been a while since we last wrote and we have been having lots of fun and doing many great things. We are currently in our villa in Ko Samui but before that we went to Phuket and Krabi we have been up to so much and would probably bore you with it all, so here are some of the highlights:

To get to Phuket from Bangkok we had to get an over night coach which left at 6pm and got to Phuket the next day, around lunchtime. We boarded our coach managed to blag some good seats and got ready to settle down for the night. We started on our journey and were having a good time mummy again started cackling when the couple in front turned around shaking their head they couldn’t believe their eyes; this was the same couple in front who had to endure mummy’s cackling on the plane. We got talking to them and they were good fun. They had said that they were wondering what programme mummy was watching on the plane and that they had searched for the same channel. It seemed like it took days but we finally arrived in Phuket and settled into our hotel.

Our hotel rooms were lovely a bit different to mine and Stephanie’s usual digs! We hardly had time to put down our bags before we had to resume at the reception area at 14 hundred hours for our tour of Phuket to explore our surroundings. Team leader once again was in her element – the rest of us just wanted to find a restaurant and have lunch! The next morning we were granted our lie in from TL (team leader) we had brunch and headed to Patong beach where we set up camp for the day. Mummy and Danielle got very excited as this was their first beach. So much so they decided to get a foot massage from one of the Thai ladies this was not as relaxing as they thought and ended up with many bruises! The next day we went to a different beach called Kata beach, this beach had the biggest waves we had ever seen. We spent hours in the sea and only realised that night when we got back how sunburnt we were, even though we had smothered ourselves in factor 50. Our nights in Phuket were spent eating, drinking cocktails, meeting other travellers and dancing. On our last day in Phuket we went to Phuket Town to see the so called market which was a few shops selling nighties. TL made us walk around for ages to ‘soak up the culture and see how the locals live.’ All we ended up doing was going to a museum not just any old museum but a stamp museum. It has to be the most excited one we have been to yet. I truly did soak up the culture and as a result my life has been enriched with all this stamp knowledge. Our last night was no different to the others and we ended up in a club called Seduction. We had a shot of apple vodka on arrival, we all said cheers and it was down in one we turned around to see mummy sipping hers – she wanted to savour the taste, we told her it was a shot and she had to down it. It was finally gone in one glug and she once again was part of the gang, leading us to the dance floor. That night Mummy and Danielle finally got to see the worm being performed live in all its glory. We had so much fun that night and it definitely goes in our top ten!

The next morning we were off to Krabi we wanted to try and fit in as much of Thailand as possible. We had to get a ferry which took a couple of hours and then we got a tuk tuk to our hotel. While on the ferry it got a bit windy Stephanie was looking stylish in her trilby, when a gust of wind took the hat she thought it was gone forever when a lovely Irish guy saved the day by catching it, people on the ferry started to clap and cheer all was right again with the world when he placed it back on her head!

After arriving in Krabi and checking in Stephanie and I once again tried to soak up the even nicer hotel room as we knew this wouldn’t be lasting and we would soon be back to the hostels (this one even came with a balcony)! Our first full day in Krabi we did a speed boat trip around the surrounding islands. Including Phi Phi and Maya bay where the film The Beach was made it was absolutely stunning. The trip lasted the whole day and included lunch and snorkelling in different areas. We sat at the front and were informed it would be a bumpy ride but we took our chances anyway. Ten minutes in and the rest of the boat had had enough of us screaming, we stayed their though hanging on for dear life. The boat stopped and we all got our snorkels and life jackets ready to go snorkelling. Stephanie was unsure whether to go or not as she has a fear of the sea and the fishes, particularly eels for some strange reason! Only a couple of days ago she had braved the sea at the beach and stayed there for twenty minutes – we had, had a drink to celebrate. However she had faced her fear, strapped herself into her life jacket, had it checked by one of the staff to make sure it was secure, antibacked her snorkel and half and hour later she was ready to brave the sea. She worriedly stepped down into the sea and held on to the boat for a bit to steady her nerves, then she took a leap of faith lowered her head into the water and doggy paddled to meet the rest of us. No sooner had she done that she was hollering and screaming that a long black eel had swam past her. After scrambling back onto the boat she looked down and saw that what she thought was an eel was in fact a strap of her life jacket! Still too freaked out she stayed on the boat and did what she does best, took some photos of the scenery. All in all we had an amazing day and good fun was had by all.

After our stay in Krabi we were off again, this time to Ko Samui we stayed in a villa for just under 2 weeks. To get there we used about every transport possible one being a minibus, our driver had stayed up all night watching English football it has to be said he wasn’t at his best. Mummy was upfront next to him and us three were behind, we kept seeing him nodding off so we put the music on to keep him awake when that didn’t work and he was asleep for the third time mummy had to grab the wheel and manoeuvre us round a van. Looking back we can laughing about it, but at the time we were scared and just wanted the journey to be over! We finally arrived at our villa, it was lovely although it was a little far out from the main town and the beach the lady who runs the villa gave us free lifts to and from the beach which was really handy. We think that the lady’s highlight of the day was watching mummy trying to get in and out of the truck which was a huge step up, she kept trying to hide her amusement but towards the end of the week she was laughing out loud and even helping by pushing mummy up by her derrière!

Our first night out was for Stephanie’s pre birthday it was cocktails all night as usual and of course dancing, we had a great night out and met with our Irish friends we had made in Bangkok. The next day was Stephanie’s birthday and we all had an oil massage (we didn’t fancy a Thai massage as we heard it was good but hurts!). However it was not the most relaxing and felt like she was trying to abuse me. I then looked round and saw the other lady had linked her arms around Danielle’s and started to swing her around on the massage table I couldn’t stop laughing at how bizarre this was and the shocked look on Danielle’s face. That night we went out again for Stephanie’s actual birthday we were dancing in the club when the two lightweights were too tired and had to go back to the villa. Stephanie and I carried on dancing until we saw our reflection in the toilet mirror and decided to call it a night!

The next few days we stayed by the pool which had just been built and was lovely, the resort was not that busy at this time so most days we had the pool to ourselves.

The blog now takes a dramatic turn when mummy took to her sick bed and did not resurface for a few days during that time we stayed by the pool to look after the patient – it was very hard work! During this time was Christmas Eve and day. On Christmas Eve we went to a half moon party, there were different stalls with different games on each. One was a gambling stall where Danielle came away with more Bahts then when she started all the while the patient was still in bed. On Christmas day the plan had been to have Christmas dinner on the beach however mummy was so ill so we decided to go to Tesco Lotus and get some food. So on Christmas day there we were having dinner at Tesco’s food court while mummy was in bed sipping on a glass of a rehydration sachet. The day had started off well though when we received lots of presents from home, thank you so much to everyone they were really lovely – the chocolate especially!

Finally the patient was starting to recover and just in time for Danielle’s birthday where we went on another boat trip to go snorkelling this one was not as good as the other boat trip, as it turned out to be more of a ferry then a relaxing boat trip around the island. We saw some fish but not that many – again Stephanie stayed on the boat taking photos. That night we had dinner on the beach surrounded by fireworks and fairy lights! We then proceeded to a different club to shake our thang. On New Years Eve we went on a tour around Ko Samui seeing the different sights such as the grandma and grandpa rock and the big Buddha. When we got back we jumped in the pool and started on the wine. For dinner and the count down we went to the beach and met up with some of the people staying at the villas with us. We all had such a great night, we watched loads of fireworks on the beach it was the perfect end to the three weeks.

This blog was meant to be just the highlights however it has turned into more of an essay I do apologise! Hope you all had a wonderful New Year loads of love xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx