A belated very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone.......!

We had a wonderful xmas holiday with Michelle and Sam on an amazing Thai island in the middle of the Andaman Sea called Ko Lanta...lots of sun, sea, bbq fish and cocktail buckets of lethal local whiskey....Effects included dancing on bars with men in socks, drunken phonecalls, kissing strange men (Michelle) and naughty night-time nudie swimming!!

We partied a lot at the Ozone Bar, Bubble Jungle and at the swanky opening of a new bar called I-Bark.....all good messy fun! And we spent most evenings enjoying the local entertainment of firedancers, lady boy dance shows and losing at pool competitions. It seemed everyone was a firedancer....that is apart from the one drunken girl we saw who set her skirt on fire and completely failed to notice until someone rolled her into the sand. Happily she was last seen stumbling back up to the bar unscathed.

Tim and I did manage to achieve something of value....and are now official divers! It took a day in the classroom and four proper dives for us to pass and we both only nearly choked once! Its very odd and quite freaky breathing underwater sounding like Darth Vader but it is totally worth it when a turtle swims right past your head!!!

On one day we hired a jeep and set off to explore the island along the only road. Sights included a hammock shop, a restaurant boasting 'very nice views' at the lookout (which they were very nice indeed), a sea gypsy village, a rubber plantation and an elephant. We also went off road to reach the lighthouse but had to abandon the car and walk the rest of the way, much to Michelle's horror, because the road had turned into a super rough, holey dirt track! Spent the afternoon chilling on a pretty much deserted beach in a beautiful bay recovering from our intrepid adventures.

Us girls had a great day when we 'borrowed' the resorts tuk-tuk to recover Sam's lost mobile phone from the next beach along. After a successful mission, we decided it was only polite to decorate the tuk tuk with some traditional festive glamour before returning it to the slightly bemused owners. The santa hats were optional, but very fetching. Now I am determined to buy a motorbike with a side car, because apart from slight Bridget Jones-stylee windswept bouffant hair and one embarrassing incident when we stalled on a slight incline and everyone had to get off and push, it really is the only way to travel!

Had a great night watching proper Muay Thai boxing at the Ko Lanta stadium whilst eating unidentified meat on sticks. It is hard core fighting....even the tiny kids were properly greased up and one kid of about 12 knocked his tiny opponent out cold! But there is some style to it, its not just like beating the hell out of each other, there was at least some grace and some impressive moves!

Christmas Eve was spent celebrating with our old friends Claire and Lexie and gang.......and watching Tim try not to blow himself up with dubious Thai fireworks! Then we recovered all day on the beach before tucking into our tasty turkey dinner!! Hurrah!

It was really sad leaving the island but we have all vowed to return to Ko Lanta........watch this space!!