Hey hey hey!

We are finally updating the blog, whilst running away from the heat in Bangkok! What a couple of weeks we have had!

Since our last blog we have managed to visited the islands, koh Samui, Koh Phangan and then back to Bangkok again, doing a full loop!

From Bangkok we got a flight to Surat Thani, a god awful town that was full of rats and cockroaches. From the flight we got in a 'taxi' which was actually just a pick up truck with no evidence that he was a real taxi driver. Chris is a squashed front seat and then myself squashed in a very very tight back bench thing that had no padding whatsoever and our bags chucked in the back! Slightly unnerving, especially when he decided to go against the road signs and make his own way to the town centre, which took us down roads with no lights and wild dogs on the side. Chris began wondering where he had put his leatherman, just in case and realised in was in our big backpacks in the back because of the plane restrictions! Anyway, after a nerve racking 20 mins, we finally reached the lights of surat thani and jumped out of the taxi pronto into our run down hotel! A quick visit to the seven eleven took us past strip clubs with the girls outside, dodging cockroaches and jumping over rats. Needless to say, I was very happy to leave surat thani!

Koh Samui was brilliant however, a ferry from Surat Thani took us to Mae Nam, a pratically empty beach, but with mud like sand in the sea, so it was very squelchy underfoot! From our beach we could see Kho Phangan which was our next destination which was awesome. Our hut, though very basic was nice and fairly comfy (despite bed springs being dug into my back whilst I slept) and there was a very friendly golden lab, called Lilly, who not once did we see dry. She loved playing with the kids in the sea, and they loved throwing sand over her. At one point I was happily sunbathing, reading my book when suddenly I was splattered with sea water and sand from delightful Lilly shaking off the sand.

During our stay in Koh Samui we also decided we would hit the road on a moped (now Chris is uber keen for moped driving wherever we are after Sukhothai). However, you may not know that Samui has one of the highest rates of tourist death due to drivers and passangers not wearing helmets and coming off. Which reminded me of a sign we saw in Inida: "DON'T BE A HELLMATE - WEAR A HELMET" So, as you can guess, we definately wore helmets!

Our tour around Samui took us past gorgeous looking resorts which we were very jealous of, and the grandma and grandpa rocks, which as the Thai's put it, were rocks of sexual organs. Certainly an interesting sight. I have photos, I will put them up. These rocks are apparently 'natural' and were formed when two lovers were trying for a baby, unsuccessfully, but went on a boat trip and sadly died. These rocks formed soon after this.

We travelled through the various beaches and realised that actually our beach was certainly the quitest and one of the nicest - which made us very smug!

After Samui we hit Kho Phangan, home to the full moon party- which we didn't go to!

Kho Phangan has won the award for one of my favourite places. We stayed in huts called 'Seaflower bungalows' and we both fell in love with the place. Also, to add to the scenery, we had great company, in the form of Emma Arthurs and Jade Johnson! It was so great seeing them again (we saw them first in KL). We hit the beach everyday and ate far too much great food! The sea was crystal clear and therefore we saw lots of fish and HUGE sea annaomies (hard word to spell, probably incorrect!). They were very scary, especially when I was bobbing in the sea on my bag, went to stand up and about half a metre away was one of these beasts, with huge spikes just waiting for me to land my foot on it. I called Chris over who was keen to look at it through his new snorkel he had bought that day!

Kho Phangan's trip was also where we celebrated Songkran, the Thai new year, which we were all agreed was our favourite New Year celebration, EVER. Songkran was basically a massive water fight. All four of us hired a type of beach jeep (think of the film, 'clueless' and you're close to what we had!) we swapped who was in the open air back and got absolutley soaked. We visited Tom Sala which was the busiest beach nearby (our beach was practically deserted, just to add to the amazingness of it!) and went up and down the street, throwing water and being on the receviing end. Everyone was taking part, kids, mums, grandpas etc. It was such a great day and there was a great feeling in the air, not nasty or drunk etc. Amazing! After our trip our we were absolutly cream crackered and headed back to Seaflower. Jade surprised us with a huge Chinese lantern which we lit later in the night on the beach and watched it float in the air. As cliched as this sounds, that was magical and so pretty to watch. On the girls last day we had a bbq on the beach and Chris bought four smaller lanterns for each of us and we lit them, next to a very interested and excited londener who thought they were the coolest thing he had ever seen! Mine, unfortuantly manged to catch fire in the air and instead of being magical dropped into the sea in a burning inferno, we were very worried it was going to hit the fishing boats below. However the rest were beautifully flying off into the distance.

The girls started their 16 hour trip back home the day after, which involved a boat, a looooong bus trip and then a plane. Except the delightful volcano decided to shed its load and as I write this, they are still stuck in Bangkok.

The day after we headed back to Samui to spend time on another beach before hitting the flight to Bangkok. We had to go to Samui airport, which has won many awards for its design. We could see why. It was amazing! Unfirtuanly we were there at 4 in the morning, so none of the shops (including aa Whittards) were open. But the gates were brillaint, gorgeous huts with amazing comfy seats, free internet and a buffet full of cakes, drinking chocolate and danishes! YUM! The flight was only for 70 people (one guy has to unpack his 100 lighters he had try to take on- idiot!) and was on a propeller plane, which was a first for me!

This takes us to yesterday. We arrived in Bangkok, checked into our rather funky hostel and had a much needed doze! After I spent rather a lot in MBK, meeting the girls and chilled in the lovely air condition building. We were slightly worried it was going to be shut as the red shirt protesters here have shut down some of the main shopping centres in teh Siam area. We are hearing there could be around a million people protesting there! On our trip on the sky train we certainly heard them, unfortunaly we couldn't see them, I would have loved to have got some shots of them (although I am sure my parents and grandparents who are reading this are mightly glad we skipped a visit to the protests!)

We once again said our second goodbye to the girls as they were meant to be flying to Bahrain today to go home, and once again we heard this morning that their flights have yet again been cancelled, which leaves us to think- will we get home in less than a week?!

Anyway, we have had an amazing time in Thaialdn, I for one will be very sad to leave - but we are excited to see what Hong Kong brings us!

Missing you all and start to hope and pray Emma, Jade, myself and Chris will get home at some point soon!

Love you all lots xxxx