Back at Koh Samui yet again..

We've had a couple of thoroughly relaxing weeks here on the East coast of Thailand. Where we left off in the last blog we were then at Lipa Lodge on Samui enjoying a bit of luxury by the pool. After that we headed to Lamai which is the second biggest place on the Samui island, a bit touristy we'd heard but much quieter than busy Chaweng beach. We got to Lamai tough and after only a few hours had had enough of the expensive tourist shops, girlie bars and British and Swedish restaurants around (but I have to admit we did manage to get both an English steak & ale pie, fish & chips and Swedish köttbullar & mjölkmakaroner (meatballs & pasta) down our tummies first!)! So after a quick evening there we headed for the port the next morning and got the ferry over to Koh Phangan. That turned out to be an excellent move, as we had a great time on this lovely island.

Our first stop was Haad Yao, also called Long Beach as it is over 1 km long, where we had spent a couple of weeks together 5,5 years ago when we first met. We had heard that it had changed a lot but it was still surprising to see how much development had happened, not all of it good I have to say. Last time we had a great rustic little bungalow room with a porch and hammock with fantastic sea and beach view, which we had to hike up a steep little path up the cliffs at the end of the beach to get to. It was only a few bungalows and a restaurant spread out over the cliffs. This time we headed for the same cliffs only to find them swamped by three different resorts, and you could not even make the cliffs out anymore! So we promptly moved down the beach where it was less built up and spent the next few days lazying about on the beach and in our new hammock on our new porch (in yet another rustic wooden bungalow - but cheap!). We even caught up with Jack, a local Thai guy who worked in one of the restaurants when we were last here. Russ had told us (after his later visit) he now had his own bar and we had a couple of buckets of Samsung & coke (thai whisky) there one night and had a good chat with him! Yes you read right, you do not drink in glasses in Thailand, you drink in BUCKETS! ha ha. It is great!

After Haad Yao we headed off to the beach with the long name which I can never remember.. wait, it will come to me... Thong Nai Pan Yai on the Northeastern coast of the Phangan island. BEAUTIFUL!!! Absolutely gorgeous place! Highly recommended! Spent about four days there and feasted ourselves on fresh barbeque seafood every night - barracuda, tuna, and shark. Yummy! That and delicious baguettes at lunch time - I tell you what, no one does baguettes like the thais! Yummy in my tummy!

Between food, beach time and hmm.. more food!, we also managed to watch an excellent poi fire show by a group of local thais - one who was a thai champion - he did tricks we've never even seen before! Very cool and very thai.

After just over a week we are now back on Samui. Booked ourselves in for three nights at Lipa Lodge to get a good send-off before we go home, and today we've been relaxing by the pool whilst improving our tans. In a couple of days time it's off to Bangkok on the night train from SuraThani.

We will miss Thailand but we are also excited to go home! Jake just checked the weather though and it is way too cold in both England and Sweden at the moment so you guys have to sort that out before we get there! :)

Lots of love, Puss & Kram

A&J