Christmas - Hogmany and beyond

Friday 23rd Dec - Well 30 years ago my mother gave birth to me on this day, Mam you lucky thing and what's especially special is that it is also my Mam's birthday the same day.

So i started the day off nice and slow, i thought since I'm celebrating the big day in thailand that i should treasure the moments. I decided that today should be about moi so i got a thai message, a manicure and a pedicure, (now over here you could actually afford to get these everyday) so then it was time for me to spend more of al's money so off we went shopping. I also called my Mam to wish her a happy birthday. We then had a bottle of champers before dinner and had a fabulous snapper dinner on the beach followed by many many many cocktails, it was a momentous and fantastic day.

Christmas Eve and Day.

There is something quite strange about waking up with the sun splitting the trees and you having to drag yourself out of bed to lie on the beach at christmas but we managed to do :-} Xmas Eve we drank, ate and watched the fireworks on the beach which was special, we drank some more and bought our flashy santa hats (see the pics).

Xmas day was spent on the beach letting the night's before drink be soaked away. We phoned home and then headed out for our dinner, We both had BBQ Lobster with a side salad and a baked spud, no words can describe how good it was, we ate it on the beach with a couple of carafe's of wine, we watched the fireworks display on the beach and then headed to our "local" called Legends for our nightly cocktails.

So we spent the 26th - 27th in Ko samui and then we headed for Phuket on Wednesday the 28th and what a day that was.........

We started it off at 5.45am and got picked up from our hut at 6.30am and got driven to the pier where we got our ferry across to the mainland where we understood that we would get on a bus direct to phuket and arrive there at 3.00pm, happy days EXCEPT when we arrived at the mainland we had to get on a bus not sure if it was the right one or not but the staff at the bus just kinda said yes correct bus and push ya on, so there we are sitting on the bus wondering where it was going to take us, it was in fact taking us to sarat thani which was not the plan, however we ended up sitting across from a lovely couple Amber and Juan who were traveling around like us, they were trying to get to burma.

So then we had to change on to this mini bus that was after waiting an hour for it at this dodgy place, the air-con didn't really work on the bus and we managed to get the seats behind the driver which turned out to be the worst as the engine is right there so the floor of the bus was on fire, you couldn't actually put your feet down, but we thought it was only a few hours until we reached phuket BUT then Al turned to me and says "There's Krabi international airport" i could not believe it as i looked out the window in dismay the fact that we were in Krabi after having to put up with the ride from hell.

So here we had to change bus again, so we waited about 2 hrs then climbed on another minibus not knowing where the hell this one was going to take us, they told us Phuket but i was suspicious by now.

So the adventure began, we sat down the back of the bus this time and started talking to this french bloke called Jerome who was after coming up from Kuala Lumpur. So happily chatting away and then the bus stops, we are only in it about 5 mins, driver gets out and wonders off for awhile, there was a lady on the bus who needed to be at phuket airport for 5.30, they told us the bus would take 2 hours and this now it was heading for 3.00, she was not a happy camper, now also bear in mind that we were told originally that we would be in Phuket for 3.00.

So driver comes back and we set off, then we stop again further down the road and off again then we stop again and these 3 people get on, who originally were getting on back in krabi and then didn't and now here they are again, so on we go and then stop at a police station, driver gets out gives something to a police and back in again, we drop the lady off at the airport at 5.25 and then on to phuket town or so we thought, they seem to do this thing over here, where you get a bus to somewhere but they always manage to stop at travel shops, where you get hounded for either accommodation or taxi's, so at this stage, al's is livid, I'm knackered and Jerome is confused and annoyed as he was heading for Karon and had paid for a taxi in krabi to bring him there but it wasn't happening, Would you believe that they made us wait 1 1/2 hours before bringing us into Phuket and we were supposed to be dropped at the bus station but the driver chucked us out, we actually don't know where at 7.30 pm.

We had luckily booked our hostel but it is in chalong, so we had to barter to get a tuk tuk and hope for the best, we brought Jerome with us because he had no where booked. By the time we arrived at the hostel we had been on the go for 13 hours, We ate and slept.

Phuket

Where we are staying is actually in middle of nowhere, we have some lovely chickens and cockerels for neighbours, who do the lovely cock a doodle doo in the morning and actually about 1 ish am every morning, we are 4 days into it now so getting used to it.

We have went to Karon beach where we got the most fantastic sunset, that's what i like about thailand they have great sunsets. The next day we got a boat out to Ko Phi Phi, went snorkeling at "Maya bay" at Phi Phi Le which is uninhabited except for the cave people, we toured around the island before landing at Phi Phi Don this was totally destroyed by the tsunami and they are rebuilding there was a guy at the pier who showed us before and after pictures and it was just unbelievable, everything was gone. It was a great day and at the end of it we meet up with Jerome and Rob the canadian and had a few drinks at the hostel.

New years day

We went to Kata Beach and chilled out on the beach until the sun went down and then found this really cool bar right at the end of the beach just actually built into the rocks called the "Ska Bar" it's a reggae bar, so we sat there had a few beers and a few more and just ended up staying there it was just so cool, we meet this crazy italian couple Alessandro and Patty, who gave us great entertainment for the night, they must have taken about 100 or more pictures in the space of a few hours including ones of us, they sure knew how to enjoy themselves, we sang the new year in with fireworks over head and cocktails in our hands, it was fantastic.

At the moment we are just beaching it each day, having a few bevvies in the evening and just living it up. We leave Phuket on Friday and head off to Kuala Lumpur for a few days, al is looking forward to seeing the petronas towers (for those of you who don't know what these are they are in the movie "entrapment" with Sean Connery & Catherine Zeta Jones) We will try and keep you updated as much as possible.