My early 40th Birthday Treat

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We spent a few days in Penang. It was dirty & smelly ( we even saw a rat in an open drain), so didnt do an awful lot apart from see a couple of mosques & visited Fort Cornwallis. The Fort was where a Brit, Sir Francis Light first stepped ashore in 1796. Wont bore you with any more details, but it was quite interesting to be there.

After that we got the ferry back to Butterworth & a train over the boarder to Thailand. The seats were comfortable for the long journey & made up into beds at night. We arrived after midnight at Surit Thani with no accomodation booked. Luckily there was a taxi there that took us to a cheap hotel. It was the first time we felt uneasy. 2 men in an unmarked taxi, late at night, with no idea where we were going, but all ok. Just relieved to get to the hotel. Just one night there & then a bus to the port & another ferry over to Koh Samui.

Koh Samui is a real tourist island & we werent sure whether it was a good idea to go there, but it was en route to the other 2 islands we wanted to see, so thought a couple of days there would be ok. It was surprisingly better than I anticipated. We stayed in an ok hotel on the beach which had a pool. There were loads of shops & restaurants but that was about it.

Our next island was Koh Pha Ngan. Seeing as my 40th birthday will not be as we planned with a 6 week old baby, Miles treated me to my dream hotel. We stayed in a villa with its own private infinity pool & outdoor bathroom overlooking the bay. Heaven is all I can say. Talk about as happy as a pig in sh*t. Spent so much time in the pool & we even had room service. Felt like we had won the lottery.

We are now in Ko Tao for a few days. Planning on doing some snorkelling & maybe an island trip. Nice beach & good atmosphere. Back to basic accomodation!!

We will then go back on the mainland, a couple of more stops on our way back to Bangkok before our flight home. So only a couple more updates to bore you with & thats it.

Love to you all xxx

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