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Published: December 22nd 2012
Hong Kong
This is about as much as we saw of it!December 22nd: Written by K Vipond (This is a one-sided account! Andy to write next entry)
Two weeks ago today we were 'tying the knot', this seems like an age ago already and I have a lot to write in this entry so I hope you are sitting comfortably...
Almost the second we left Tiverton for Heathrow I started feeling terrible, I had a cold for the few days leading up to the wedding but refused to let such a thing dampen our big day and somehow with a lot lemsip and paracetemol managed to surpress it, as soon as the wedding was over it all hit me, I have no idea how we managed to make it to Heathrow in one piece but thankfully we did, only one minor incident when I accidently drove down a works service entrance in the roadworks much to Andys horror!
By the time we had got to Hong Kong I was in big trouble; seating, coughing and feeling dizzy, this was not how I imagined looking on my first day of married life! We managed to make it through immigration without being stopped by the 'health inspectors' on the way into
Swans
Warning: First of many towel animal pictures! Hong Kong and collected our luggage, just about managed to make it across the aircon sky bridge to out hotel where I collapsed into bed and slept until the last second the next day, my this time Andy was coming down with my lurgee aswell and was also asleep by 8pm, this is all we have to report from Hong Kong - not the night out we had planned!
The following day we went back to the airport, I had a McDonalds (Quarter pounder with cheese) which I was sure could solve most of lifes problems but still felt barely human, and off we went to Thailand. Amazing fight on Singapore air (Favourite airline so far) and later that evening to arrived in Phuket, past the scamming taxi drivers and to our shuttle. On the flight I watched a 60 min documentary about Thailand scams including a segment on the Phuket 'Taxi mafai' so we were pleased to have our shuttle pre arranged - at least we were knowingly paying over the odds.
I think we were both amazed when we got to the resort, we expected luxury but this was something else, the Atleenta resort was amazing,
Jacquizzi bath with petals
We need to get one of these at home we had a huge beachfront suite and when we arrived they had run the jacquizzi bath for us, put cancldes, wine and chocolates in our room and we had a pre loaded ipod playing romantic music. It was perfect, this is what I pictured for honeymoon but puking up in a Hong Kong airport hotel. We spent 2 perfect day in Aleenta soaking up the sun on the world most comfy sunloungers and recoperating from the wedding exertions. We loved this resort but I did have a frightening experience on the first night when we headed to the resort restaurant. Anyone who knows me will have heard me whine about my intolerence to spice, I'm the person at nandos who gets watery eyes from the lemon and herb burger, so imagine my surprise when I inadvertently ate a whole chili, even the memory of this is making me wince, 'burning' mouth does not even come close to describing it! I looked over to Andy who was also crying/sweating and knew I was in trouble, my only relief was that I had ordered a strawbery milkshake which swiftly got drunk. Who knews that Thai salad were 'very very spicy'? We thought
Andy playing 'Goalie'
No 'kids club' at this resort we were being heahtly having a salad starter, this was the first and last salad I ate in Thailand.
Our next destination was the Akaryn resort on the island of Koh Samui, it's the sister hotel to the Aleetna so we had high hopes, and we werent disappointed, this too was an amazing hotel and we were upgraded to a larger suite with a massive private pool, we spent much of our time by the pool chilling out, also the gym was opposite our room which was great as an 'out of side, out of mind' tactic couldn't be apopted and we managed to make it there most days.
Visiting Thailand in December we were prepared for a mixed bag on the weather but apart from one days it was hot and sunny the whole time, but on the day it rained it really rained, we were awoken by the loudest storm we've even heard which went on the whole night and the whole of the following day, we didn't mind though as we discovered a love of the discovery channel! My dad had subjected me to many hours of 'how its made' but discovery seems to have
Aleenta Resort
Amazing View from our pool moved on and we have become hooked to shows like 'Alaskian pilots' and 'I almost got away with it'.
Once the storm passed we soon got back into out lazy day routine, was a bit surprised when Andy declared on the first day that we couldn't understand why anyone would want to read a book on holiday - I took this to mean me reading any books was out of the question, unlike on our family holiday to Cyprus there were no children to keep him occuiped, so I became the one to wrestle with in the pool, challenge to handstand duels and chase into the sea. Luckily with this resort it was more accessible so we were able to get out of the resort and go to local restaurants and shops. And the inevitable happened, the first restaurant we went into it was run by a brit! Luckily he was married to a Thai woman who cooked amazing food, I recounted my Chili horror story and he promised none would go near my food so this made me happy.
After Koh Samui we jetted my speedboat to Koh Samui for the final leg of our island escape
Akaryn Resort Koh Samui
A nice welcome, cool towels and mini dessert to Koh Phangan, and against the odds this resort was even nicer, there was somd kind of mix up with our booking so we had to move room half way through out stay - to compensate us (wasn't really inconveneient as they moved all of our stuff for us) we were upgraded, given our speedboat journey for free and treated to a lovely bbq dinner with complimentary wine! Also this resort upped the ante on the honeymoon touched by not only having towel swans on arrival but putting a towel elephant in our room mid stay. The Santhiya resort was a lot more 'rugged' in the jungle where the mosquittos were fierce but the views amazing and it a lot more of a secluded feel to it; on the downside it was VERY hilly - the only thing I can compare it to as the hill at Lynton & Lynmouth for any Devon folk and some days we walked it 4 times! There was a complimentary car but I knew Andy wouldn't let us use it; if he made me walk the length and breath of Rome I was definitely walking around a resort! I indulged in spa treatments here
which were very relaxing and we both spent a lot of time in our pool, in the evening there was a nearby beach where we had dinners on the shore and I know this is a place we will remember fondly.
But as they say all things have to come to an end and for us that meant a 17 hour bus journey to Bangkok with the driver going like a bat out of hell and us fearing for our lives, I've been to Asia a few times but I don't think the scary driving is ever something you get used to! We got off the bus into a taxi with a driver that spoke no English but somehow we arrived near enough at our destination. We had some vague designs on visiting the palace but we decided to give this a miss on the grounds Andy isn't fussed and I've been there before, instead we're making the most of our last 2 nights in luxury before 'slumming it' for the rest of the trip, we've had yummy food and been to a cinema where the seats are like beds and watched 'Cloud Atlas' (Recommend this!).
We've had
Feeling the burn!
Sweating it out in a very hot gym an amazing time in Thailand and although we've only really scratched the surface of the 'real' Thailand we have a lot of memories to take away, it's such a vibrant country but there's also the uglier side you don't need in the 5 star resort that we've experiences when travelling between, the horrribly disabled people lying on the street begging, the people dying in the road after being knocked on their mopeds and other drivers just going around them and the obvious poverty of a lot of the population. I think it's given us both a new appreciation of how lucky we are to live in a developed country and both have jobs to have the standard of life that we do.
I have to stop typing in a second as I have a date with my husband, a pot noodle and live Saturday premier league action (Amazing benefit of time difference and international football rights!).
I hope everyone has enjoyed reading our update, we are a little sad to be missing all the Christmas festivities with family and friends and Andy is gutted he doesn't get any damned bread sauce but we wish everyone a fantastic Christmas
and New Year and hopefully our next blog entry will be full of our exciting tales from Australia!
Love Kate & Andy x
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jed
non-member comment
towels
I liked the elephant x