Ko Samui Heaven

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Hey everybody,

Hope your all well? We are great - we're in Koh Samui and its gorgeous!

Bangkok was interesting, I think that we need to go back in an 'un-jet lagged' manner to really enjoy it. Our hostel was a bit dodgy! the beds were like something from a Thai prison camp and having somebody going for a dump in a cubicle next to you while you are having a shower takes a bit of getting used to! There was a 5 day national holiday announced last week (the Thai's are not into forward planning!) for this week to celebrate the kings 60th anniversary! These guys really buy into the whole monarchy thing - there are adverts on every billboard and every paper from companies congratulating the him on sticking it out! and literally EVERYBODY in Bangkok was wearing these yellow t-shirts tp celebrate the date.

We hired a long boat down the main river in bangkok (can't remember the name right now) to the floating markets which were what I expected, everything is really close together with every spare bit of room being used by somebody for something! As a result the place smells really bizarre - within 100 metres you get overpowered by sewage, pollution, spices, aftershave (especially on the skytrains) and sweat! Its really odd the things that you see - one minute you see some kid peeing in the river the next minute there is a two metre monitor lizard eating a fish on the Banks! Later that day the king came up the river on some kind of processional barge! Looked great but we had no idea what was going on!

Anyways because we were struggling and also because half of bangkok was closed we decided to catch a sleeper train to Surat Thani and then a ferry to Ko Samui! The train was brilliant, really cheap and great thai food - some of the towns we passed along the way had fireworks to celebrate the date, we couldn't have timed it better. We ended up playing cards on my bunk until about 1 ish (jet lag again) before falling asleep.

Got to Surat Thani about 5 in the morning and were greeted by a load of touts trying to sell tickets to the islands, we met an English guy that lives here for most of the year on the ferry on the way over! He was sound with some pretty good advise on where to stay. We went back to his place in Bo Phut for a cuppa and he took us around to find a place.

We got a room in a place called Bang Rak, which is absolutely gorgeous, right on the beach with Koh Pangan in the background. We've been chilling out here ever since, hired a bike and drove around the Island - been to a few big Budda statues and seen some massive tigers (in a show - relax mam!), got to feed a baby elephant and Dulce was playing with an otter!!! we also went to an aquariam where we got the chance to feed sea lions that looked like they had been munching on creatine bars - they were huge. Watched the English match at a bar in a Bo Put with a load of Ex Pats!! Really boring but got hammered and ended up walking home 4 miles as it was getting bright with some girls from England!

Dulce has adopted a dog! he sits by her feet everytime we go to eat and follows her into the sea when she goes swimming, we think he's a labradoodle or something like that - we've called him Sammy!!

Think we're going to stay here for another day or two and then catch the ferry to Ko Pangan and then Koh Toi - not sure whats over there so may not update for a while - probably best after the length of this one!

Oh yeah, one final thing - its hot, very hot never below 30 and usually about 37 or so!!

Take care and see you all soon!

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Comments

[kazza]

hey dooshbags
I'm so bitter! The pictures are great esp. the cheesy grins ep ep ep!!! and awwww u'll haveta get sammy home some how! all's good in the hood here in san josé. take it squeezy & enjoy yoursselves ;)