Weddings in Paradise and Lady Boy Chasers

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After saying goodbye to Bangkok he headed south on a sleeper bus, Jen and Amana sat together so I managed to get a bit of 'Craig Time' while the girls chatted the night away. It was Amanas first night bus, she was racking up those travelling points fast! It wasn't a great bus to get rest on, stopping every couple of hours and switching all the lights on for breaks, toilet stops, letting passengers on (I know.... those bloody passengers, how dare they!) We arrived in Surat Thani with it still being dark and all of us feeling especially knackered. We got straight on the ferry, which was actually a very nice journey, watching the sunrise against the sea and the multiple islands. When we all got ready to leave the boat we noticed a group of Russians, the reason why we noticed them is because they were being very lively and it became apparent that they were drinking all night. I don't know if it's because of age but drinking all the way through a night bus journey didn't seem appealing to me. The cherry on the cake was when we all got off the ferry then the loud hard euro-dance came on via a ghetto blaster help on top of one of their shoulders. A fusion of old school and new school, you had to laugh.

We stayed at this great little place, Samui Reef View Resort, it was kind of like semi-detached chalets all facing onto the pool area. The restaurant served great Thai food as well as western food... but who needs that when you have Thai food. The owner, Angus, looked after us so well. We ended up calling him 'Dad' and he called us 'kids' by the end of our stay. He made sure we got to places safely and always made an effort to talk to us and give us great advice. The next few days were spent meeting up with everyone, exploring the sites of the island and sunbathing. Mark and Lisa's hotel wasn't too far down the road and was very swanky. It had a couple of pools and one was right next to the beach. You could sense the excitement for the wedding. But before that we had the important matters of the stag and hen do!

All the boys met at Mark's hotel, when I got there Mark was already in his stag outfit. Mark was dressed up as a Hooters barmaid but his boobs were sagging out of the bottom of his top and instead of Hooters on his top, it said Droopers. Very funny.... for us, not for Mark. After a quick drink it was off to 'Football Golf', which turned out to be great fun. It consisted of kicking full sized footballs down a smaller sized golf course, not sure it needed a description but there you go. We were provided with beers at any point of the courses, ice cool towels at half way and we provided our own laughs. We were split into 2 groups and the other group, including the stag, quit half way through the course due to frustration. Our team was on form and I was happy to finish 3rd out of everyone (probably because the other group didn't finish and yes the rest of my team must have been really bad at football). Gilly finished first with a close second going to Rhys. A great start to the stag do, next step was to go back to the hotel and get ready for the second leg, an Indian, Thai boxing, then drinks. We met again at Mark's hotel for a few drinks and he was already in his 2nd outfit for the day, an all in one body stocking which can only be described as a gimp in a tuxedo, poor Mark. We cut some breathing holes into it so that Mark didn't die during the night. The food at the Indian was top notch and the banter was flowing. I don't think we stopped laughing. This was the first time I'd seen Thai boxing live and I was really looking forward to it. It started off as fairly young kids with the age increasing with each match. We even got Mark up into the ring so everyone could wish him a happy stag do. Things started getting a bit hazy. After that we went to various bars, we even bumped into the Hens, but as you could probably guess - we were keen to get away! It was at that point when people started going missing in action, Mark was taken home because we was 'slightly' drunk. I think someone fed him a drink called the Lady Boy Chaser (get to the internet if your not sure what this is). The night didn't last much longer after that, I ended up finishing the night with the Hens, not sure how that happened? It was definitely a successful stag do, thanks to Mark's best man Ollie.

Here's Jen to write about the Hen Do,

So having had a little rendezvous vous with some of the hens in Bangkok, and having met with the mums, aunts and the rest of the hens the day before we were ready for the day of the hen do, which was organised by Faye and Lauren (bridesmaids). We began the day by eating a huge fry up (thanks Angus) and met at Rocky Resort before we all jumped in a taxi to the dock to board our own private boat, which was ours for the day. The boat sailed around a couple of small islands and around the coast of the north of Koh Samui. It was a lovely, relaxing day with cheap booze, a special made hen cocktail, snacks and lots and lots of chatting, swimming and listening to music. Lisa was dressed in full hen gear (standard), which may have lasted only a fifteen minutes but it was plenty of time to take lots of pictures, certainly set the mood and make Lisa feel special as it was her day. Feeling a bit brave some people jumped off the roof of the boat into the sea and later on to get to a nearby beach we chose to either swim or get the dinghy. I had a little swim there teamed with Paul and James, but had to ditch them and swim solo as they were too slow for me and slow swimming in the sea for me means more time to think about what else may be lurking in the sea (ie sharks). After a lot of posing on the beach (we were at the W hotel beach after all) we all swam or dinghy back to the boat. This was when Paul discovered that one could hitch a ride on a plastic board which is attached to the dinghy with some rope. It was extremely entertaining to watch Paul hold on to the board for dear life whilst laughing and trying not to swallow too much sea water all at the same time! Wanting to share his fun, the bride to be was next and she loved every second! Excellent time had by all!

After the time on the boat it was a quick turnaround at the hotel to get back out for dinner. Again, this was very nice and dinner involved our own private table lit by candles on he the beach at the Annapurna resort. The food was great and Lisa had a lovely surprise from one miss Wendy Whittaker of a bottle of champers all the way from England. The food was delicious, you could tell this is a fancy place. It was a lovely treat for everyone. Following here it was time to go to the drag show at Chaweng. We were made to feel very welcome from the start and we got sat with a great view and before the start made time for a couple of drinks as we waited for it to begin. The show was great with a couple of great acts including, Cher, Lady Gaga, Tina turner and Whitney Houston. We were loving it. We also made new friends, one of who was a waiter with pink high heals and a Mickey Mouse hat who clearly wanted to be in on the acts, but his time had not yet come. I'm hoping now he is the lead. Of course, the bride to be Lisa was asked to come up on stage and this was great to see her on stage and all the attention on her, she acted like a pro, I would have been so flustered with a 7ft drag queen asking me questions in front of a huge crowd.

To finish any hen night off, of course, next you need some dancing. Following on from the drag show theme we headed to a local gay bar and got the alcohol and dancing going. We even bumped into some very drunk stags with matching t shirts on, we pointed them in the opposite direction and carried on our fun. I ventured home a little early (can't hack it), but the rest of the hens went to a bar which had a hed kandi night on (should have stayed out a little longer) and danced for a couple more hours before coming home. They managed to round up one drunk ranga stag who they found roaming the streets on his own as well... So all in all, a successful day. Well done bridesmaids for organising it.

The wedding day arrived Angus (Dad) gave us lift to the wedding and when we arrived at Rockys and most people were there, everyone was looking particularly dapper. There's nothing like having a few drinks at a beachside bar, all dressed up. We got to meet family members (if we already hadn't on the stag or hen do) Mark's Mum and Dad, the infamous Uncle Paul (we shall call him the groper) and Lisa's Mum, Brother and Aunties. Everyone was getting into the swing of things, drinking, chatting and counting down the minutes to the big moment. Mark wasn't looking too nervous, maybe he hides it well...... I don't know. When it was time we were all headed down to the beach front where the hotel had set up a red carpet sided by chairs with a romantic little gazebo - where the vows were to take place. Somehow both me and Jen had managed to get the role of videoing the ceremony, me on the handy cam and Jen on the 'big' camera. I wasn't sure how nervous Mark was but I was starting to feel quite shaky, what if I get the wrong angle, what if I didn't zoom in enough, what if I missed some of the ceremony.............. get a grip Craig was probably what I should of been thinking. Well the music started and the bride came, preceded by her lovely bridesmaids. Lisa looked very pretty in her dress, I'm assured it was a very Grecian look, and met Mark (Obviously Mark looked handsome as well) under the gazebo. After their heartfelt vows there was some traditional Thai dancing and then it was the photos. All done on the beach, this was great fun.

Next was the speeches then the food (the best part of weddings!). The speeches were brilliant, Lisa had a 'best man style' speech by her best mate Paul. With hilarious pictures of her and Mark looking identical to funny stories of what Paul and Lisa got up to when they were younger, the place was in stitches. Mark got 'done' well by his best man, Olly, my memory was getting a bit vague by then but I do remember I laughed a lot. There was a never ending supply of wine, probably the cause of the vagueness! The food was a Thai buffet which was amazing! A great do ended with some boogieing on the dance floor, oh and Mark, Olly and the usher all trying to recreate the scene from dirty dancing where Patrick Swazye balances 'baby' above his head, except Mark (probably being about 14 stone) was 'baby' in this 'drunken' scene. Well it didn't end well with Mark near enough face-planting on the floor, fortunately there was no serious damage done. That was the end of the night and it went far too quickly, as per usual. Fun was had by all and it was great to be there for Mark and Lisa's wedding.

While we were here it was a certain Lauren's 30th birthday. We all met in a bar with a live band, well what a treat, it was really bad covers with a lady boy singer who struggled to pronounce the words properly, it certainly was entertaining. Around the island we'd seen these BBQ type restaurants which display all their fresh fish out the front. Lauren wanted to go to one of these places, then onto a few bars for a drink and a dance. The food was amazing, I got a fish platter which consisted of prawns, octopus, snapper, crab all done on the BBQ. Jen got the meat equivalent, it was safe to say we both left that restaurant satisfied. Next it was onto a bar to continue the celebrations, by this point Lauren wasn't feeling too well so unfortunately she had to go home. After a few more drinks people started to make there way home which left Jen, Amana and me to party the night away. We did Lauren proud.

We wanted to do some site seeing so we took a taxi up to the Giant Buddha they have, we were dropped off by some tat shops which were close to the monument. Mainly the usual stuff but they also had places dedicated to statues made from nuts, bolts and similar metal components. Some small and some life size model of Predator, the alien from Alien, Iron Man, Spider-Man, different. Transformers. They were pretty cool until you went into the 4th shop all selling the same models. The Buddha itself was huge and set on top of a hill. It's definitely worth a trip here, just to break up the pool & and beach time relaxing. Before we went up we spotted a monk giving out blessings so Jen and Amana joined the blessing queue while, I took photos and held their stuff. All their previous sins were washed away, the slate was wiped clean (apparently). They came back with a bindi and a string bracelet each. We also donated some money which meant we could sign one of the slates they were using to renovate the roof surrounding the Buddha, if we ever came back we could search for our names! After a quick wander round the monument, multiple photos we made our way back to Lamai Beach. We only spent a couple of hours here and it's quite a busy beach, we didn't really get a chance to get a feel for it.

Kon Samui is nice island I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is looking to relax by the beach.

Next stop................... Koh Lipe

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Comments

[MOMMA tONI]

Nice place for a wedding!
Hii looked like really wild stag and hen night! well what can i say it looks so beautiful the venue and how lovely the wedding table all set out so crisp white and nice, the food sounds gorgeous yummy, glad it all went well and hope you enjoy your next location! lots of love Momma Toni xxxxxxx