Bangkok and Ko Samui

So we arrived in Bangkok after what seemed like quite a quick flight (10 hours) I think we were both so tired we slept for most of it! Have to say Qantas are very laid back so I didn't think much to the service but the in flight films were good although I only had time to watch 1 (time travellers wife brilliant film). Our hotel was lovely but a bit out of the way which we didn't realise until we tried to walk to find the action and after about half an hour of finding 'not a lot' we realised we might need to get a taxi, unfortunately the mixture of us being brits, jet lagged, not speaking thai and it being the Kings Birthday we struggled to get to the action with a taxi too!! Tried to get to China town as from experience you always find a buzz there but unluckily our taxi driver drove for what seemed like forever and dropped at us at a restaurant, didn't look much like China town so I went to investigate to see if I could find more stalls etc but found my self in the restaurant kitchen ops! Oh well we thought we'd eat while we watched a Thai Elvis impersonator which was quite amusing, the bill wasn't so amusing, they added service charge and taxes so our cheap meal turned out to be quite expensive in thai terms - oh well lesson learnt! I won't bore you with it but safe to say it was equally as difficult to get back to the hotel especially as we couldn't remember what the hotel was called!! Got ourselves some credit for our thai sim only to find out it has expired in September (ripped off!) Finally got a new sim so this is our Thai number for those who wanna text or call +66 8 05940905.

We decided to hire a guy to drive us around the next day as they were still celebrating the Kings birthday (so roads etc very busy) so thought that would be safer than braving it on our own! We went to Limpini park which is I guess a bit like London's Hyde park, they do thai chi there in the mornings and there are markets there at night time.

Then we went to the Grand Palace but unfortunately because it was the Kings Birthday he'd closed his palace (how selfish ;) but we got to go to the temples next door and see the BIG Buddha which was fab, we were told to cover up hence our clothing - it was rather hot.

After doing a bit of the tourist trail in Bangkok we decided it was time to get to the beach so we booked flights to Ko Samiu which is an Island in southern Thailand. When we arrived we got a mini bus to drop us off at a hostel we'd read about int he Lonely Planet, now you're told not to trust taxi drivers who will tell you places are closed and try to take you else where so when the taxi driver said our hostel was having building works we didn't believe him (thinking we were being very clever!) so he dropped off us and then we realised he was right the hostel was building site! So we were stranded with all our bags and no taxi. Luckily after a small trek up a hill a guy offered to drive us (for a fee of course) so he took us to a hostel in Chaweng which wasn't very nice so we got him to drive us to a few more and finally we found a lovely hostel by the beach. We soon made Friends within about 5 minutes of putting our bags down which was great.

Ko Samui is said to be very busy particularly in Chaweng but we haven't found it that busy and it feels a little like home with a Boots, Mc Donalds, Pizza Hut, Burger King and Starbucks (much to my delight), however the large amount of Lady Boys doesn't remind us of home!!

The beach is lovely with lots of sun loungers which you don't have to pay for! At night time they change the loungers into tables and put lights up, play music and the whole beach becomes outdoor restaurants it's amazing. There are fire throwers (which I love) fireworks and of course the 'same same but different' people that sell everything and anything day and night on the beach! the funniest is the guys with curtains, why would you want to buy curtains while your sunbathing, well I realised he also sells more illegal things that are hidden under the curtains!!

We're leaving Chaweng tomorrow heading up to Buddha beach for a night then getting ferry to Ko Pha Nagn which is an Island north of Ko Samui. Sorry there aren't many pic's it takes forever to upload I will try to put some on facebook soon :) Also sorry if grammar not too good this has taken me ages already :) Signing off for now....