Christmas - Thai Style

Hello All, you must all be buzzing now with the anticipation of Santas arrival this evening and what he will bring all you boys and girls that have behaved this year. He will be mafted when he gets to Thailand I hope he has his swim wear with him :o)

Well we have had a very exciting couple of days as you can imagine, Matt's proposal and my Birthday yesterday, I'm on cloud 9. Thank you all for your lovely messages and well wishes it means a lot to us both. My engagement ring at the moment is a stainless steel band bought from the lucky lucky man on the beach, we're going to shop for a real one when we get back so I'm looking forward to that, not sure Matt is ;o)

We have had a really relaxing time since we arrived in Koh Samui and the weather has been superb. The resort that we're at is full of westerners and chavvy Brits which is a bit of a come down after 8 months on the road, but I guess it conditions us a little for return home. It is really touristy here and is not like travelling now at all, it's more like being on holiday. Thailand is beautiful (what bit I've seen) but I can't help but notice the seediness that consumes the place. There are so many fat, balding old men here who are just out for the Thai girls and there are also lots of the same kind of men married to the Thai girls. It's shocking to think that these beautiful women are exploited in this way, but as Matt said it's the life they choose and they don't see anything wrong with it. The men are just sad pathetic old perverts who can't form a relationship with a woman because she loves him, it's all to do with the size of his wallet.

Yesterday we spent another day relaxing by the pool and then late afternoon we decided to start my Birthday celebrations early. We had a wander along the Lamai Beach taking in the other resorts, some of them really luxurious and others not quite so. The beach here has surprised me, while the sea is that beautiful aquamarine colour and the sand is white, there is litter strewn everywhere, plastic bottles, fag ends, numerous shoes and flip flops, drinking straws, and there are loads of random dogs wandering up and down. No I'm not referring to the ugly women I'm talking the 4 legged variety. Not the sort of thing I was expecting. Having said that there are some parts of the beach that are spotless. Luckily for us we stay by the pool on the loungers, it's easier to get to the bar!!

So we went in the 1st pub yesterday, a Swedish pub and ordered a couple of Singah Beers, to be told the distressing news that they weren't serving alcohol that day as there were some presidential elections taking place, and it was against the law to serve alcohol. It didn't seem to have a negative effect on the prostitution laws in Thailand just the drinking ones. So we order a fizzy drink and made off back to the beach to our resort where we knew they were serving beer as it is off the main road and out of earshot of the police. As we were heading back we heard some Reggae music and saw some candles flickering away at some beach side bar so we parked our butts and spent most of the evening there, watching fireworks and sipping ice cold beer. We also bought a kind of balloon to celebrate my B'Day. You light it inside and then it takes off into the air and drifts off into the Thai night. It was quite romantic actually he he. After the beer we went to a nice little Thai/Italian restaurant for some food, we had been there a couple of nights previously and enjoyed a great Thai curry so we agreed that we would go back.Matt told the lady that owned it we would be back on Sunday as it was his girlfriends birthday, I didn't think she was paying much attention to us crazy westerners but last night when we had finished our meal she came across with a big cocktail of ice cream and fruit covered in chocolate sauce with two dessert spoons and wished me Happy Birthday. What a lovely gesture.

Today has been much the same as any other, we have been laid by the pool listening to Brits bickering at each other, touts trying to sell us sarongs and pancakes, and crazy kids diving about in the pool, with some dodgy 80's music playing in the background. It does not feel like Christmas at all. We are enjoying it though, we have had no stress of getting up the M1 in rush hour traffic, no Christmas shopping to do, no planning of our logistical Christmas between Droitwich and Hull, and to top it all it's sunny and we're in a lovely little resort on a Thai beach.

There are no signs of a Christmas lunch anywhere on the menu here for tomorrow so it will probably be red and green curry for lunch, at least the colours are seasonal :o) Tomorrow night we are having a BBQ and there is a live band playing so we think(!) we're looking forward to that. If it's rubbish we are heading to the 7/11 for a bag full of goodies and beer and will barricade ourselves in our room and watch some trash TV, it will be just like home!!