Lifes a beach

We're now in Thailand, the Island of Ko Samui to be more specific, it is lovely!

We arrived in Thailand on Monday direct from the Cameron Highlands, it wasn't planned that way. We jumped off the bus in Butterworth after about 7 hours and thought that we would stay the night there before going across the border to Thailand, but as we got off the bus we were mobbed by touts all trying to sell us bus tickets for our next destination. We were a bit weary after 7 hours on a ram shackle bus but we were on travelling mode so rather than mess about trying to finds digs for the night we decided to hop on a mini bus to Hat Yai instead (another 4 hours!!)

We had an hour to kill before the bus departure so we went to an indoor food market for a cup of tea. Well I had been spoilt in C/H as far as tea goes, the one we had here looked like tomato soup with some white stuff floating at the bottom. It turned out to be condensed milk it was vile!!

The mini bus into Thailand was a bit of a white knuckle ride, the driver stopped for no man. We made the border crossing and got all the necessary stamps before setting off again. Once across the Thailand border the Malaysian standard of living (such as it is) came to an abrupt end, much the same way as Singapore did when we left there for Malaysia. Thailand is very raw and reminds me very much of Bolivia (at least that part of Thailand did) in fact I'd go so far to say that it made Bolivia look like Hollywood!! It was hustle and bustle everywhere and a certain sense of frenzied mania everywhere.

We were dropped in Hat Yai at about 7pm in the midst of typical Thai life. We had been on the road since 9am and were in a totally new country, it was also extremely humid and we were both knackered and a bit tired. We picked out the first hostel in the Lonely Planet and went in to make enquires about a room for the night. Well words fail me. The hostel was a pit, there was a HUGE corridor that we had to walk down to get to our room (similar to the kind you would see in One flew over the cuckoos nest, but dark instead of sterile) we opened the door to our room and I was almost floored. It was basic and just a little bit on the shabby side. BUT it had a beautiful clean bed,and after 10 hours on the road I would have slept in the gutter, so we dumped our bags and hit the town for a few beers and a lovely Phad Thai!!

We stayed in Hat Yai for two nights, it is a really busy, noisy place with nothing much to do there but eat and shop. Its not very touristy and is only a stopping off point for the border crossing with Malaysia. It is an absolute shit hole if I'm honest and there are as many rats there as there are people. It is a smelly run down place, not too dissimilar to say, Bosnia??

Anyway we had a decent couple of days there before getting another mini bus yesterday (and ferry) to where we will now spend Christmas. Ko Samui. We have blown our budget and are staying in fantastic beach side resort. We couldn't have found anywhere nicer and it has exceeded our expectations by far. So much so that we are staying an extra 4 nights, so we will now be here until 27th before we go back to the mainland beach for New Year.

This morning we ate our breakfast by the sea, sat in our shorts and t-shirt. It must make you shiver at home when you think of such attire ;o)

So that's us for the moment. You must all be wondering are we feeling home sick? I'll be honest with you and say yes I am particularly so, Matt is but not as much. But we know that we are home in 5 weeks and back into the rat race and all the last 8 months will be a memory so we intend to make every minute count.

This is my very first Christmas away from home and as much as I have known all along that it would be difficult I didn't realise just how much. So make the most of yours at home with your loved ones and try not to worry too much about us laying at the beach side sipping cocktails to numb the pain he he :o)

Merry Christmas everybody, have a good one Michelle and Matt xx