hi all, well koh samui is a gorgeous island lush white beaches and green jungle - how does the jungle get so green? because of the amount of rain! thats right boys and girls for the last 3days it has been raining and the island (suprisingly) isnt so well equipped for it, theres not much to do except shop - and i still dont have the room in my backpack to do that so iv been findin it pretty boring though its nice to relax. it is very strange also to be completely alone again, id got used to sharing my room with jenny (and her sleeptalking, lol) and spendin time with her, jill and zach on the beach here, now im alone and its rainin and the roads have started to flood. because i was so very bored on saturday i decided to do a day trip yesterday (theres not so many options available) and i had great fun with just me and an older aussie couple in the van being drove around the island, firstly we got took to a viewpoint which im sure would have been lovely in the sun as it was the mist had descended and all you could see was the sea, then we went to see 'grandmother' and 'grandfather' rocks, which are 2 very famous rocks here in koh samui shaped like male and female genitalia, unfortunately you can only see grandmother when the tide is out and when we were there it was in but i did get some very interesting (is that the right word?) photos of grandfather rock. we then saw a 'monkey show' which consisted of a huge monkey climbing a tree and throwin a coconut down, all the monkeys were chained tightly and didnt have much room to manouveure it was awful i felt so sorry for them. we then went to khunaram temple and to see the mummified monk - which is a real monk that was mummified just over 20years ago, and wearin a very cool pair of shades might i say lol. we then went on to see namuang waterfall which im sure would have been gorgeous on a sunny day but as it was it was a trecherous walk and the older aussie guy slipped over and hurt himself on the rocks, we had the option to do elephant trekking around there as well but we have all dont it before and none of us really wanted to as the elephants looked so sad and were chained up so tightly, from there we went on to get lunch and then to the aquarium and 'tiger zoo' it was horrendous i have never seen animals in conditions like that, it was so upsetting, the fish didnt have enough water, they had two huge sharks in the tiniest tank with no room to move, the tigers and cheetahs were in tiny cages and were pacing, the smell was aweful and it wasnt clean then they put on a show with some birds - that they lost control of (that bit was quite funny actually, by the end of the show they still hadnt caught an eagle and a parrot) and the tigers which was again awful, makin the tigers get into poses and using a 'stick' thing to hit them and make them jump through rings of fire, it was horrible to see and afterwards you could have got your picture took with a tiger but it was horrible to see the way they control them. we left there and moved on to see plai laem temple which is built on what looks like a lotus flower on a pond, its a beautiful temple, then on to see 'big buddha' one of the most famous landmarks on koh samui. then to tesco lotus, which you guessed it is a 'tesco' supermarket - arrrghh they are takin over the world is nowhere safe? it was actually pretty cool, more like a warehouse than a supermarket and very very cheap - i wish these prices were available in england! all in all it was a very interesting (if slightly disturbing) day and i got to see all of the island. today is again a pretty miserable day and iv not got much to do as theres no other day trips except kayaking ones which i dont fancy, so im just updating my journal then im gonna walk around the shops for the 50th or so time. hoping it will be brighter weather tommorow so il get at least one day on the beach before heading back to bangkok to meet mum - have a safe journey mum!! love to everyone and il see you all in 2weeks (ish) :-(