Helllooo one and all!

O.K here goes,

Departed Blighty on Saturday evening, on an 11 hour flight to Bangkok. It was totally surreal and even when we landed I still couldnt believe we were here!

All in all a great flight as I managed to sleep for 7 hours (must have been all the excitement that wore me out!)

Bangkok was amazing- the heat and humidity is unbelievabale- leaving sleety, rainy London to land in 36 degree Bangkok was a bit of a shock!

Got a taxi to our hotel in Petchuburi 15- 'The Grand Watergate'- not all that grand but the word 'water' was very apt as unbeknowst to us this whole weekend is the Thai New Year and Water Festival! We were told we were going to get wet- we just didnt realise how wet!

Its Thai tradition to to pour water over each other- young, old, rich, poor- to cleanse the bad spirits from your past for the new year and they also wipe a flour/ egg paste all over your face for good luck!

Luckily we were pre-warned with the group of people we are travelling with (great bunch of Aussies, Canadians and Brits) and we headed for the action down on Kao San Rd- and OH MY LORDY- talk about a street party and a half!

I cant begin to explain the craziness- streets lined for as far as the eye can see with thousands of people, tuk-tuks, vans and cars- with 10-20 people crammed in to them and throwing water at everyone from big water vats and running around with big water guns!

Its so hard to explain the atmosphere- like a cross between an Ibizian club and and the best water fight you ever had when you were a kid!

And none of it is done in a malicious way- everyone is smiling and singing!

The photos dont do it justice at all as we couldnt take many as we were getting soaked!

We did manage to get in to a bar on the Kao San Rd and had a few Singhas whilst watching a Thai Rock group rocking to Oasis tunes (very funny!) before.... (Mum and Dad divert your eyes now!)...we were gas bombed by the police!

Pretty crazy, not sure why it happened but it cleared the streets of the raves darn fast and in true brit stylie we were not deterred and we found an Irish bar- yes there really is one everywhere! haha!

An absolutely amazing once in a lifetime experience to be in Bangkok for the Thai New Year and Water Festival- wont ever forget it- in fact I think we've just about managed to get our clothes clean and dry!

Our second day in Bangkok was pretty much filled with doing touristy things and we caught a bus to the Grand Palace and Temple.

Beautiful place with more festivities going on inside - I dont know if you can see on the pics but they pour water over the buddahs for good luck and buy incense and flowers as gifts. We had to cover our arms and ankles- and I pretty much was dying from the 110 degree fahrenheit heat! Damn that cardigan and jeans!

Afterwards we took a boat down the river which was very cool and the sky rail across the city for some shopping- it is a shopping mecca here! The malls are 6 and 7 floors high- Kes and I were gob smacked and were so overwhelmed we didnt buy anything- can you believe that!

In the evening we made our way to Bangkok train station (where I had the worst toilet experience of my life!) for our overnight sleeper train to Surat Thani- what an experience thats all I can say!

Luckily, they had little men that came around with buckets and served you drinks (good times!) but the downfall being that it made you go to the toilet (bad times!!). Crouching over a hole with a view of the rail tracks underneath you, whilst holding on to the wall infront of you, trying not to get your trousers wet and also not stand in anyone elses wee at 4.00am in something to behold!

We got to Surat Thani very early in the morning, to catch a bus and then a ferry to Koh Samui, lots of travelling but its all been brillaint, with great people and so worth it...

We've done some amazing things here so far and the elephant trekking is one of the highlights, aswell as meeting some lady boys in the centre of town! The Big Buddah was pretty cool to see, and the Mummified Monk in the Ray Ban sunglasses made me laugh so much! The Grandmother & Grandfather rocks (very phallic- see the pics!)were equally funny!

And so here we are...

In paradise...

I think that brings you pretty much up to date,

Its been a whirlwind four days- we feel as though we've been here four months!

Having such an amazing time,

Off to the jungle for a few days tomorrow so wont be able to blog for a while,

All my love,

Tulsy

xxx