Sorry its been so long since we updated this, we've had lots of visitors and been very distracted!! Here's a catch up of the last month!

We travelled back from Koh Chang to Bangkok in order to meet our visitors, and for what we decided was the best chance of getting a proper Christmas dinner. Danni, and her friend Amanda, were due to arrive from Perth (Oz) on 23rd dec- mostly due to me being stupid and giving Danni our Thai mobile number, and then only taking the English phone out, we managed to miss them that evening, and didn't catch up until we moved to the same hotel the following morning. oops!!

We managed to locate our Christmas dinner, at a British fish and chip cafe!! It turned out to be yummy!! Turkey, roasties and all the trimmings- much better than we had expected! Christmas day was a bit surreal, they had children singing christmas carols (very badly!!) blasting out of speakers on Khao San Road, and decorations in shops but other than that it was just a normal day! We were glad we had company though- would've been a bit quiet just the two of us!

Beastie, Nadi and Pauly arrived the next day, just after Danni and Amanda left on the bus for Samui. Was very exciting to see everyone!! We had dinner and drinks on street! Before having christmas presents from home!! (My stocking even made its appearance!!) Thank you all, and thanks to the guys for carrying it all over!! Only bad thing- they brought the first rain we'd seen in about 2 months with them! Bad England!!

We got up very early the next day for our 1 hour flight to Surat Thani (town nr the ferry crossing to Koh Samui). We were amazed to get food on such a short flight! With Nadi getting more food just for being a vege! The weather on arrival was cloudy!! Oh dear! We caught a ferry to Koh Samui- where Victor- the villa rent guy was there to pick us up.

Our villa was a bit of a beaut!! We had our own swimming pool, three double rooms, bathroom and big kitchen/lounge, all gated off and posh!!

We spent three weeks at the villa, with Danni moving onto the sofa bed after Amanda, and Anna another friend, left. The weather wasn't great- bit overcast, although we had a week of sunshine, and Pauly did manage to get a very red tummy!!

We spent New Years Eve going over to a very stormy Koh Phangan- not exactly as we had planned!! But the weather did clear, and everyone got very merry on Sangsom buckets! Will managed to get lost, luckily getting back just before midnight!

Other activities included high wires through the jungle, exploring the island on mopeds, another trip to Ko Phangan for the half moon party in the jungle, go carting (Will, Beastie and Pauly now plan to start a ko carting team with their own carts and are trying to come up with names at the moment!- its not going well!!! NBB racing or llarma slica norta!!) And we found a lovely infinity pool near Lamai beach which we spent a couple of days chilling at! We also ate lots of yummy food- and are now dieting!! We tried out the food we learnt to make in our Laos cooking course- and it seemed to go down well! and we had an expensive but really yummy meal at a retaurant called the Cliff, which literally sat on the cliff edge with beautiful views.

It was very sad to say goodbye to everyone- (although Danni stayed with us for another week). We moved out of our villa earlier than originally planned- we'd had a few issues with water tanks whilst there and the man offered that we could have money back if we wanted to leave- which we felt ready to do. Danni, Will and I caught the ferry the same day to Koh Phangan. Unfortunately me and Danni weren't feeling well that day- some sort of bug (not alcohol related!!) which didn't make for a nice ferry crossing, and meant we spent most of the day in bed. I was still feeling ill the next day, so stayed in bed in the eve whilst Will and Danni went to the half moon party- which was apparently really good (typical!)

We spent our time on Koh Phangan exploring, chilling and spent a day in a spa- Danni and i having body wraps- we were a bit shocked when we had to be completely naked (having thought we could go in bikinis!!) but was very amusing!! and then we all had Thai massages. We also went jet skiing for the first time the day Danni was due to leave- was sooo much fun!

Danni left that eveing to go back to Samui to catch a flight in the morning- she ended up being delayed enough to miss her flight back to Oz from Bangkok- luckily (or not!) this had been cancelled but she hadnt been told- and had to spend another two days in Bangkok waiting for a flight!

Will and I caught the ferry back to the mainland the following day- then a night train to Bangkok. We spend a day in Bangkok- visiting Chatuchak market. It was absolutely massive, and we bought ourselves lots of presents!! They sell everything there- including pets which i thought would be really cute until we saw loads of puppies that were way to young to be seperated from their mums- and found it really upsetting. We think that we sat next to a famous Thai girl- we stopped for drinks, and people kept stopping and staring and pointing at the girl on the table next to us- some even asking to have their photo with her. However, we have absolutely no idea who she was!!!

We took another- not so comfortable and not much sleeping- train last night from Bangkok, to Chiang Mai (in the north of Thailand) arriving at 7am, which was absolutely freezing. Luckily its warmed up during the day! Although definately not needing air con tonight!! It seems really nice here, change from the beach and much more Thai than the touristy resorts down south! Also so far things seem much cheaper- which is great for our somewhat destroyed bank balance!!!

Hope everyone is well at home! lots of love xx