Koh Samet, Thailand

We chose Koh Samet purely for its proximity to Bangkok. With only one week off work for Christmas, we didn't want to spend too much time travelling around Thailand (much unlike us), rather, we just wanted to relax somewhere on a beautiful beach.

We stayed on Vongduern beach at the 'Seahorse Bungalow 2'. The beach was not as I expected but not in a bad way. First of all, the tide came in so far that in the morning there was only a very narrow strip of sand, it didn't go out until late in the afternoon. There was a full moon the week we were there, perhaps that's the reason for the high tide.

Along the beach were several restaurants, each one pertaining to a resort or bungalow complex. The restaurants had these large square sun beds covered in pillows with a small table in the middle (very comfortable) and you could sit at one all day long, having only ordered one bottle of water from the restaurant, costing you 50p. Due to the high tide, the beds were often laid out into the sea, so you could just jump off and swim whenever you got too warm. You could also leave your things there in the care of the restaurant, go swimming or walking along the beach and they would save your table for you all day.

At night the restaurants were lit by candles and torches and some local children would perform an incredible fire show that was impressive and at the same time deeply disturbing - some of the children couldn't have been more than 7 years old and were hula hooping a burning metal ring! That's dangerous kids!

I was so impressed with the hospitality of the Thai people, they were so friendly and to my surprise there was no aggressive competition to get you to go into a certain restaurant, nor were there pushy waiters trying to lure you in with drinks offers or discount. Everywhere was so laid back and relaxed, it was a refreshing change.

To my surprise the island wasn't swarmed with backpackers and professional hippies, in fact we were among the youngest people there. There were many older couples and families there, not many couples unaccompanied by children. Vongduern beach is not a lively beach, the bars and restaurants start closing up at 11pm,  but this didn't bother me and Ric, we were happy to go to bed early and get up early the following day for more sunshine. We did find some clubs and bars on other beaches but they didn't tempt us to stay out past bedtime (we must be getting old).

One night we decided it would be nice to wake up extra early and watch the sunrise. How romantic. We woke up to the alarm on my phone, dressed and snuggled on a sun bed on the beach together, happily anticipating the first rays of sunlight to break the horizon. It took approximately one hour for me to realise that my phone was set to Korean time and not Thai time, meaning we'd gotten up at 3am instead of 5am, and that we still had a fair few hours to wait before the sun made an appearance. Disheartened we went back to bed. While I lay in bed contemplating my mistake, my body started to itch all over. Within minutes my skin was on fire and I felt like a thousand red ants were crawling over me, biting me. I rushed to the bathroom to assess the situation and found I was covered in so many bites I looked like I had chicken pox. I woke Ric up and insisted that he search the bed for the culprit but we found nothing. Finally I went into an antihistamine induced sleep only to wake up in the morning with all the bites gone! I wondered if it was all a bad dream but the mysterious bites continued to appear throughout the week, only to disappear hours later. I still don't know where the bites came from, but at least they weren't mosquito bites, only Ric got them!!

From our beach we went walking to the beaches to the north and to the south, each time trekking along the shaded paths that lead over the rocky headlands. To the south we found this wonderful beach that was so quiet. All the "bunglows" were made of wood and looked really rustic, there was even a tree house! There was no one around and we had the beach to ourselves. To the north we visited about six different beaches, each one different, each one beautiful.

One thing we had to do whilst in Thailand was get Thai massages. After a day of swimming and sunning we went for a massage each. The beds were large and comfy and had a view of the sun was setting over the sea. The massage was amazing and only cost £6 for an hour! The girl who massaged me was really beautiful and very friendly, she didn't speak English but she bowed at me and smiled a lot. Ric's masseuse however, looked like she was chewing a wasp and whenever he opened his eye's she yelled at him to sleep!!

The food in all the restaurants was amazing, such a lovely change from Korean food. Ric was so excited about the abundance of fresh seafood, he had fish everyday (much to my distaste), he had barbecued white snapper and crab. I just loved having fresh fruit and vegetables, tasty curries and food that wasn't pickled and soaked in chilli.

The island was beautiful, white sand, clear turquoise sea - just like in the photos you see of Thailand, only I didn't believe it could be so perfect. There are no roads on the island, only dirt tracks, and the transportation is limited to motorbikes, quads, and these bright green pick-up trucks with good suspension that serve as shared taxis.

It was a wonderful carefree relaxing few days there and the time went by far to quickly. Even Ric loved it, and he previously claimed to have never been on a beach holiday before because they're "boring". We read books, played cards and scrabble, snoozed, drank and ate all day long. It was heaven. But if you don't believe me, check out the pictures:

Vongduern beach at night. Taken from a restaurant situated on the rocks at the headland.

Vongduern beach

Early morning as the restaurants set up for the day.

Cute rope swings and hammocks are common place all over the island.

The beach to the south of Vongduern. The beds to the rights are where we had our Thai massages.

The sunsets were stunning... same about the sunrise.

Ric floating in front of a cool tree house.

On the sun bed-come-table outside a restaurant.

Ao Cho beach (north from Vongduern)

I loved seeing the Christmas trees on the beach, such a contrast to how I imagine Christmas at home.

Buddhism and Christianity co-exiting on Koh Samet

Another feast of delicious Thai food. Oh how I didn't miss kim chi!

Outside a Reggae bar where the servers were all out of their minds drunk and incoherent. Great music though.

Dubrovnik, Croatia

Holidays with Meat and Pea!

We haven't been away together for two years (it took that long to recover after Amsterdam) so this holiday was much anticipated. Its also our last trip together before I buggar off to the other side of the world again.

We got off to a good start by drinking wine in the airport and almost missing our flight. We played "I'm thinking of a person, who am I?" on the plane, which lead to us giving Stace a geography lesson about the "ethnic majorities" in the Caribean, which Stacey thought was in Africa.

We made friends with the driver of the shuttle bus from the airport and he let us sit on the very front pull-downs seats. He gave me the microphone to sing along to Whitney Houston and let me announce the stops.

Our hostel was in Pile, 5 minutes away from the old town. Its called Villa Garden but I think Villa Allotment would be better suited. The room was noisy and had no curtains but it was clean and the shower was decent.

Our First Night

We got to the hostel for 7 and were out for just after 8. We had a slap up meal and one of the best steaks I've ever tasted at a fancy restaurant called Dominos. At the end of the meal the waiter brought us traditional Croatian shots, Travarica, a disgustingly strong grappa that nearly made me spew my steak back onto my plate as soon as it made contact with my taste buds.

We went to some bars and sat outside drinking cocktails listenin to the live music, then went in a very smoky, not-very-Irish rock bar where we met some Croatians who got us trying yet another 'traditional' Croatian shot, Medica, which is made from honey and was slightly more palatable.

The Croatians, Senia, a crazy girl that kept flicking her pony tail at us, and her two pals, took us to a club called Capitana and we had an amazing night dancing to rock music. The evening ended with Stacey doing yoga down a little back ally and me bent double with stomach cramps, probably from the traditional poison and all the laughing!

Walking the Walls

After a restful 4 hours sleep we were woken by the hostel owner shouting outside our door and the sun blinding us through the curtainless window. We had a lovely breakfast in the sunshine and a wander around the town. The old town is a big walled city with really narrow streets and terracota roofs. We did the walk of the city walls which had beautiful views of the town and the surrounding coastline. It took most of the afternoon and we took it at a nice chilled pace.

The Night with the CIA Loser Agent

After a lovely sunset meal overlooking the sea we were sat enjoying a quiet drink when a middle aged man called Andy came over and started making small talk and telling us horrendous jokes in a terrible Scottish accent. He was the kind of a guy that gives Americans their bad rep for being annoying self centered idiots. He started showing us his homeland security badge and telling us how to take out a man using two moves. He's going to take Jen to the olympics and she's going to meet Scotland Yard. We'll never know if the badge was real or not but the man was crackers. Two Turkish boys joined us, they were tour guides and told us all about Dubrovnik. We went around a few bars with our new band of merry men and then left them for a quiet drink on our own on our way home. But... there's no such thing as a quiet drink on our own, we attract weirdos like flies to shit. Our quiet drink was disturbed by a lanky Russian with ferret-like features who smelt like sardines. Alex was his name, he owned the bar and merrily kept topping up our glasses with free Amaretto ("Alex present"). His English was about as good as my Russian and he kept telling us his wife was a lesbian and he was gay. Random night.

Lopud

On Monday we got the bus to the port then got on a boat to the island of Lopud. There are over 1000 little islands off the coast of Dubrovnik; Lopud is one of thee bigger ones with a population of 260. Once we got to the island we had to get to the other side, where the beach was. We chose what in hindsight, was not the fastest route. We climbed hundreds of steps up a mountain in the blistering heat. It was worth it though, the view from the top was lovely and there was no one else there. It was really peaceful. It took a while but we finally made it to the beach. The sea was crystal clear and the sand was golden. We spent the day there, had a picnic, and swam in the sea. It was like our own paradise until a swarm of Americans and started running around screaming. We found a much easier route back to the boat through the forrest.

Monday Night

We left the beach with third degree burns and went out for tea to a restaurant that had good food and terrible service. I had cevapcipci, a traditional Croatian dish. It was little kofta-like sausages made from beef. They were very tasty.

Later, we were sat drinking wine outside one of the bars when we saw our Turkish friends again, minus the awful American. The five of us went for drinks and then went dancing to a club called Fuego, a "latino" club that played awful (non-latino) music.

Famous Pants

On our last day we had long leisurely lunch by the port. We ordered far too much food and couldn't finish it. I was wearing my big multi coloured happy pants that I'd worn on the first night. To my surprise, as I crossed the street in front of hundreds of tourists, a pair of knickers fell out of the bottom on my pants! The same ones I had worn on the first night. I must have left them in there and walked around with them in my pants all day! Embarassing.

We took a cable car up a mountain. As we waited, a 30-strong crowd of Asian tourists gathered round me, staring and laughing. I soon realised why, as one cheeky woman asked if she could take a picture of my trousers! Of course, I obliged.

At the top of the mountain Jen fell asleep and Stacey whimpered in the corner in the shade. I went exploring. The views were lovely and it was very peaceful.

It was a gorgeous holiday, I really like Dubrovnik, although I think four days there is enough as its a small place.