Woo-hoo.....Thailand....beaches, buckets and (sun)burn!!

As you can probably tell from the title, I'm quite excited about Thailand!! Been looking forward to coming here for ages and I've not been disappointed, it really is bloody cheap!

The first thing we did when we arrived was go have lunch at a restaurant. It was a fairly nice place and we spent about 1 pound 50 between us on lunch and a drink....great stuff!!

Our first stop was Surat Thani which was just an over night stopover on our way to Kho Pha Ngan, an island popular with us tourists!

It was a ferry ride and then a jungle truck to get to our beach resort and we were greeted with flower garlands and fresh coconuts to drink.....hello Thailand!!! OUr accommodation was little huts, right by the beach for 4 nights!! Bliss

We had a most excellent 4 nights there. Bronagh and Kate were so excited to get to the beach and to Thailand as they'd heard about 'buckets' and couldn't wait to have them! Buckets are basically cocktials in a bucket, like a kids bucket and spade type bucket. Generally they're half a bottle of Thai whisky, a can of coke and a can of Red Bull and cost around 200 bht (about 2 pounds 50) and you only need one to get hammered, although you can pay more and get a variation.

Our days were spent lazing around on the beach, eating, snorkelling, shopping, eating, swimming, eating, playing cards and shopping....it was tough.

Our evenings were spent watching Thai boxing, eating, drinking buckets, shopping, getting piercings (I got my tragus pierced), drinking buckets on the beach, watching football and playing cards....it was tough.

I have to say that most of the eating was done by Kit and Shannon who eat loads. Kit has about 10 meals a day while Shannon sticks to 3 mostly but will have about 5 dishes where the rest of us have one or two!! It's just not fair either cos there's not an ounce of fat on either of them...they do excercise a lot though, and meditate. I wonder if that's where we're going wrong....perhaps we should start meditating ??

On our last night we all got very drunk on buckets (except Shannon who doesnt' drink) and had a fun night of drinking and dancing and the like.Bronagh got extremely drunk and was in a bit of a state, I've been 19 and in that state though so I looked after her!!

All too soon it was time to leave our island life and head for the bright lights of Bangkok....booo. We had a great time on Kho Pha Ngan....it was quite developed and touristy but it had it's quiet spots too. It was cheap, the food was great, the buckets, er...full, the group we were with were fun....need I say more ???