Being pampered in Paradise!

On Tuesday morning we got up very early to catch our plane to the Island of Koh Samui. Even though Bangkok was fun and certainly an experience, we were both rather relieved to be saying goodbye especially to K.S Prison oops- Guesthouse! We managed to get an earlier flight and arrived on this gorgeous island just after sunrise. It is so lovely to be here and our resort is everything we hoped, clean, spacious and right by the beach! We hit the beach almost immediatley and stayed all day (this resulted in some rather glowing sunburn!). We have also made a friend, a woman who goes up and down the beach with her box of tricks selling massages and manicures. Before we knew it we'd both had a foot scrub and manicure and made promises to have a full massage at some point! She is a perfect example of how charming the people here are- you just can't say no! But it is lovely! When we had arrived the very jolly manager had told us about the BBQ and live music that they were going to have that night, we were quite pleased and headed down later that evening. The food was good the entertainment was not! Firstly we had a Thai lady doing some singing accompanied by dancing girls dressed in very little and doing routines that were more strip club than traditional! But at least this was quite funny, the next act was a British bloke and his Thai sidekick (who was actually brilliant on the guitar) murdering classics by legends like Pink Floyd, Dire Straights and Thin Lizzy aswell a truely terrible version of Lynyrd Skynrd's Freebird which would have had my poor dad in tears! So we decided to call it a night and headed back to our room only to discover we could hear him warbling from there! The next day was more of the same, but this time we sensibly found sunbeds under umberellas with waiter service from the bar behind - perfect!
The following day we went on a trip to the marine park and a couple of islands that are national parks. We did some snorkeling in the morning which was fantastic, seeing loads of brightly coloured fish and coral. Then we headed of to the next destination for kayaking. This is where the days gets considerabley less idylic for me. We went off in our kayak on the see and around a rocky island, all was going well and we were looking like experianced kayakers compared to some, ( who couldn't work out how to paddle!) They say pride comes before a fall and we fell quite spectactularly! We were 3/4 of the way round when a speed boat went passed and caused some big waves, we hit the waves at just the wrong angle and capsized! Not to big a deal you might think but when you're in deep water and not athletically inclined like me how the chuff do you get back in? The guide had a brainwave and told me to swim for the rocks and get in that way, fair enough, so I try to stand on said rocks and promptly get stung by a sea urchin. It hurts-alot. I didn't say anything trying not to be a wuss but I thought my foot had come off, Corinne is laughing her head off and I am not amused. Seeing the plan has failed the tiny guide gets out of his kayak and tries to give me a leg up. A friendly australian couple were helping aswell, holding the kayak steady. So the guide is trying to get me to stand on his knee to get back in, all I can think of is the mind numbing pain and how I am about to drown a little man! I just about managed to scramble in in a very undignified manner and the thing capsized again! It did this another two times! (Apparently there was no plug in it and when we capsized the first time the kayak had filled with water which made the balance all off which was why we kept falling out!) Everybody is finding this very funny except me because I am wondering how much longer I've got to live! It all turned out fine and we had a brilliant day lots of helpful people tried to give mne advice including one guy who said I should go to a doctor immediatley and maybe even return to the U.K - no chance, nurse corinne is good enough for me! We had a lovely lunch and swam in the most beautiful sea surrounded by breathtaking views. There were also lots of really cute monkeys. Once our time was up there we headed to the next protected Island to see a salt lake ( I couldn't hike up to see it with my bad foot so had to sit on the beach some more- oh dear how awful!) then we headed back.
We've had another tough couple of days relaxing and reading which is utter bliss! We'll catch up with you all soon.

Being pampered in Paradise!

Bangkok, Thailand