So, during this week and a half we lost watches, sunglasses, sarongs and many, many pairs of flip flops. Plus ending up with paint splattered cameras and all kinds of cuts and grazes. This is what happens when Dan and Laura enter the party!

I met my two friends from home in Bangkok and from there we travelled together down to Koh Tao where we were to spend Christmas. Everything was going smoothly until we stepped onto the boat to the island, which turned into the roughest ride any of us had ever been on and could possibly have won a prize for the highest number of people sea sick on one trip (Laura included). We were rewarded for our suffering when we arrived on the island and found our accommodation however. After the places I have been staying for the past four months I felt like we were in a five star resort!

Our location was excellent, not being far from most of the nightlife and entertainment on offer. On the first night we discovered our resort was one of many that hosted a fire poi show, made all the more thrilling when the audience was involved and you suddenly find fire balls circling your head!

Fire poi acrobatics

We had a great few relaxing days on the island, though due to high tides and cloudy skies not nearly as much beach time as we had planned. During rare spell of good weather, I enjoyed a sunset beach walk on Christmas day and finally saw the potential Koh Tao had to offer.

The day before we left was our most active so far. We had booked scuba diving for the afternoon, this being the first time Dan and Laura would be trying the sport. Although the visability was rather disappointing, I did see two fish I had not yet laid eyes on, and it was great to watch those two experiencing the thrill for the first time.

The second half of the holidays was to be spent on Koh Samui, an island a little further south, and thankfully this boat ride was much smoother. We met a Chilean guy called Anton on our first evening and he quickly became part of our group during our stay.

Given the size of the island we decided the best way to see any of the sights would be to hire scooters. So we took this opportunity to form a motorbike crew, most likely feeling much cooler than we looked, and delighted in the freedom of adventuring around the island on our own. As it turned out navigating our way around the island was not as easy as we anticipated, meaning we did not visit half of the sights we had hoped, we did however, still have great fun riding the bikes.

Our bikes

Two important sights we did manage to locate were the Big Buddha Temple and Wat Plai Laem, a Chinese-Thai style temple. These both house very impressive statues of Buddha, though in very different fashions. The Big Buddha Temple was a more typical Thai temple, with a traditional image of Buddha the large centre and many small statues of Buddha and other important figures such as Ganesha. Wat Plai Laem was more intriguing to me as it is the only Chinese-Thai temple I have come across. One of the most noticeable differences was that the image of Buddha is fat and smiling, this signifies wealth and prosperity for the Chinese.

Our crew gave up the bikes on new year’s eve on the way to the pier where we caught the boat to Koh Phangnan, an island well known for it’s partying. Safe to say it did not disappoint, we brought in the new year covered in multi-coloured body paints, cheering as the countdown clock hit 12 and the sky lit up with fireworks.