Thailand Day 14

New Years Eve. We spent the day on the beach by the resort swimming and sunbathing. In the afternoon we took a banana boat ride around the bay with the driver trying his hardest to throw us off.

During the day we also discovered that we had free tickets to the the New Years Eve party being thrown by our resort.

They had spent all day setting up stage, seating for 2 hundred and tables for the buffet. We got free drink and delicious buffet dinner plus entertainment all evening for free. Drinks were expensive so we smuggled cans in from the shop up the road which was open all evening.

Highlights would include;

- Mountains of chocolate puddings

- Wayward latern setting off string of fireworks before midnight came

- Julie skinny dipping after midnight

- Young child trying to sing on stage (awful racket)

We headed for bed about 0100.

Neve stuffing her face with chocolates

Impressive set up on the beach

Thai dancers on the stage

10,9,8..... Lift Off

Fireworks at Midnight

We had firework sticks from which lots of mini fireworks shot out. 70 baht from local shop

Lousy picture but shows huge numbers of laterns that were being launched from the beach all evening

Neve with her firework

Thailand Day 13

We booked onto a boat trip to go looking around some of the other islands and to go snokeling. Our boat had 25 people on board and set off from our beach. The local boats are made of wood but look like fancy fibre glass boats. They do however typically have two big outboard motors strapped on the back so they can move pretty quick. Our captain took us first to another island for swimming snorkeling and lunch. They brought kebabs to bbq on the beach plus rice and fruit. After lunch we got back on our boat and cruised around a couple of other islands before stopping on a rocky reef for more snorkeling.

The crew fed rice to the fish to get them to surround the boat. At one point Felix was swimming totally surrounded by fish with the crew throwing more rice on top of him.

We then went to another beach for more swimming and sun bathing. Final stop on our journey was the fish farm. Some of the tanks contained huge fish up to 2 metres long. In the photos below it's hard to judge the size.

The boat then dropped us back off at our beach at the end of the day.

For dinner we went to a restaurant that has a band and fire show each night. The band played lots of well known songs. The fire show involved around 10 guys who clearly have a lot of fun doing their jobs. The MC must have learnt his english in the east end of London and was very funny to listen to. The end of the show involved them all swinging fireworks on chains around them.

Afterwards they set up a flaming limbo bar which we could have a go at. The bar then got progressively lower. The reward was a small tot of rum. First time through, Julie drank the rum. Second time through for Felix managed to get offerred and drink the rum before anyone noticed. Oops.

Beach number 1, very popular with all the tourist boats

Cool line up of speedboats

Felix and Neve snorkeling in the shallows. There were lots of small bits of coral on the beach

This swing was set up just behind the beach. Check out the 6 pack!

Felix and Neve on the swing. Neve has no knickers on

Lots of tourists looking around the fish farm

The guy in yellow is one of our boat crew. He was lifting the nets up to bring the fish right up to the surface

Ugly fish coming to look at Felix

Small turtle

This guys t-shirt says 'are you gansters, no we are Russians' We thought this was very funny because all of the Russians you see on holiday look like gansters.

These fish were at least 2m long

Pretty sunset

Dinner on the beach with cushions for seat

The band

YMCA.....

Leader of the fire group. He spoke great east end english

Swinging fireworks on chains

I limbo under the flaming bar to claim tot of rum

Felix doing limbo

Felix doing limbo again, just before grabbing the tot of rum

Thailand Day 12

Early start today to take the plane back to Bangkok. When we arrived in Bangkok we were met by our driver who drove us the 4 hour journey to catch the ferry to Ko Samet. We had to wait a while for the next ferry so we had lunch in the ferry port. The journey to Ko Samet took about 30 minutes on board an old wooden boat operated by our holiday resort. The guests sat on the top deck whilst hotel staff going to work and all the goods had to go on the bottom deck.

When we arrived at the dock we were collected by pick up truck and driven the 5 minutes journey to our resort. The hotel was really smart. It had small bungalows in the grounds, a private beach and a restaurant/bar just behind the beach.

After getting booked in we went straight to the beach for a swim. The resort is called Sai Kaew which means crystal sand so there was lots of white sand. It was a lot hotter than Jiang Mai.

At the end of the afternoon all the bars clear away the sun loungers and replace them with rugs, cushions and tables so they can serve food.

John took us to a restaurant on the beach for dinner where we could relax and sit on cushions. Part way through dinner a young lad turned up to do a fire show. It seems that there is a whole gang of them that entertain at the restaurants during the evening. The kids spent the evening  getting wetter and wetter in the sea until by the end of the night they were soaking.

Dinner waiting for the ferry

Setting off from the harbour for Ko Samet

View of the ferry port

On the front of the boats they always have flowers for good luck

This is the dock on Ko Samet

Reception at our hotel. It was very posh

Waiting to go for dinner

Sunset

This is the hotel bar and restaurant at night 

At night the beach bars all put lights and tables out on the beach to serve dinner

Felix and Neve relaxing on the comfy cushions

Typical beach restaurant

Hula hooping with fire

More fire, this time balls on the end of chains

Felix and Neve plus friend, paddling turned into full on swim

A little wet

The restaurant at our hotel was a little smarter than all the others