Chatkaeo Resort Ko Samui

... the room rate of 700 Baht) in the beach restaurant, in fact the food was so cheap and so good we ate all our meals there. During the days we sat by the pool, on the beach or in the hammock on our little balcony and read and played cards.

Paul wasn't up to walking very far for the first couple of days and we decided to spend Sunday night having our own little full moon celebration on our deserted Malibu beach. The huge party that goes on down ...

... spot and we enjoyed some cocktails and played cards at their bar. The next few hours were full of taxing sunbathing and reading.

Around 4, we headed back to the hotel for sunset at the 2-for-1 happy hour and had a great afternoon snack of mai tais and Singha beer. After all of our beach walks, we treated our feet to a foot massage at one of the many beach front cabanas.

This evening we are going to head to Captain Kirks and ...

... covered in glow up things or in fancy dress (saw a guy in a borat thong). We participated by buying a paint brush and 2 pots of illiminus paint. We stayed until 4am, dancing to all sorts of music (mainly dance I think) on the silky sand and drining cocktail buckets and changs! I haven't been to a party with more people than this before. The guide book says around 8000 on the beach - I think there were more!!! Brilliant atmosphere. We'll be ...

... actively in a class full of foreign language students. My lengthy search continued.


I decided to scope out TEFL certificates. The main problem was that TEFL agencies saturated Thailand like seasonal flooding during the monsoon. A quick glimpse of the Ajarn homepage revealed two main umbrella organizations: TEFL International and TEFL Text-and-Talk. Internationally, there were so many TEFL certificate-producing agencies, franchises, and licensed operators that I didn’ ...

Koh Samui. Our adventured continued from the train station with a 2 hour bus trip to the ferry at Surithani. The ferry seemed to take forever to cross the bay to Koh Samui - but finally we made it - a abit tired. I got a baht bus from the ferry terminal to the hotel - I got the driver to take us all for 400 baht including the luggage, so not a bad deal. I took the kids straight away for a refreshing dip in the pool - a great ...

... to become strangely fond of this driver after a few days, as he repeatedly has our lives literally in our hands and consistently manages to deliver them. Seaview sounded like a good bet back at home as it provided us with a private bungalow and bathroom 'between the jungle and the sea' and was a good long way from the party; this meant it would be quieter & safer for our belongings as we'd avoid the monthly room-sweeps which take place around Haad Rin at the time of ...

... so far. Since hanging out at the beach all day does get boring though, even in paradise, we went on a trip. First we endured a bone-jarring 45 minute ride in the back of a pick-up truck hanging on to a bar for dear life as the truck rushed through an unpaved road running through the island's jungle to get to a port where we embarked on a boat heading to the uninhabited Ang Thong archipelago. We took another hour to get there ...

... and rocks to get the viewpoint. Once we got there we were soaked with sweat but it only made what lay before us seem more sweet. There, an unspoiled emerald lagoon brimming with sea life and surrounded by a wall of jungle and lime stone cave formations. It was easy to see how the book had been inspired as there was a feeling of reaching a pure and secret paradise (even with all the rest of the tourists!) Once we were back on the beach we had a few ...

Happy New Year! The weather's still rubbish so we hired a moped for three days & taught ourselves to ride- Bryonie went first- straight into a ditch. I went second & we stacked it on a sandy bit of road but we both survived to tell the tale! When it was raining too much to ride ...

... reached enlightenment and preserved his body. Aside from being a tourist attraction, it is also a pilgrammage where Buddhists travel to pay homage. Our third stop, and by far my favorite, was the grandmother and grandfather rocks. The story goes that an elderly couple where shipwrecked near these rocks and their souls took the form of...uhem..how do I put this politely....male & female genitalia as a sign of their undying love. The ...