Courtyard Phuket at Surin Beach

... 8217;re now living large in our own villa. That’s right, this stand-alone cottage is pretty much the size of our apartment and comes with a sitting area connected to our bedroom, his and hers sinks and closets, a rainfall shower, an outdoor soaking tub, and a backyard complete with our own 9*15 pool and covered pagoda. You could have knocked me over with a feather. So, here we are: secluded villa, private pool, and middle of the night. The perfect recipe for skinny ...

... we went to this restaurant called The Green Man. It's this little Pub on the other side of the hill and it had some really good food. but on top of that when we got there it was still happy hour so we all got to changs with dinner. We all downed them and ate and afterwards had a relaxing night on this random playset lol.

5/22
Happy Birthday Duda! So today we left to go on our camping excursion into the mountain. the 19 of us piled onto the bus and drove out ...

... took all my concentration not to join the 'chunder brigade' that was going on around us. With ipod in and eyes closed I entered a world of escapism until we finally docked at Thong-Sala, the islands main port. We did battle with the touts representing a million and one hotels and resorts and settled on Haad Thian (west) Bungalows situated on the north west coast of Koh Phangan. This place is rather remote and it turns out to have its own private beach. We all have a very nice (if a ...

... con and a telly and a dvd player...sometimes it has to be done! And I watched Slumdog Millionnaire and Burn After Reading which are both great films! Slumdog made me miss India again and i urge you all to see it if you haven't already! Tomorrow i am off to Khao Lak to try and get to the Surin islands which are rumoured to be even more beautiful than the Similian islands. Hope all is well in the UK, and rest assured that Thailand has been having grey days and a lorra lorra rain! x

... up meeting an American lady who has been living here for 2 years and we chatted all afternoon on the beach. I am convinced she is some sort of escort for rich men. I could sense it. She told me all about her problems with men. I had to be Dr. Phil for the afternoon but it didnt bother me. It beat the regular traveler talks I've been having for the last 10 months (i.e. where have you been, where are you going next, etc). Our day together ended when she asked if I ...

... like it would be pretty easy but it wasn't! We all kept whiffing. Apparently Chris said this game is popular in Northern Wisconsin too! Both Kata Noi and Kata are great beaches. Kata has big, body surfing waves, and Kata Noi is calm with crystal blue water. We hung out at one of those beaches most of the day. Then 7-11 for beers, drinks of the balcony, then out to dinner and the bars. It was a great, island vacation!

... tiny. We played shirts and skins...though it was rather difficult to tell shirts b/c some of the men had shirt sized tattoos across their backs...deceptive tactic I'll say. It was fun and so great to play soccer again!...on the beach...behind a gorgeous sunset. It was finally nice for a change to interact with THai men in a way in which they weren't hassling you, hitting on you, or trying to make you uncomfortable. They just wanted to play and they let us play! It was grrreat.

... The first person we should see is Robbo aka Goomba aka Little Big Steve. After some brief conversation we made our way through the hoards of hawkers trying to get us on their taxi's before seeing a man with a "Mr Nicholas Retalic" sign. "He has the same name as you Nick" I could've said, but didn't. After our minivan super transit we arrived at Club Bamboo itself which was actually pretty dope. We dropped off our bags and decided to head into town to scope it out ...

... It's a new hotel not even on the map. Nice hotel on a hill on the northeast corner of the island with a great view of the islands across the bay. The driveway is like driving straight up a mountain. The nice beaches are on the other side of the island though. A long way from everything too. After a morning swim we took the free shuttle into town. Well actually a mall on the outskirts. Apparently many of the downtown shops ...

... again. Plus we knew we had to go fishing the nexgt day. January 20, 2008 All right we're sooo ready for fishing this morning. Got picked up at 08:00 sharp and headed to Chalong Pier (20 minute drive) for our private boat. Welcomed aboard and started heading out to Racha Island. The fishing lines were dropped about 20 minutes after heading out. It was a windy day so the boat was rocking pretty good. Both Sherry & Somchai got a bit sea sick, but that's just the way it goes ...