Tropical Christmas ... Beach Vibes ...

Day 80 ... After breakfast, we had a 3 hour coach journey and then an hour on what felt like the big dipper but was actually just a high speed catamaran. The water were rough again and they were handing out sick bags like sweets. Luckily it was only an hour and I just about lasted but I was starting to feel a little queasy, which is unlike me, that's how bad it was! Then it was a 30 minute drive to our hotel. When we arrived it was a little chilly, only 23 degrees and a strong breeze too. The room was nice enough, although the thatch roof meant we could hear everything from outside, including kids, the sea and aeroplanes which sounded like they were going to come through the roof! We risked ordering food at the hotel (after Resorts World, Langkawi which was horrendous) and glad to find out the food is pretty good. A little more pricey than we're used to but at least it's good food. They asked if we would like to book into the restaurant for Christmas dinner on Monday. The menu was a 4 course menu but it worked out at £42 EACH! So we've decided we're going to have an authentic Thai Christmas lunch and find somewhere that does a good Pad Thai! After a relaxing afternoon in our new hotel room (we're both shattered after the last 4, 5am wake up calls in Ao Nang) we had an early night.

Day 81 ... Payday yesterday and I got £442 into my bank for not being in work in December! This sabbatical malarkey

isn't working out too bad!! After breakfast we hired a scooter from the hotel and went to do a recce of the area. We stumbled upon the Big Buddha and Fishermans Village while we were out and about. We also found Chaweng Road and beach which is the main tourist part of Samui as far as we can tell. It looks like it may get busy and a little rowdy in the evenings! After lunch back at our hotel, we relaxed, got our Christmas photo while the sun and blue sky made an appearance. The weather forecast for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day aren't actually looking too great, not what we want when we're in Koh Samui. It looks like it's going to be cloudy with possibility of rain, fingers crossed that changes!

Day 82 ... CHRISTMAS EVE ... It feels so strange, it certainly doesn't feel like Christmas Eve! I think we're kind of feeling like we're missing out at home a little bit as everyone is getting ready for Christmas Day with their families. But we're so lucky to be in Thailand for Christmas, we'll just have to make the most of our beach Christmas together. Our first and last Christmas as an engaged couple before we get married next year!
Today we went to try and find a somewhere we could have a white Christmas and stumbled upon this white sandy beach, Silver Beach, aka Crystal Bay. It was about a 23 minute scoot away and by the time we got there the clouds had melted away and the weather was perfect. We lay on

the beach for a while and then went for lunch at the beach side restaurant which was lovely. So we've found our white Christmas spot! We'll need to venture out tonight to find a restaurant for dinner as the hotel is putting on a 4 course set menu which is 1850 baht each (£42), so we decided against that. We jumped on the scooter and went to Fishermans Village which is only 5 minutes away. We had a wander and found a nice looking beach front restaurant and they were doing a turkey Christmas lunch for 650 baht each (£15) winner! We went in and ordered our Christmas dinner while we sipped a Tiger beer and watched the sun set. Perfect Christmas Eve.

Day 83 ... CHRISTMAS DAY! ... My first ever Christmas away from home and my family. Adam's been away on a snowboard season at Christmas before but I've always been at home so it's a strange one as it's 30 degrees outside! We've had lovely Christmas cards from our parents and that's about as festive as it gets!
We were woken up by kids screaming round the pool and a little bit of rain and cloud, so we got up and went for breaki at the hotel. Then we headed over to Silver Beach for some sunshine. It was sunny when we left our hotel but looked as though we were driving into the grey cloud. Thankfully, by the time we got to the beach the clouds had cleared and we had a lovely

relaxing few hours on the beach and then lunch at the beach restaurant we went to yesterday. I had a seared tuna salad with a pina colada and Adam plumped for the Pad Thai. Lovely lunch while listening to the live music in the restaurant. Thailand obviously don't celebrate Christmas but they do put a bit of effort in for the tourists. When we got back to the hotel we FaceTimed our families which was lovely but made me feel like we were missing out a little. For dinner we went 2 minutes down the road to Green Leaf Restaurant, a place I found on TripAdvisor. To look at it form the street you wouldn't even know it was there, which is the same for a lot of places over here. But I'm glad we went as we have a lovely meal. We collected our washing from across the road and checked it when we got back as I have already had my favourite bikini top and favourite gym top go missing in the Langkawi wash. This time, we had other people knickers, but a lot of mine missing and one of Adams t-shirts. So we went back as it's only 1 minute away but she had closed up. So I left the bag of knickers which weren't ours on their shop door and there was a rail of clothes just left hanging up outside the shop, so we had a look and found Adam's missing t-shirt but no luck with my knickers. Note to self ... do our own washing in a coin operated machine next time!

Day 84 ... BOXING DAY ... Well, the weather has taken a turn, which we

were expecting after watching the news and seeing the typhoon which hit the Philippines recently, killing over 200 people in floods and landslides is heading towards Vietnam and Southern Thailand, which is where we are. We go to Koh Tao tomorrow and hoping the boat we've booked for 12.30pm isn't cancelled. Thankfully we had just planned a lazy day at the hotel today, packing, relaxing and Adam getting some more coding done, which is lucky as the winds are up, the waters are rough and the skies are grey. So we just stayed at our hotel for lunch and dinner too seeing as the food is so good and we didn't fancy going for a walk in the gale force winds and rain! Watched a film and I had an early night while Adam stayed up being super productive and coding.