Day 13: The long way home

Having decided shortly after arriving in Koh Samui that it was super nice, we change dour flights to Bangkok, meaning we'd get an extra night on the island, rather than a lay over in Bangkok before heading to London.

Unfortunately, it meant we had to fly at 7:30am instead of a leisurely 11am.

Thankfully, our army of alarm clocks woke us up and we were leaving The Hansar once again... More tears. Nearly from both of us!

Fortunately, the joys of laid back life follow right through to the hotel and we sailed through the airport in under an hour and were aboard our flight to Bangkok for our transfer.

Bangkok is a very modern airport and is full of shops, so Dave didn't see a lot of Laura for the 4.5 hour wait for our connecting flights, We crammed in some junk food and a couple of beers in an attempt to get some sleep on the way home.

The flights were pretty good and the upgraded seats were excellent, but it doesn't matter how you do it, 13 hours is a long time on a flight... especially if you have to start 7 hours before hand.

So, when we wearily wandered through the arrivals lounge in Heathrow, we were chuffed to bits that John (Laura's Dad) had offered to come and collect us and deliver us safely back to reality with a nice soft landing.

Our wedding and honeymoon have been the most amazing experiences of our lives.

Chances are, if you're reading this, you are our friends and were a part of it in some way.

To everybody who contributed, we want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts. To be able to have a grand and beautiful wedding like we did, then go on the adventure of a lifetime is incredible.

Everyone was so generous with time and effort for our wedding and with Thai Baht for our honeymoon.

You are all amazing! Thank You!

Please check out our Honeymoon video (no saucy stuff!) on YouTube and hit like (if you like it)...

Day 12: Total Floppage and the Walking Market

The last day of total relaxation before heading back to work... Boo.

We spent most of the day around the pool, eating toasties. At this point, Laura would like to point out that she ordered lots of local food and salads and not the slob that Dave is (guess who's writing)

We took the opportunity to eat in the restaurants we really loved and had a really nice chilled out day.

In the evening they run a walking market in Fishermans Village which basically means everyone who owns a stall selling anything, comes to town and sets up. It's like a weird little Mardi Gras. There's music, lots of food and drink, and even a bit of dancing, its fun. Laura spent most of her time desperately trying to find a replacement "Nispro"... but to no avail.

After looking at every stall at least twice, and then once again for luck, we headed back to the Italian restaurant so Laura could have pumpkin ravioli. She's was pleased she did and proclaimed it to be worth the air fare on its own! Dave's pizza was equally delicious, but he tends not to boast so much.

As we sauntered back to the hotel at an impossibly slow pace (proper islanders now) we reflected on what a brilliant, brilliant time we'd had. Ultimate relaxation and utter joy having both just married our best buds. It was a pretty nice feeling. It almost made it not so terrible to head back to work (well, it could have been worse!)

Back to the hotel for one last Martini and then to pack our bags. Sniff sniff

Day 11: Jungle Activities!

So, our third scooter of the trip and off for some adventures.

We headed back to the center of the island and this time to the equally unimaginatively named "Waterfall 2"... the waterfall of choice.

This was water has water.... falling, and is surrounded by activities.

We both kind of had a bucket list for the holiday and at this stage of the holiday, Laura's activities were a little behind, so today was all about her and she came up with some fun ideas.

We rode the tree top aerial run ways, which were really fun. It was slightly odd experience as you're thrown into a harness, given some brief instructions in Thai, then pushed off the edge. The approach to Health and Safety is quite refreshing as it was fun and nobody died.

One section of the run way involved traversing a wire about 25 feet in the air. Dave discovered something new about himself, that he doesn't like heights, or wires, or being exactly 25 feet off the ground. Either way, our home video picked up some fruity language and great deal of perspiration!

A nice cold drink (and perhaps a little cry) we were ready for the next adventure. So, we clambered onto the roof of a jeep and were driven up the mountain to the waterfall (2 to be specific).

After a familiarly treacherous flip-flop trek we could hear running water! We found the waterfall and were pleased to see that you could swim in the pool at the bottom! After two very brave jumps of the rocks (a mind boggling 4-5 feet above the surface of the water) we had a short swim in the lovely, refreshing cold water and then got ready to climb back down through the jungle. It was elephant time!

Now we ummed and arrrr'd about whether we wanted to ride the elephants or not for quite a long time. We'd read a lot of reviews about elephants being really poorly treated and Dave knew that would just upset Laura.

As it was, the elephants at waterfall 2, seemed to looked after very nicely indeed and the guys walking with them seemed to really care for them, which was a relief to see.

We still decided not to ride them by simply reasoning with ourselves, "if I were an elephant, I think this would piss me off after a while". So, instead we bought them a great big bunch of banana's and fed them instead. Laura's elephant was sweet and gentle and allowed her time to stroke him and get to know him a bit. Dave's elephant was big, fat pig and just snatched the banana's before walking off... We like to think we found our elephant equivalents on that mountain!

After a really lovely morning, we headed off the mountain and stopped in at the zoo on the way back. This was, as it turned out, a mistake. It wasn't terrible, but the animals were in pretty small cages and all looked pretty unhappy. Laura cried. Good vibes over. We made a sharp exit and headed back to the hotel.

On the upside, we had a lovely meal on the beach and watched a man playing with one of those jet packs in the sea. It looked amazing, but also definitely like something that neither of us have the coordination for!

We also found the perfect sand for our flip-flops! Yessssss.

Day 10: Last bit of Lamai, then back to The Hansar

Feeling moderately guilt about giving up on Lamai, we decided to make the most of the morning and headed down to the beach after breakfast.

The view from the restaurant

Hiking to the Beach

We'd been given some flip flops which were printed on the underside so that when you walk on a sandy beach, they imprint the words "Just Married". We were keen to get a nice shot for Dave's Mum and step-Dad who had given us the pressie.

Well, as it turns out... these flip-flops are pretty specific about the type of sand you need to be on for the imprint to work... we tried... hard!

'Oooo a coconut'

'Yusss got it!'

'Its got sea life on it'

'Look'

After much sand stamping, coconut wrangling and coral foraging it was time to go and we packed up and headed back to Bophut.

One upside is that the Silavadee was significantly more expensive the The Hansar, so we treated ourselves to a room upgrade, to a suite. The room was enormous and we had a giant stone bath in the middle of the room, wick woo!

By now, we were familiar with the routine at the Hansar, so obviously it time for a swim and a toastie. A lovely relaxing afternoon in the sun interrupted only by a stint on the jetski's (which are brilliant by the way... it's impossible to not smile on a jetski!)

In the evening we had a lovely Italian meal and then off for an early night.

Day 9: Making the most of the Silavadee

We had another lovely (yet lonely) breakfast and headed out the public pool where, I'm pleased to say, there were people.

Room service!

Everything is infinity pools and they all look over these sheer cliffs. it was gorgeous. After a substantial session of lolloping about, we called a cab and headed into Lamai town for some exploring and a few drinks (naturally)

Our Villa

Oooo a large rock

Naturally Laura decided to try and climb it... unsuccessfully

We found a few nice little bars for a couple of drinks and then found the Swing Bar... Don't worry its not what you think! The name comes from the fact that imaginatively has swings at the bar instead of bar stools.

After too many drinks to swing and not enough to be any good at playing pool, we headed back armed with snacks for our room.

Dave actually got further up the rock than Laura managed.

We also decided at this point that although the Silavadee was lovely, it was just too quiet and that we wanted to head back to the Bophut and The Hansar.

The beauty of Thailand is that making changes like this is easy. Two phone calls and we were done.

Day 8: Off to Lamai and the Silavadee

Before we came on holiday, the Silavadee was the crescendo and everything was leading to it. In reality, we'd really loved the Hansar and the people there, so it was actually a little bit sad when we came to leave.

Still, onwards!

We took a private transfer across the island and into the Silavadee Spa Resort. Another one with no walls... How do these ceilings stay up?

Our room was perched on the edge of a cliff and included a huge emperor sized bed, giant tub and a glass wall leading out to our very own private pool and loungers! Nice.

Step one, bottle of champers... Someone thinks he's Hugh Heffner all of a sudden!

Just step out of the tub and into the po

 We went for an explore of our new home and down to the gorgeous secluded beach. We found the restaurant and headed off for dinner.

The food was gorgeous and the setting was amazing, but it has to be said that the whole place was really quiet. We only saw one other pair of guest on our first day? Weird.

After dinner we went for a few drinks at the outdoor lounge bar. They've got these amazing booth tables that sunk into a pool and filled with moody lighting so you can look off the edge of the cliff and across the seas and stars. Very romantic, which was lucky cos' there still wasn't a lot of people about.

Cool sunken tables at the bar... All empty

So beautiful... So deserted

Where is everyone?

Off to bed after sunny and boozy day in Lamai.

Day 7: Snorkelling in Koh Tao and Koh Nang Yuan

Up at 7:30am for brekkie, which we managed despite neither of us setting our alarms- obviously fully into holiday mood now- and off for a short transfer to the boat launch.

We took an awesome speed boat north east for about 1.5 hours and spent the trip being entirely entertained by a gaggle (is it a gaggle?) of amusing Chinese women. They were about middle aged, but seemed to act like kittens. They'd run about the boat and invariably fall over, giggle, fight with each a bit, then fall asleep... This cycle repeated itself about four times in 90 minutes! Very funny.

We pulled up about 100m off the coast of the southern corner of Koh Tao and were presented with life jackets and chucked in. Now, Dave is very, very (very) scared of sharks... and Koh Tao has a cove called... dun dun dah... Shark Bay.

But, once the brown slick had stopped flowing from Dave's backside, he quickly realised how fun it was and got a bit more adventurous.

We saw lots of coral and loads of black and white striped fish (that I don't know the name of), some weird, long thin spindly fish (that I don't know the name of) and big shoals of small shiny fish (they might actually be called "small shiny fish", like a Ronseal thing?)

After about an hour and feeling at ease, it was time to move on to Koh Nang Yuan at the north of the island and lunch en route.

Lunch was a pretty causal affair which involved some chicken and noodles, a cold drink and sitting on bean bags in the gorgeous sunshine! Perfect.

A short blast round the coast and we were at the pier at Koh Nang Yuan. Now this place is probably exactly what you imagine a tropical island is like... Close your eyes and think about it... You just imagined Koh Nang Yuan.

You could walk in from the beach here and the sea was crystal clear; aquarium style. Unfortunately, a lot of the coral was a bit bleached and tired and whilst there weren't quite so many fish, the variety was amazing.

We found a large of parrot fish (Yup, know that one) chomping away on the coral, lots of tangs (bit like Dory) and even a big trigger fish.

There was a bit group of scuba divers learning to dive, and one of the slippery suckers crept into Dave's peripheral vision instantly reinstating the shark fears and prompting the brown slick to start again in full flow!

An hour and half flew by and it was time to head home and back to an afternoon by the pool (just in case all day face down in the water didn't burn us enough!)

In the evening, it was cocktails at the pool bar and off to Shades restaurant (sounds like toilet paper but was delicious).

Dave eating Thai Food!

Potent cocktails in tiny jugs

Serious snorkelling sunburn!

Day 6: The Waterfall that didn't fall

Ok, so last night was big one and this morning has all but passed with so much as a stir from Mr and Mrs G... It was probably the jet lag... I've heard day 6 is often the worst!

So after showers and swims, the world (or more specifically, a very beautiful 50 square mile part of it) is our oyster.

Hungover 2pm Breakfast

 I think we need another scooter!

After a little bit of wobbling about, we were on the straight and narrow and heading off for a lap of the island to take in some island nature. There's basically one main road the follows the coast around the island, so we followed it to the southern most point and headed inland towards the imaginatively named "Waterfall 1"

We pulled up and headed of in to the jungle for the short but very hilly trek towards the waterfall. The first thing to notice is that the middle of the island is hotter.... quite a lot hotter... and the second thing to notice is that clammy feet in flip flops are not ideal for jungle adventures. Yep, Dave fell down the side of a hill much to Laura's amusement!

After about 20 minutes of very (ok, moderately) treacherous walking we arrived at the waterfall. More specifically, we arrived at where the waterfall, where we could hear the faintest trickle of water but could see none. Apparently this is where the Waterfall would have been if we weren't  visiting at the the end of the dry season. Strangely, they kept it to themselves at the wobbly little shack where the insist you pay for parking your scooter in the middle of a ginormous field.

Poor Davey!

Still, it was fun in the jungle (apart from the peril obviously) but we didn't stay too long.

We went a little further in to the middle of the island and a little higher up into the mountains and found a nice little viewing platform with views across the edge of the mountain and right down to the coast. For some inexplicable reason, someone had build a concrete base for a sewing machine on the platform, but I guess sometimes you've just gotta sew!

Back to base and in the evening we decided to explore slightly in the opposite direction from Fishermans village, which basically meant having cocktails two hotels down, instead of ours.

Suitably cocktailed, we hiked back to Fishermans village (200m this time!) and into "The Shack" following a recommendation from lots of people. We proceeded to eat the best steak... ever.

We opted for the Australian tenderloin at a paltry £30, but there was Kobu and Wagyu (?) beff on offer which was up to about £80 per piece... Couldn't convince ourselves to do it, but didn't regret the decision.

Fed and watered, it was off to bed. 

Big day tomorrow.