Life in Koh Samui

Thursday - 22 May 08

Hi to everyone from beautiful Lamai Beach in Koh Samui. What a fabulous island and how lovely are the people. We are having such a relaxing time it seems almost criminal. We have now booked our new accommodation at the Samui Cliff View Resort just up the road and it is totally luxurious and 5 star, it is on the side of a cliff with 360 degree views over the Gulf of Thailand we move there on Saturday and as much as we love our little Bungalow here there's nothing like doing the 5 star thing.

Today we have had a big day, for us anyway. We spent the morning at the internet cafe doing our usual daily business. Rick checking the stockmarket and his CFD's which arn't doing too well at the moment with this bullshit with the oil prices being so high, we are hoping oil prices shit themselves over the next few days. On the other hand its good for us as our BHP shares are now worth $5 bucks more than we paid for them, so a bit of profit taking maybe in the wind. Anyway thats the market and thats Rick's department.

I have the pleasure of answering all the emails and dealing with useless bloody real estate agents who don't know how to do their jobs for which we pay them. Roll on July, when we get back to Queensland these real estates are gonna know their jobs by the time I am finished with them and they certainly won't be managing any of our properties either, I hope they like giving refunds on management fees because I will demanding it. Our unit in Hervey Bay will be vacant from 28 May thanks to the tenant breaking her lease, as much as it pisses us off that it cost us money to let her go we are glad as she has been a pain in the arse since we bought the place and it now means we can move in there when we get back and not have to wait until October.

We caught a Songteaw into Chewang and spent the rest of the day looking around the markets and taking a walk along Chewang beach. I have to say its not quite as nice as Lamai Beach where we are staying. We thought there weren't many tourist here on Samui, how wrong were we. They are all at Chewang probably because that is the hub of Samui, where all the young folk go to stay and hang out. It has all the pubs, nightclubs and bars you could wish for if you are a young person looking for a good time and holiday its probably the best place to be.

We didn't get back to Lamai until 3pm and by this time we were exhausted and hot as it is so humid here and the hottest part of the day is between 11am and 4pm. We had a nice cool shower each, a bit of a Nanny & Poppy snooze and when the sun went down ventured out again to the internet cafe and the 7/11. We were good tonight and instead of eating out decided to buy some noodles in a cup from the 7/11 and eat in and then feasted on chocolate while we watched, as usual, the bloomberg channel.

Our flights are all booked for next Saturday to Chiang Mai, we managed to get a direct flight from Samui to Chiang Mai which is only a 2 hour flight. It cost a little more but hey its worth it cause it beats catching ferries, buses, trains and the 2 days travelling to get to Chiang Mai. We will be hanging out there for a month so we can travel to Chiang Rai, Mae Hong son and Pai. We were thinking it maybe worth looking for a small house or villa we can rent for the month we are there as they are pretty big on renting accommodation out on a daily, weekly and monthly basis and the longer you rent for the cheaper it is. We will certainly check it out first since our days of being ripped off and being bullshitted to are well and truly over.

Koh Samui has been the best part of this trip so far. We really needed this 2 weeks R & R after all our travelling on the public transport system and it taking forever to get from one place to another. We have been and seen many places and have now been in Thailand a month. The last 6 weeks of our trip should be a lot less hectic. A month in Chiang Mai and surrounds in Northern Thailand, then back south to Phi Phi Island and then on to Kamala Beach in Phuket, Bangkok for 1 night and then back to oz.

Our travels, other than those couple of shitty days have been good, we would certainly do it all again in a flash perhaps maybe with a few changes here and there but certainly Thailand for us is the place to go. Apparently once you turn 50 years young you can get a 12 month visa to stay in Thailand provided you can show that you have a least 80,000 baht in the bank to support yourself for the 12 months. Something to think about!

Anyway time to go and do other things. To everyone out there still reading our blog.

Kob Kai (Thank You)