The Dolittles

Hope you are all well and set for Christmas...don't worry about posting our pressies we'll come and collect them from you all when we get back ;o). Can't believe it's nearly Christmas....there are plenty of trees up here and they are playing carols everywhere but to be honest "Frosty the Snowman" and "White Christmas" doesn't have quite the same effect when its 35 degrees on the beach....nor do the flashing santa hats that everyonje is wearing with bikinis and flip flops! The good news is that nearly all the pubs are serving roast turkey with all the trimmigs on christmas day!

Been up to loads since we last emailed...we have been to ko phi phi, krabi, and we are currently in ko samui. Ko phi phi is the island where the beach was filmed so you can imagine how pretty it was. We spent most of our time either on the gorgeous beach or in what became our second home the hippy restarant on the beach which had a huge barbeque and fairy lights everywhere! (it also had 24 hour coverage of the premiership! the thai people loved it cos I am from Manchester United!) shortridge SNR you will be pleased to know that we stopped eating MacDonalds and even went as far as ordering shark for tea (tastes like fishy chicken and is a tuff as old boots). However there was a fatal flaw with this plan cos unfortunatley a bit oif shark and few mussles didn't exactly line our stomachs, so after a few buckets of Mai thai (literally buckets for making sandcastles with) and a lot of crazy dancing on the sand until the small hours we were feeling a little ruff.......which continued all the next day. (prevented us from going to phi phi lei Matt...sorry but was far too ill!) It also forced us to have an early night the next night which lead to what has become one of the biggest traumas of our holiday so far...a live encounter with wild lizards!

As you can all imagine I was not amuzed AT ALL when Alex casually remarked on the night of the hangover..."what is that on the wall over there?"...he didn't have his glasses on so I looked and saw a big wild lizard shooting across the wall in front of me and run straight behind the wardrobe. I was beside myself at the thought of being eaten alive by the monster in the middle of the night so I had to sit up ALL night to watch the wardrobe in case it came out. (Alex insits I am over exaggerating but I maintain that gekkos are flesh eating monsters.) We have had them in EVERY single room since...along with a rat/ferret/voley type animal too in Ko Samui. GREAT!

After 4 nights in Ko Phi Phi we decided it was time to move on and got the boat to the mainland, Krabi. Massive rock faces covered in palm trees and swinging vines and once agian beautiful beaches. Again spent 2 days on the various beaches at Ao Nang and then on the final day we had our first adventure, we went to an Orchid farm! It was part of a days tour, which started off at the orchid farm where we saw all sorts of wonderful plants, such as the monkey condom tree. It did get more adventurous we promise....next we went to one of the national parks and trecked through a bit of rain forest up to a waterfall and went swimming in it! Ruth felt like one of those girls from the timotea ads ( I wished she looked like one!) In true Thai fashion for lunch the one fingered driver (nicknamed One?!) took us to his mates house for the traditional thai lunch which had been advertised on the brochure. The mates house was the middle of nowhere and we were given a little plastic table plonked on a dirt track. Not really what we were expecting but it turned out to be one of the best moments and best meals so far. All the dishes were delicious and when we had eaten One took us around the house which was actually a farm and showed is where all the ingredients had come from...they had everything...banana trees, pineapple plants, lemon grass, coffee beans, papaya trees, rubber trees (which we didn't eat) and hundreds of chickens running round... no need for Tesco ever again! The final part was by far the highlight we went ................... elephant trekking! No more mini coopers or BMWs for us, elephants are the way forward so long as you don't mind travelling at 1 mile an hour and the stink of elephant s**t! It was all good fun until the guide made Ruth climb from the safety of the seat onto the elephants head for a photo, she looked petrified, but still not as scared as she was by the damn gekko.

The next stop was Chaweng beach on the island of Ko Samui. It's the Thai version of Magaluf, with the added ingredient of Lady Boys!!! Spent first day on beach and then headed to the Aquarium for a bit of touristy fun! Thais being thais and not really being too bothered about safety issues or political correctness made it quite a fun afternoon. We got to feed lettuce leaves to giant turtles and look at sharks, where about 30 were crammed in a small tank...lucky fish don't remember much! The best bit was the bird and bengal tiger show though...(random?) where birds, like eagles and other killer kinds of birds, cycled bikes, flew through hoops and did maths all about 30 cms away from the audience..sometimes they decided not to bother though and just flew off, dangerously low around the audiences heads for a while. Luckily the tigers were a bit better behaved....I say luckily cos they let you go into the cage with them to stroke them and have a photo. Which we did. (Gekkos to tigers in one week...we are hardcore). To top this day off we went for a great meal on the beach where we sat on mats in the sand and then off to a thai bar...which was full of the usual bunch of extremely friendly thai ladies. It was great..we got tipsy and introduced thailand to Barbie Uno (alex's favourite game) and by the time we were finished we had one thai lady, one fifteen year old girl and one little boy all playing too.

We are now at a quieter beach on Ko Samui, Lamai beach and are trying to make the most of the calm before the storm...christmas and the full moon party. We are avoiding all wild animals but have still managed to get a little tag along dog who sits and plays Barbie Uno with us. Also, alex has bought some speedos and is oiling his thighs on the beach so not much more entertainment is required!

We are missing you all lots and hope you all have an amazing Christmas and New Year(...and Birthday Paul and Bee!) Please send us emails...( its Christmas so you shouldn't be doing much work) and keep us up to date with gossip.