We've been on Koh samui for 3 days now, very nice island, but far too easy to do everything, and thus, everything is a little bit more expensive! It is quite touristy, and the locals are used to charging gullible tourists higher rates, knowing they will pay them! hehe Despite this tho, we have managed to get a nice little chalet on the beach at Haad Mae Naem about 3-4 metres from the sea, which meant that as soon as I wake up, I can jump straight into the sea! Which, at 0730 yesterday morning, was empty, beautiful and refreshing! :-)

We went on a trip yesterday to do elephant trekking and various other things, the most intriguingly named; 'monkey and coconut' :-) which turned out to be a monkey that climbed up a tree and knocked the coconuts down :-)

The elephant 'trek' at Namuang involved a half hour on the back of an elephant through the 'jungle' and the mahoot taking our picture, and then asking for a tip of 200 baht :-) hehe, no chance mate!

We then went off to the aquariam, tiger enclosure and bird aviary where we saw some impressive animals, and allthough they seemed to be a little tightly caged, they seemed quite happy!

At this odd place, we had a hilarious animal show, in which the animals couldn't quite do what they were supposed to in the correct order, so at one point there were, Parrots, Cockatoo's, Pidgeons, Hawks, Toucans and Otters all doing random stuff, with confused looking local birds looking through the gaping holes in the roof netting. The entertainment staff seemed well trained though - hehe, allthough the microphone reverb, and quick talking made it hard to decipher exactly what was being said! But we were able to work out when we were supposed to clap etc :-)

After that, we went for traditional Thai food, that was more like Chinese food, and not alot like the food we have been eating for the last 2 weeks!

Finally we headed off to a waterfall, where we got to swim in the pool at the bottom, which was very refreshing :-) hehe

Today, having argued about what we are going to do, we have decided that 2moro we are going on a trip to the Ang Thong National Marine park, which is where the book 'The Beach' was inspired. We should get to see the beach that was in the film too :-)

Today is still unsure, but I need to catch up with Laura's sun-tan, so we'll probably stay here on the beach. Tonight we are heading off for and evening at Haad Chewang (Beach) which is the main tourist area, and has the best beach.

I'm going to try to upload some pictures now, as this place has 2mb ADSL, w00t, but having problems installing the drivers for my card reader :-(

Mattfink, signing off......