Torture hut, but all will be ok as the Mantis is praying

Since our last blog post we have been lapping up the sun and swimming in the warm waters of the Gulf of Thailand, off Koh Samui. We were staying at a lovely place called Moon Hut, which is right on the beach; the food from the restaurant/bar run by John and Big, the owners of Moon Hut, is really good and recommended. We must do that TripAdvisor review as promised.! However, there is a little hut in Moon Hut which Heather has dubbed, 'the torture hut'. She will explain why. I avoided it.

Before we left Moonhut, I (Heather) decided to have a Thai massage - there is a massage hut on the beach where we were staying ( it's been renamed by me as ' The Torture Hut'). What an agonising hour it was as every knot, stress area, and bit of cellulite was crushed, squeezed and walked (yes, she walked all over me) out of my body!!  Thank goodness my earlobes were not knotted or stressed as it was the only part of me that didn't hurt as she pulled them!!! I didn't scream just silently groaned and I'm afraid the pillow my head was on probably has been discarded by now due to the big teeth marks!!! Anyway, I was able to walk after, and even felt quite 'loosened up' !! No doubt it has done some good - safe to say, I won't be having another and completely put Ken off!

Looks can be deceptive

It was great to see that even the insects are praying for us.

Sorry if you didn't get to spot the monitor lizards in a previous blog, you can't miss this little fellow!

On our last night at Moon Hut we were introduced by John to a lovely, friendly German couple, Amir and Gabby. That day Amir had taken Gabby to an isolated beach and had asked her to marry him; she said, 'yes'! They have been friends for nearly 20 years and had then decided to go out together and ...there you go! It was a shame we only met on our last night as there was a bit of a celebration (lots of white wine) and lots of laughter (and a bit of a headache the morning after). It was a great way to end our time in Samui.

The train journey back to Bangkok was another adventure, but the air conditioning on the train was freezing and the train went so fast there were times when we thought we'd fly off the tracks - but we didn't. Sleep was hard to come by.

As we arrived in Bangkok on time (6.30 am), we left our luggage at Hua Lumphong station and wandered around Bangkok until the Grand Palace opened at 8.30 am. We queued with hordes of other tourists for the ticket office to open. I know Heather and I are tourists too, but there were huge numbers of groups of both tourists and schoolchildren. Once inside there are lots of signs saying, 'Please be quiet'. Hmm, the guides of the groups shouted very loudly, most of the time, and groups swarmed everywhere, apparently unaware of anyone else except their guide and the next 'thing' to see. The Grand Palace and buildings are, like so many public buildings in Thailand, very impressive, but the people and the noise! And it was very hot and humid.

An Apsara - created during the Stirring of the Milky Sea (have a look at the Hindu creation story)

Later that morning we were able to meet up with Chris Miles -(he is Fiona and Nick Miles's son - Heather's special friends in NZ). Chris is in Thailand working but yesterday he was passing through Bangkok to the airport. We met him for lunch and had such a lovely time catching up!! Thanks Chris - see you in India next!!!

So, a little later today we'll be heading off to catch our evening flight to Sydney, and another chapter of The Browns in South East Asia and Australasia (that's a bit of a mouthful for a blog title).

We will return to Thailand in May and have plans to teach English through a local church which offers English conversation sessions.

"Sawasdee krab/ka" Goodbye from Thailand

Heather and Ken xx