Thailand for Xmas?? -

After the baltic conditions in Japan, Bankok's climate was bliss. We decided to settle here for a couple of days before deciding on where to head for Xmas. We knew we wanted it hot, relaxing and in a bit of comfort as well. We decided on a small island called Koh Chang off the south east coast of Thailand and booked a resort (and SPA) called VJ hotel and health spa.

However, before we left we visited a couple of Bangkok markets to stock up on seaside clothes for the trip. The markets were great fun and very big. They had literally anything you could need from bootleg DVD's and CD's to rip off designer tshirts, jeans and all the food you can dream of. Ok, some of the food might have been a bit dodgy but we found a place on the street which was kinda like a restaurant and decided to risk it and the food was very good indeed (minced pork, tofu and noodle soup). We visited two markets, one at night and one during the daytime...but still buying real Teva sandals from the posh shopping centre! Well, you get what you pay for ;-)

Well, after watching Everton drop to a miserable 4-0 defeat against Bolton in a bar near Kao San Road my despair forced us into a decision and a change of scenery and it was then we booked our trip to Koh Chang. The ride down on the bus was good and very cheap and we then caught a ferry from Trat on the mainland to the island itself. When we arrived at VJ Hotel and health spa we were pretty happy with the look of the hotel, the new clean rooms, the cable TV, the pool and the beach...but it was strangely a little empty. Anyway, turns out the Spa hadn't finished being built yet and there wasn't really anything going on this far down the island. There was however, a really nice small beach bar a 5 min walk along the bach where we enjoyed two sunsets and a couple of beers and cocktails. But, after 2 nights we decided enough was enough and that we needed to be closer to the action.

So we moved down to a beach hut place right on White Sands Beach looking out onto the ocean. Unfortunately, this was where our trip started to take a turn for the worse. Firstly, it started to rain (turns out all of south thailand and the islands of Ko Samui and Phuket were getting constantly drenched and we'd been lucky until now) and then the Internet access (the usual during rain activity) ceased to the entire island. So, we hung around in our room playing scrabble and reading books. On the 22nd December we ate Tom Yam soup and then later took a pizza back to our room (I can hear you saying thanks for the details - but I'll explain why). The Pizza was a bit slimy.....but that night resulted us in literally taking turns to use the bathroom as a violent attack of Vomitting and Dhiarrhoea hit us both. By morning we were still ill and so I asked the hotel to take us to the Docs. Of course we ended up being taken to the very posh, 5 star, private clinic on the island where our comprehensive travel insurance policy was like booking into the Ritz with a Platinum or Black Amex card. The doctor diagnosed us with food poisoning and with a fever and some poor blood test results I was stuck on a drip and we were both taken over by ambulance to the main hospital on the mainland diagnosed with an infection from food poisoning. We spent the next 2 nights here well cared for and with a TV but only with 2 English channels - Nickelodeon and Real Madrid TV! Luckily the insurance policy came good and they agreed to pay the bill - a whacking 1750 US$ definitely our most expensive stay yet!

We got out on the afternoon of Xmas day and still feeling pretty fragile (and runny - sorry for the detail) booked into a hotel in Trat for a couple of nights. Trat was pretty uneventful apart from a nice and very cheap restaurant that was recommended to us where we ended up eating all our meals (it was recommended by the hospital staff so we were ok to trust it).

So, that was our Xmas pretty much ruined and we decided to make up for it with a good new year and head off to Sihanoukville and the best beach in Cambodia!