No Saawatdee Phi Phi !

It is with some trepidation that Sue and I will be venturing to the hotel's very own 'Fire Show' tonight.  We have been partly seduced by paradise and without thinking it through, at breakfast this morning, we agreed to book a table for the evening's entertainment that commences straight after sunset and bizarrely includes a Mongolian BBQ.

Now whenever we have gone to some lovely hotel (it is rare but it happened in the Dominican Republic, on Cyprus, in Egypt and in Mexico) we have agreed to watch a performance of 'traditional' dance/music/cultural history and have always come away saying 'never again' - The main reason for going was to show our children something of the place they were visiting but we don't have that excuse (and we didn't have that excuse in Mexico) now and we are still going along. Mainly out of politeness (to the performers who we would hate to see performing to no-one and would therefore have to seek other employment, but also to remind ourselves that we don't really like 'that sort of thing'.

Right, onto travel matters. We confirmed our booking with Phutet Ferries and Ferry Samui and the replies came back from one company, Livagroup. On Monday we had planned this stressful little number - Phuket Ferries from Lanta at 8am to Phi Phi arriving at 9am followed by a ferry/bus/another ferry combo with Ferry Samui leaving Phi Phi at 10:30am. Now our experience with South East Asia arrival times did not fill us with any confidence. In fact the only thing that has been consistent has been that all forms of transportation have arrived 50% later than expected, with the notable exception of our arrival at Kota Bharu (and that hotel room was a bit 'rent by the hour'); though the staff were nice and so was the city.

Back to the story - Livagroup suggest an easier, cheaper and stress free alternative as they are the parent company. We leave Lanta in the Andaman Sea (Indian Ocean) at 8am to Krabi on the west coast of the mainland then a bus to Don Sak in the province of Surat Thani on the east coast followed by a ferry to Samui in the Gulf of Thailand (Pacific Ocean). Plus, they will pick us up from our hotel.

Bonus !!

A lovely day here, cloudless and hot. We have undergone serious sun bathing today. Still no news about our move to the actual room we booked. We are making the most of our upgrade and not mixing with other people as you would expect!

Addendum ...
Fire show was crap!  :-)