Honeymoon Hong Kong Oct 2007

So it's our Honeymoon, the most exciting part after the wedding, no more planning, no more arguments and certainly no more stress for two whole weeks..........hmmmm !!!

It starts.....arrive in Manchester after having a nice relaxing lift to the airport curtosy of mother and father. Our connecting flight to London is on time - no problems ! Chelsea Team are in the airport after the Man Utd match (not sure what the score was but managed to steal a kiss off Lampard) Filght goes fine, except for when we arrive in London, didn't realise that we were late, waited for the luggage....45 minutes for the damn luggage !!!

So we have about 10 mins to get to Virgin check-in ! We ran, which is not easy in high heels, get to check in and we are late by 10 mins, flight has another 50 minutes before it leaves, so we start begging, just leave the luggage and run us to the gate a.s.a.p. - NO ! WHAT ? "We have sold your seats to someone else" "OH MY GOD, YOUR KIDDING ME, THIS IS MY HONEYMOON"

So that was that, I was whaling in the check-in area, Dave was feeling physically sick. The wedding is cursed and it's never gonna last - blah blah blah !!!

We got a flight 24 hours later, after having to beg as it was not guarenteed !!!

HONG KONG

Day 1: Arrive in HONG KONG 9pm - only have 1 and a half days now because of the delay. Quick shower and change and were off, go searching for bars, stay up to approx 1am and go back to the hotel. Ask Dave if we should set the alarm (don't want to miss a minute of our remaining time here) NAH ! we'll wake up I feel fine !

(This is the craziest view, we pulled back the curtains and this is what we saw ! How many peeping tom's do you think there could be ?)

Day 2: GROAN !!! What time is it babes ? HOLY SHIT !!!!!!! It's bloody 12pm, we've slept in (disaster number 2, bit of a cry while trying to get clothed and cleaned) Right we're off, what shall we do, taxi straight to Stanley Market. Quick trip round and some souveniers bought, Had a nice cold beer in a little bar - stuck a beer mat to a post with message on (will see if it's still there when we go back)

Next....bus to Causeway Bay ! Cheaper than the taxi ride !!! Straight to "The Peak" to soak in the mass that is Hong Kong. The sky scrappers touched the sky and the whole city looked over run with ants.

The night was starting to draw in so we caught the tram back down to the bottom and followed signs in Chinese to the Star Ferry (no we don't understand chinese but pictures of a boat gave it away). Managed to get on the ferry just as all the sky scrappers were switching the lights on !

Got another bus to Nathan Road night market. Loads of bargins, Dave bought a waving Chiang Chieh-shih watch ! Market food was to die for: Mantis prawns (wriggling round on a stall, then straight in the wok-on your plate before you cold say "chop sticks"), steamed pak choi with garlic and rice.

Then back to the bar we went in the night before - different crowd in the Karaoke bar, we were welcomed and seats made available. A husband and wife couple taking the signing far too seriously started chatting to us, lots of toasting and lots of peace signs made, sweets exchanged - drinks boughts for us and even take-away shared round. The gentleman got Dave up to sign Robbie Williams !!! That was an experiance !!! Got a little tipsey had two hours sleep and had to get up for the airport transfer.

Honeymoon Thailand Day 1 & 2 Oct 2007

We arrive in Bangkok, sample some Thai food in the airport lounge and wait for the next plane to take us to Koh Samui. Manage to update Facebook and annoy who ever we can in England by describing the weather and the fab time we are having.

Flight to Koh Samui – Well …. We walk on the tarmac and are faced with the smallest plane I have ever seen. It’s painted with an underwater theme, comical but not reassuring when two honeymooners had died a few weeks before on one of these little planes. Panic starts to set in, the weather is a bit overcast, could this be the third thing to go wrong with the honeymoon ? Things do some in three’s after all !

Right were off, everything is fine, I’m gripping hard but quite relaxed until…..were are about to descend !!! Oh dear me were are wobbling !!! We are going to die !!! There’s a woman crying, Dave’s leaning over me to take pictures !!!!

We land and we are ok, the airport is beautiful !!! The real holiday begins.

We check-in to the hotel where we are greeted with a fresh coconut with fresh flowers. It was like a little dream, we felt so special ! We then learn they do this everywhere and there’s nothing special about it at all, but we love it.

Right drop bags off and straight to the hotel beach bar to see what’s going on. “Have you got the money Dave?” - “Yeah”, Dave’s still routing around 5 minutes later, trying to find it ! Oh no here I go again – “Have we lost it ?, where is it ? Oh my god I can’t believe it we have no money, this marriage is cursed !”

I have a little paddy and find it in my handbag, “how did it get there ?” I had been blaming Dave up until this point.

Straight to the bar, Tai Mai for me and a Singapore Sling for Dave – Well it was happy hour ! This was a mistake, one Mai Tai and I was hooked, it was my drink of the holiday in between water that is.

So the next 11 nights are our real honeymoon, time to relax and unwind.

We met a couple from Australia who were drunk 24/7, they found it unbelievable when they found out the got married on the same day as us. It was like they had won the lottery or they had just met Elvis (way over the top). His name was also Dave and he decided that this was the craziest thing ever, every time he spoke with Dave he added Dave to the beginning and the end of each sentence, So Dave, what do you think Dave, that’s crazy Dave, I like you Dave (obsessed).

We attended the Managers Cocktail party the next night and everyone from the hotel met for a glass of wine on the beach. This was quite nice, no Dave or Kylie (not sure what her name was but guess what she had a aunty called Helen !) in sight. A few of the other guest were talking about them, same as our impressions – pissed daily.

Next day we decided to go for a walk, it was quite hot but armed with a bottle of water it wouldn’t be too long before we found another shop. We were wrong it started to get blistering and there was no life to be seen anywhere. Stopped at a convenience store just in time, I was nearly dead. Dave had a beer while I opt for water. The shop owner said there was a beach area just down the road to the side of the shop. So we set off again, Jesus Christ it was boiling, why are we walking, there aren’t enough trees to walk under, there was no shade from anywhere.

Finally got to the beach area and found some shade, there was a lady on a motorcycle with a side cart selling things, Dave went to see what it was, Ice lollies Thai style, we were nearly dead and needed something cold, she was our saviour. She shaved a huge block of ice into a shell shaped plastic pot, it was then pressed down with another shell pot and we chose a sauce – Red, not sure what the flavour was so red – and then she added condensed milk on top. It was lovely but we didn’t see her again all holiday !
We walked back up the road and got to the shop, decided to wait for a taxi. We waited and waited and realised that there was no traffic on this road, then out of no-where a bus came, we flagged it down and jumped in, just as we did it started raining ! We wanted to jump out and walk but we stayed put.

Thailand - Rest of the holiday

So on from the first few days we managed to cram in a lot.

To do this we decided to book a tour - I hate tours but with all the drama we had it seemed like the best option. So Mr Tong's tour it was - 13 places to visit, these included the following:

Grandfather and Grandmother Rock !!! Well what a wierd one - taking pictures of naturally formed rocks that look like a the private parts of a man and a woman - yes i've added them to the link as I know you soo want to see them.



We then went to a the Monkey training centre - where they train monkeys to collect coconuts from the trees.



A hilltop restaurant was the next stop where we ate Thai chicken curry - it was the best meal we ate in Thailand and the views were fantastic.



A visit to a waterfall, nice to cool off and chill out for a little while


Rubber platations where Dave made friends with a spider whilst I ran for cover in the jeep - this thing was humongous !

A secret garden where a family had carved little warriors out stone, very pretty and clever.

Elephant riding was brilliant ! I love elephants



The Big Budha was the highlight for me. The most beautiful budha i've seen.










So overall the tour was well worth it.

We took the bull by the horns and rented some scooters out for a few days - No licences and no helmets so this was going to be fun. I fell off mine on some sand - what a loser ! We got a bit drunk one afternoon and had to ride home in the rain but somehow I was better than being sober and the sun being out !!! Children - DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME !!!

Food was amazing - ate some nice street food, a tip they don't gut the squid - Dave had a barbequed one and got a mouth full of mush !

We couldn't go to the National Marine Park (where "The Beach" was filmed) as some tourist went canoeing and got into trouble in a cave. All but one died and the government said there were to be no tours by boat.