We arrived on the island of Koh Samui after a short plane ride of 50 minutes! Again my Dad hadn't let us down and had arranged for us to stay in a 3 bedroomed private villa with a pool! Dad had also hired a car so we could toby around the island for the week. Our first port of call was to Tesco to stock up for the week (and Dad could buy his new found passion, Singha beer!) We settled in our new accommodation for the night and enjoyed a chicken salad and a few bevies by the pool.

On Sunday, our first full day on the Island we ventured to the beach resort Konik Buri, recommended by our villa owner. We were able to use the resort facilities including the pool, so we picked out our sun loungers and set up for the day. The resort was so nice we decided to stay for breakfast, lunch and dinner! We could order anything from pancakes to seafood the menu catered for all the Crossleys and Smallridge culinary needs. We lazed in the pool and watch the world go by on the hammocks, Mark and Sarah even hired kayaks for an hour! Before enjoying our final meal of the day we took a stroll along the beach to watch the sunset, this was decidedly one of our favourite days in Thailand.

Another of our favourite days in Thailand was the day we went elephant trecking. We arrived at the Namuang safari park and waterfalls and cautiously made our way to the departure lounge! We had time to browse around the craft stalls then it was time to jump aboard. Me and Mark shared an elephant, Mum and Sarah had their own and we decided Dad should have one all to himself, little did he know he had just jumped aboard the naughtiest elephant in the safari, haha. The first two elephants that me, Mark, Sarah and Mum were on walked at a leisurely pace, following the designated path nice and easy, however Dads elephant Jambo, decided he wanted to take his own treck and kept venturing out to grab something to eat. He kept flapping his ears and whacking Dads legs and kept pretending he was going to bend down and through Dad off, all we could here was Dad "Wow Jambo where you going!!" it was very funny!! At first we all had our own guides but then they jumped and asked if we wanted to sit on the elephants backs. Mark, Sarah and Dad all did, then I had a go and swapped with Mark. The elephants trecked to a waterfall where we jumped off our transport and walked around the waterfall. We then headed to Peak Eye View restaurant for an amazing view of the island and a well deserved drink. After our drink we went to see the famous Grandfather and Grandmother rock. We practically hiked for what felt like forever, rock climbing at one point to see these rocks, which turned out to be nothing more than a rock shaped like cock! Haha. The views of the ocean and beach were worth the energy though although the sun was blazing down on us!!

For a perfect end to the day Dad treated us to a slap up meal at a restaurant Dr. Frogs which was famous for making the Islands best pizza, I cant vouch for this as I tried the salmon which was delicious but Mark had a spicy sausage pizza and Dad had a seafood pizza and they both said said it was top notch!

We spent Tuesday at Bophut town and beach, a little fishermans resort on the north coast of the Island. We walked around the village looking around the shops and restaurants and eventually came across some comfy sun loungers where we spent the day catching the rays. At night time we headed to the lively Chaweng and visited the brazillian restaurant Zicos. It was an all you can eat bbq joint and the waitresses served the meat at your table, you could try alsorts, beef, sausage, chicken, prawns even shark, which me and Dad tried. Every hour or so a pair of Brazillian dancers came out to entertain the crowd and guess who jumped up to dance...Mum! We walked around Chaweng then went for a few drinks and enjoyed the atmosphere in Chaweng.

In an effort to save the pennies we decided to cook tea in our villa. I made us all stir fry pork which we all ate together then went out to the pool to have a few drinks. We were all sitting chatting away playing beat the intro, me and Dad were relaxing on loungers and Mum and Sarah were chatting by the poolside table and Mark had his legs dangling in the pool, the reason why I have to go into such description is because I have to set the scene, we were all very relaxed and enjoying the night sky when suddenly a giant (we thought it was giant anyway) Praying Mantis flew over our villa wall on the attack. First it went for Mark who suddenly started flinging his arms about and trying to dodge the creature that had flown into his face, how he didn't fall in the pool I`ll never know! Anyway we heard him hit the thing and it fell into the pool. We thought that was the end of it, when suddenly it came back to life and started clawing its way out of the pool, it climbed out and shook itself off. I thought I was safe enough sitting on the lounger because I was a fair distance away and I was still laughing at Mark, anyway how wrong was I. The Praying Mantis flew up into the air again changed direction and came straight for me, I managed to fling it away but it was literally in my face. I jumped up and realised I`d flung it straight in Dads direction who jumped up and started flinging himself about just like Mark, Dad thought he`d got rid of it and was busy looking around to see where it had gone, then Mark pointed out it was on Dads shoulder!! Haha. While all this was going on Mum and Sarah had already fled to the safety of the villa. We all went inside for a short while until the coast was clear (not before David Attenborough - my Dad - took photos of it) We ventured back outside and took up our previous spots,confident the beast was not to return, when you`ve guessed it, it came back over the wall with avengence. We all wasted no time this time and ran for the door, but low and behold someone managed to slip and take a massive tumble to the ground, you`ve guessed it Mark!! He must have been wearing his flip flops haha. Thankfully no- one was hurt in the panic.

Our final day on Koh Samui was divided up. Mum and Sarah wanted to relax in the pool at the villa and me, Mark and Dad took a trip to see the big Buddha. The views from the top of the statue were spectacular. We enjoyed a light lunch and headed back to the poolside. That night, for our last night we put on our glad rags and went to the Cliff bar and grill. Dad treat us all to a steak dinner which was out of this world. We sat outside on the cliff top listening to the waves crash on the rocks below us, it was idyllic, a perfect way to end our Island getaway.