1st October-7th

We stayed in Pattaya for a week and took a ferry from the mainland to an island called Koh Sumat. Heidi and I were shocked to see how small the ferry was because we naively assumed that it would look like the ferry you take from Dover over to France. In fact it was just like a bus but for the sea as you can see in the picture.
We're planning on staying here only for a couple of days as it is a very small island and it's not been that sunny here over the past few days.
This brings me onto the storms in Pattaya. Almost every night that we've stayed at Mickey's there has been a massive thunderstorm in the evening and all through the night. The second night in Pattaya was the worst as the storm cut out the electricity and we were stuck in the dark for hours. At first it was so scary as we were in a massive house that we didn't know well with no light to guide us around. Every time there was lightning you caught a glimpse for less than a second of what everyone else was doing and looking at. Matt took an amazing video of the lightning

 and you can see and hear just how bad the storms are and yet how beautiful they look in the Thai surroundings. We lit candles so we could see what we were doing and all 4 of us got into our swimmers and swam in the pool in the heavy rain. I wasn't expecting it to be so cold but it was freezing! Such a good experience and Mickey and Daa thought we were crazy.
We had a night out in Pattaya which was so much crazier than Fever in Nuneaton ;) Heidi and I had to use our first toilet that was a hole in the ground and Heidi found it very difficult. I was laughing so much that I nearly wet myself before I even got into the cubicle! The music was English music and we stuck to beer because we've heard bad things about Thai spirits. Heidi and I danced on the stage in the club while Matt and Nathan looked like our biggest fans. A taxi back to Mickey's was only £2 each which was pretty good considering how far away it was. We spent the next day watching American Pie on Mickey's tv and went to the Outback pub where Daa works for some English food. We tried some street food whilst at Mickey's although we're being very careful about what we consume. We have discovered banana pancakes which are cooked on the side of the road or the beach using a cooker. For 20p they fry a pancake, put bananas and scrambled eggs in the middle of it and pour condensed milk on top. Really really delicious. I'm still eating Thai food but am glad to have English food every now and then although the beefburgers here are so tiny and Nathan had one that was green!
Koh samut is such a beautiful island. We found some accommodation for £6 a night, they're little bungalows on the beach which are so handy. Once Mickey and Daa dropped us off here we went exploring and found a litter of puppies on the beach. It goes without saying that we've visited them every day. This island is what I imagined 'travelling' to look like. We've been swimming and cloud bathing here and we're now on our third day. We went out on the first night and went to a crazy outdoor pub and made a few friends. Me and Matt crashed a party in another pub and made even more friends. They love Maroon 5 out here which we're all enjoying as it takes us back to our teenage years. Me and Matt stayed at the party until the lights came on, in true Nuneaton style, and went late night (or should I say early morning) swimming. It was so much fun and the sea was so warm.
Today we've hired motorbikes and are driving around the island. The main road is a dirty beaten track and the island is much more hilly than we thought!! The ride is a bit bumpy but it's all part of the fun and we got soaked in a downpour of rain. We've all got cuts and bruises from the ride on the bikes, the road is just so unstable that it's impossible not to crash. We managed to bike all the way to the end of the island, which is the photo with Heidi in it, so we have been from the top to the bottom.
We're now looking up where to go next and whether we can make a full moon party on another island but we need to be out of Thailand in 2 weeks. It's lovely being able to choose where to go whenever we want to.