New Year on the River Kwai

Liddy
Happy New Year to Everyone

We have been rather offline for the last couple of weeks, enjoying Christmas and New Year with Mike's family. Unfortunately, Sara (Mike's sister) and family were unable to join us due to the snow in the UK which was very sad - all were sorely missed, as were Elizabeth (another sister) and family at home in Sydney
Christmas was on Koh Jum, a very quiet and little visited island off the southern coast of Thailand. We were very relieved to arrive there, leaving the gathering scarlet hordes of  Brits, Russians and various plump and sweaty Europeans on the beaches of the mainland..... (obviously we never perspire or get red....)
We were staying in a small resort of just ten bungalows on an almost deserted stretch of beach...just a beach swing, a couple of deck chairs and a stretch of sand for gathering shells or digging trenches, depending on your preference. Bliss.
We spent one day on a boat trip to a series of three supposedly deserted beaches to snorkel; pulling round the corner into the first, we were greeted by a beach which was completely full of boats - probably thirty moored on the beach itself, another 15 in the bay, and just behind us a ferry full of about 200 people.  Fortunately, as soon as you put on a mask and snorkel, the hordes didn't matter at all - the fishlife was absolutely stunning and we spent happy hours snorkelling around.
From the beach, we moved up to Kanchanaburi, home to the Bridge over the River Kwai. I showed off my travel arrangement credentials by organising the transport between the beach and our next hotel; after two boats, seven taxis / buses / songthaews (big jeeps), one train, two more taxis and the Pleasants family going missing in Bangkok for two hours (rubbish taxi driver), the in-laws were starting to regret having placed their trust in me. Still, we got here in the end.
The last few days have been spent at a small hotel called Xanadu 2008 (highly recommended if anyone is coming in this direction). We've visited WW2 cemeteries, climbed waterfalls, walked over the bridge and pottered.
New Years celebrations were muted - my first adult new year without making it to midnight. The backstory is that Mike and John (brother) decided to have an early celebration on New Years Eve's Eve and rolled back at three in the morning in an ambulance, having failed to procure a taxi but having sweet-talked an impressionable paramedic. By the by, in case anyone is wondering, they spent the night with a couple of lady boys. The one who latched on to Mike was called Fiat but when introduced, Mike thought she said 'her' name was 'Fierce' so he roared and made tiger claws. She clearly thought she was in there and roared back at him. Only later did he discover her name wasn't Fierce after all.
Big news is that Sam has lost his first tooth (isn't this a bit early?).
Tomorrow we start cycling again.....suspect that we may struggle a bit after a few weeks of relaxing and eating.
Hope you all have a good 2011. As for me, my stars in the Thai newspaper assure me that in January I will win the lottery but that I need to release fresh water snails and birds before setting of on a trip in February. In March, Mike is apparently due to develop a skin rash. Watch this space.