London to Koh samui - Our first trip with our newly walking one year old!

After 3 Flights and a 30hr door to door trip with our 14month old son, we were ready to drop our bags and head for the pool....except our bags had been left at Bangkok airport after the connecting flight! We had the clothes we stood in (That were not appropriate for the clammy 40 degrees of a tropical island!) Another problem....we were without stroller!! In the stress of the unknown of our first trip with our newly walking toddler, and sprinting to catch our connecting flight that was about to leave without us..we had managed to leave the stroller at Koh samui airport...This trip was not working out how we had planned!

Dad checked in with our little explorer while I flagged down a taxi back to the airport, paying a little over the odds, but desperate for the convenience of a buggy I jumped in! The kind security guards had kept it aside for us, they had remembered the little blond haired blue eyed boy that they had found so peculiar!

When I finally arrived back at the hotel, it was nearly time for dinner, Win had obtained a head injury a few days before we departed so needed to get a good sleep, our luggage still hadn't arrived and we felt extremely doubtful! It had started to rain, so I popped into the hotels restaurant, with Cass and got us rice and vegetables, everywhere we walked staff and guests looked amazed at Cass the chubby toddler, this was a new experience for me and to begin with I found it odd, but learned they were just being friendly and fascinated!

Walking back to the quarters, a man in a raincoat was knocking on the door, to my amazement I saw 2 suitcases! Malaysia airlines had done a great job finding our hotel and apologised sincerely for the mishap! After this we NEVER checked in any luggage again, these were all small enough for hand luggage but our laziness caused us an inordinate amount of stress....TRAVEL LIGHT!

We stayed at the beautiful BRIZA BEACH RESORT - this was a 7 night stay, we had 2 apartments and our own mini pool, 2x tvs, an out door and indoor shower, 2 queen size beds and a crib fit for a prince! This hotel was a little more than budgeted at around £100 per night, but very close to busy CHEWANG beach and sitting right on the beach itself! We booked through HOTELS.COM - this was one of our first bookings, and we have used the same site ever since.

During our 7night stay, the boys had a suit made each, we hired a car and visited the big buddha temple (ladies be sure to cover up at a temple, usually a scarf will suffice) the fisherman's market most nights where you can pretty much get any cuisine and a meal for well under a pound, there are cocktails, juice stalls, family areas with shows, stalls with clothes and gifts, it's a real treat!

We would often go for a walk at lunch time, Cass would sleep and we would eat! He was no longer having formula so we would buy milk cartons, he would have 1 in the morning with a banana and one before bed time. After lunch we would find random hotels, buy a fresh ice shake and lunch for cass, have a dip in the pool and continue exploring. Later in the day we would drive around the island looking for things to do....waterfalls to climb (yes with toddler!) hot springs, or just roadside shacks selling the best curries you've ever tasted! Some evenings we would watch a fire show on the beach, there would be lots of families and children playing, if close to our hotel we were even able to sneak in the odd beer or cocktail, cass would be given unlimited bananas and attention, the perfect family setting, we felt safe and at ease. The perfect island to begin our adventure!

Win had his stitches taken out in Koh samui, when he had these done in the UK, doctors tried to use dissolvables, but the wound was too deep...they were worried he was going to have to get them removed in a 3rd world country...we were a little cautious, but our anxieties were gone when we saw the quality of the care, the attention and the low cost! We popped into a hospital and asked at reception, not many spoke english, eventually an expat doctor came to see us and we explained the situation, Win was whisked into a room, had a handful of doctors and assistants standing around his bed, very interested in his stitches apparently! They were out in no time and all for the small cost of around £30. The sun cleared it up in no time!

After samui, we got the lomprayah hover craft over to koh phangan! Info about the amazing phangan in the next post!

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