Beaches, rain and 'Buckets'

I spent the afternoon of my second day on Koh Samet sunning myself on the beach - I've got to get rid of this T-shirt suntan! That was all well and good until I was awoken by a heavy rain shower which meant that I spent the rest of the afternoon back in my room watching a Thai music channel.

For lunch I ordered a Pad Thai with seafood from the Silver Sand Restaurant. The prawns and squid were delicious, but it was easily the worst Pad Thai that I've eaten in Thailand. No cabbage, no peanuts and, for some inexcuseable reason, no chili.

That night I ended up sat on the beach drinking a beer and watching the fire dancers. When the sun goes down the beach gets covered in large wicker mats and low tables lit by candles, the trees are decorated with paper lanterns and the bars play chilled-out ambient/lounge dance music. It's all very relaxed, but the remix of CSS's 'Let's Make Love and Listen to Death From Above' was shockingly terrible, having successfully managed to remove all of the songs 'sexiness'.

I was soon drinking 'Buckets' with a French speaking Canadian named Richard and four Swedish lads - one of whom, Henrik or Frederick, went to school with Zlatan Ibrahimovic, for all you football fans out there!

A 'Bucket' is exactly that. A large plastic receptacle filled with ice, straws and far, far, far too much alcohol! In our case gin & tonic and the local Samsong whiskey. I ended the night by dancing drunkenly on the dancefloor before passing out on my bed. My first, and probably last, experience of 'Buckets'!


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I eventually woke up at 11.30 am the next morning, still drunk, had a breakfast of eggs and toast with fresh orange juice and went to beach to 'sleep it off'. It was overcast, windy and occasionally spotting with rain, but nothing was going to move me and I soon fell asleep listening to my iPod.

For lunch I ate a delicious fresh baguette with some iced tea. I'm getting addicted to the stuff, especially Liptons Iced Green Tea with Honey & Lemon - I'm sipping on a bottle of it as I type this!

That night I watched the fire dancers on the beach and went to bed early, feeling sorry for myself and still suffering from the previous nights excesses! My advice: 'Buckets' - don't do it kids!