Day 8 ... settling into a little bit of paradise

Well after having reached our island .. and our accomodation in Loy Fa ... this was really the first day of the relaxing leg of the holiday! I got up early and decided to try out the water on our private beach ... it was gorgeous ... being able to get out of bed ... with a sleepy head ... and walk down a few steps and into the water that was fairly warm ... and wake up with a real blast! Now that does beat a shower any day!

We decided to just chill out and relax today so spent most of the time just either lying on the beach or wandering up and down to the bungalow and on to the internet every so often! We had breakfast and lunch in the restaurant in Loy Fa ... and they really do cook some nice food. I didn't wander too far into the 'new food' thing yet . ... so just stuck to standard rice or sweet and sour dishes ... all of which were very nice!

When eating dinner we met our first traveller/backpacker friends. Kerry who is originally from New Zealand but who has worked in both the UK and Ireland for the last 2 years. He is making his way back to New Zealand for his brothers wedding and decided to make a trip out of the journey back. We also bumped into Lief (Canadian/Australian) and Meaghan (Canadian). Meghan has spent the last 4 months volunteering in Nepal teaching English to under-privilidged kids who are in government care. Her boyfriend Lief is finished up college in Austrarlia for the year and met up with Meghan over here for a holiday and a bit of 'couple time' before heading back to Canada! So we all had dinner together.

Caroline on getting off the boat on Koh Phanghan was handed a flyer for Thai boxing ... and it had been something she wanted to see in Bangkok but didn't so we decided we were heading there that night. We mentioned it to Kerry, Meghan and Lief and we ended up gathering 5 people to go ... so at 9 we all met up in the restaurant and got a taxi from the Bungalows down to the boxing! Again it was in the back of a Toyota Dmax pickup .. except this one had no cage .. and it was dark so it left for a bumpy breezy trip to the boxing ... though we did manage to hold a conversation all the way down to the boxing!!

The boxing ring was a bit like a circus ring ... with stadium type seating on 2 sides .. and then just beach chairs everywhere else! There were 8 fights in total . ... 1 ladies fight, an Australian v Thai fight and a Canadian v Thai fight as well as other thai fights.

Thai boxing really is a tough tough sport with punching, kicking, kneeing and elbowing all allowed! The fights normally consist of 5 rounds of 3 minutes .. the first round is normally a kind of warm up round with normally not too much contact. The fights are scored by 4 judges on either side of the ring .... and the winner is the person that gets the most connecting hits.

The first few fights were tame enough ..... and then the women came out ... oh my god .... they were cruel .. they didn't take to the warm up round at the start .. they just jumped into the ring and started hammering one another ... and they even managed to last the full 5 rounds at it! Not only that but they managed to get the referee entangled in the fight twice and landed them and him on the canvas!! The international fighters were nothing to write home about . .. as the Australian got comprehensively beaten by the Thai fighter. The Canadian did win his fight .. but it looked like he was up against a much weaker Thai fighter.

Well after that the fighting was over ... we all decided that it wasn't time to go home .. so off we headed looking for a bar. We went into what looked like a bar from the outside ... but looked a little different in the inside. When we walked in ... there were 2 mirrors, chairs, benches and several pieces of hairdressing equipment on one wall. Down the back there were counches and what looked like a kind of bed .... and up at the front .. there was a bar!! This place was weird! It seemed to be a hairdressers by day ... and a bar by night! Anyway .. we stayed for a drink . a few games of pool .. and headed home in a taxi!! Another strange ... and good night overall !