When will the action end!?

Its just all to much to tell you all about. How can I possibly begin to communicate this place? By implying that I cannot communicate this place. Thats how.

So after having by far the best crab I have ever eaten in my life for dinner we went out to a bar last night where we were told it was the Bar owners wife's birthday. There was to be free food and vodka shots, and a live band! I was sold. We cruised in there and were shown around the establishment by the door guy, an American expat named Joe. We met the lady of honor and sat down at the bar for our first round of drinks. before to long one of the local drinkers Chihuahua was released from its hand bag residence and set free to run along the bar top meeting everyone who was sat for a drink (or trying to escape). It was a real hit with the ladies. I got talking to an Australian who has been living and working here for 6 years, and he kindly offered me a job which I had to politely turn down. Not bad for our first day in the country.
our drinks were refreshed as quickly as they were consumed and within a short while we felt that we had endulged enough for our first night out. We had a quick wack on the in house congas before taking off to bed.

We got up at about 10 the next day and headed down to the beach for our complimentary breakfast while we contemplated how to spend our day. Once we had eaten we headed down the street in search of a tuktuk to take us to patong. We thought the requested price of 400B (about 20NZD) was a bit steep so we went back to our hotel and inquired about hiring a scooter. 150B per day later we had taken our lives in our hands and headed down the road on our very own click start scooter.

WOW. Driving in Thailand is a whole different game from back home there are scooters, cars, and people threatening to jump out from every direction. Melissa was holding on for dare life and screaming advice on every perceived hazard in my ear. Once we adjusted to the new rules of the road, I think we did ok. We headed up to a beach that the birthday girl (nicknamed "Ding Dong") had recomended to us the previous night, descended the high gradient rough as guts staircase and were treated to a serene, yet commercialized beach for our troubles.
We spied an interesting looking staircase in the rocks on the right side of the beach and ventured along them to discover a nice boutique restaurant at its end. We were quite peckish by now so we treated ourselves to the mixed fruit plater, coconut milk (including coconut) and a coconut shake.
Once we had mission-ed up back up the stairs we took a moment to catch our breath before heading up further north in search of undiscovered teritory. On our way we spied some elephants, so we had a quick ride on them and then carried on to yet another beach. We went for a walk along the sand before discovering a clothes shop we liked, where we purchased a couple of pure cotton and silk garments from a very helpful Thai lady. We had a quick look at some tattoo designs at the beach tattoo stall but nothing took our fancy so we remain un inked - for now. By then it was about time for dinner so we purveyed the beachfront menus and sat down to a couple of Thai green curries while watching the sun set.

We headed back and managed to avoid ending up a mangled mess on the side of the road, and now I am typing some words for you good folks.

Will we hit the bars again tonight? We will see.

(Photos to come)