A nice topic for all people who shared a lovely Christmas / new year away from the rat race and the day to day business.

I myself went to Nakhon Sri Thammarat, 6 glorious days of fishing, eating and watching the annual boat races with wife and family. I will not eat Keng Som for at least another year

OK IT?

I took my family and a couple visiting from UK to a place in Nong Khai called Big Snake Guesthouse

Was in-credible and highly recommended but next New Year will be boring.

I spent xmas and new years on koh samet with friends visiting from oz and uk. All we did was eat and drink and now my body desperately needs a detox. For anyone planning a visit to this magical little island make sure you go to Mook restaurant, which is part of the fish farm and the best restaurant on the island. To get there you have to ring a bell from the shore and a raft comes and collects you and takes you to the restaurant in the middle of the water. The tables have glass tops so your looking into the water with all the fish swimming about - it really is a lovely restaurant with the freshest seafood. I actually had jumping clams for the first time (yes, there were plenty of clam jokes over the dinner table ) - my motto is try everything at least once, and the clams were very nice however they looked too pretty to eat so was battling with my conscience.

I mentioned it before, my wife is far to the East, our son too far to the West.

I am here in Bangkok, supervised by our dog.

Escaped all the friendly invitations for the "poor guy who is all alone".

Managed to avoid all the restaurants, pubs and bars I usually (have to) go to.

Made a little party on 31st for the staff and was surprised. They did like it, Cola, juice and what have you, a small tombola and a 'reprimand' that this is the first time in 2 years I stayed in Thailand to celebrate with them.

Now after all, I am relaxed and not even missing the snow.