Christmas in Thailand!

The following is a summary of an incredible Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day as part of the UK Contingent in Thailand:

"Sawadee England"

"Hope that ... your Christmas was half as amazing as ours." 

"Christmas Eve was a midnight carol concert on the beach - most bizarre singing carols - wearing shorts and a T shirt sitting on white sand under a palm tree!"

"Yesterday (25 December) was a day I'll remember for a long time!"

"The whole of the UK Contingent enjoyed activities in the pool and on the beach, celebrating Christmas together. Surrey 1 Contingent entered the volleyball and football championships held on the hotel football fields."

"We (Surrey 1) were knocked out in the first round of the volleyball, but got to the semi- finals of our pitch, being knocked out by Surrey 2! This is something I'm sure we'll never live down!"

"Other activities were set up around the beach which were fun, there were games like 'build a castle and destroy your opponents with wet sponges (don't ask!). The activities lasted most of the day (well until 4:00)."

"We're all slowly turning tanned or red i.e. its sunny here!"

"We were given only a short while to run to our rooms and get into our 'smart casual' clothes."

"We've made good use of the hotels laundry service.....woohoo. Haven't opened the travel wash yet."

"In the evening, we were taken in a convoy of taxis (that traveled almost hassle free through closed roads) to another hotel in Bangkok (the Royal Beach Hotel), a 5* with the largest restaurant in the area."

"We've now had 2 near crashes whilst going from place to place (please don't worry, its quite funny really)!"

"We were welcomed by the majority of the contingent who had arrived previously to us ... and the Thai Navy's Military Band! Slowly we filtered into the convention hall which was decorated in the most extravagant fashion imaginable! There was a huge stage lit up by hundreds of lights and more than 200 tables all in one hall."

"The meal was buffet style, which involved moving outside of the hall and moving along great long tables to receive our food. Considering that English food of this sort had never been prepared let alone served by the hotel the food was amazing. One small problem.......they ran out of turkey before we got to it!!!"

"We ate proper English food! We had a Christmas roast and then a disco, supported by a live band and a DJ."

"A live Thai band (The Red Chilli's) provided the entertainment. They were very impressive and had every body rocking on the dance floor - and not a drop of alcohol anywhere!"

"2800 British Scouts, completely sober, partying (and sweating) till 1:30 a.m. is a pretty amazing sight."

"We've discovered the original Red Bull! Apparently 7 times stronger and comes in medicine bottles (that wont be a thirst quencher then!)."

"Although I can explain it to you, and although I can show you the photos, nothing can do justice to the atmosphere over here. This is amazing but I am proud and honoured to say that I was there I was a part of it and I'm absolutely loving it!!!!!"

"The whole event was so professionally run, visually impressive and slick - any corporate business would have been proud of the outcome."

"The scale of the operation was unbelievable! We were even visited by Santa and shown video messages on the 2 cinema screens in the grand hall from famous celebrities all wishing us a Merry Christmas! (The best were Chris Tarrant and Terry Venables!)"

"This has just been the most unforgettable experience and the jamboree itself hasn't even started yet." 

"Today (26 December) is relax and recovery day from last night as the party stopped at 1:30am."

"We got up late, and spent the day by the pool apart from a quick shopping trip to.......Tesco!"

"Oh and....WE'RE GOING TO THE JAMBOREE IN THE MORNING!!! We're expecting a hard day of pioneering and tent pitching tomorrow but I'm sure we'll manage!"

"We will lose the air conditioning and the pool - but gain 22000 other people and the sea!"

Sounds amazing!