The garden was created in 1976 by a Samui fruit farmer
named Nim Thongsuk on his family's large green lands.
The private sculpture park sits at the top of Pom Mountain one of the highest peaks in the island
There are statues of all shapes and sizes scattered around with some hiding behind trees
As they are based on Thai folklore and mythology each statue has a story
Thongsuk continue to develop this garden until his death at the age of 91
It's very nice, very relaxing
Everyone here is so sweet I really like all the hotel staff
When you bump into anyone, or actually just Thai people are generally very nice, aren't they?
Yeah just walking down the road everyone is like: Hello!
Oh, hi!
Even checking in 'Oh your booking agent has booked you a double...'
Is this correct?
Yes, that is right! I'd actually written ahead and said we are a married couple please give us a king size bed
'I'm too far away from you in the bed'
I sleep on the edge of the bed, always
It does not matter how big the bed is I sleep on the edge
A kind size you are over there
A kind size would be very useful at home in England when we got the dogs who also take more than 1/3 of the bed
I take another third, the dogs take up more than a third, that leaves you with 1/8 or something
Four beings sleeping in our bed
Thailand is much more... like I didnt feel awkward asking for a double because their
They are much more liberal in that type of thing
You've all asked about it. I said you all... most people have been leaving comments
specially on our joined instagram
if you don't already follow that...
Throw that in...
And it said you know, 'are you ok in Malaysia? Is it dangerous there because homosexuality is ilegal?'
' Don't be to open and gay, omg'
And obviously because we already own the flat in KL it's not like we had to check in
Or have someone check us out
So this is the first time we've been checking into a hotel
The flat in Malaysia was my mom's so she left it to me and my sister
Which is very nice that Julia and I can be in touch with our family
So that is why we just go and my auntie looks after it, she let's us in
So it's all very chill in there
And obviously your family, we say you are half malaysian
'Are the Malaysian family ok with the gayness?'
Well actually the first time we both came out which was...
Two years ago .
In January two years ago was when we were engaged and I did say to Jessica like look,
It's ilegal to be gay in Malaysia
and my family on the whole are quite Christian cause they are Chinese, they are not Malay
You should probably explain about ethnicities in Malaysia
Well, I'm not like an expert but...
I'm half Malaysian. I call myself half Malaysian because my mum was a Malaysian citizen
But she is Chinese ethnically, so she is Chinese-Malaysian
But then you know, what is ethnically anything?
And there are different types
There are sort of more distinct ethnicities in Malaysia, so you have the Chinese group
and you have the Indians, and then you have Malay.
And then you have a mixture cause obviously there is mixed raced between those
And indigenous people
Yeah, and then you get the Malay indigenous people
And then you of course get the expats like some white people as well
Those different ethnic groups would call themselves Malaysian
Yeah and the different ethnic groups each have their own religion as well
So although Malaysia is... (obviously people from there) a Muslim country
that is the Malay population rather than Claud's family who are Chinease-Malay
who are more Christian or Taoists.
My grandfather was... when my mum was little he was more like Budist-Taoist
but then in time they all became more Christian.
How many generations back did your family come to Malaysia?
I think it was like my great-grandfather, so my mother's grandfather
So my grandfather's father, or it might have been his grandfather
They came from an area of China, I think Canton cause that's why they speak Cantonese
But all of them came from China as tin miners
Because there was a lot of tin in Malaysia
And then they all married within the same ethnic group, that's why people can still be completely ethnically Chinese
So that was pretty interesting, there is loads of...
[J interrupts] But there you go the point is Claud's family are OK with the GAY!
Yes!
That was were we were going with that
And in terms of Malaysia travelling as a gay couple we are just respectful of the country
Despite what you see on Youtube and our Instagram those are our private moments almost that we share with you
Even in Brighton we don't go around like snogging
We don't snog on the internet
Well no that's true
So in Malaysia, the same sort of thing applies, we are more... we keep our relationship more private I guess
We are not like hiding anything, if someone came up to us and asked us 'are you a couple?'
We would say yes, why not, we are married
We are legally married
It's completely fine for us and we are tourist
That applies to the world
And people are not naive to that, they know is legal in different countries
We are not shoving it down people's throats or their faces
No no
Also I think the things that we do are read in a different way
If you are from a country were being gay is quite an open thing and you see gay couples in the news, media
When you see a couple holding hands in the street and it's two women or two mean, gay is going to be one of your first thoughts
It's going to be like oh, is that a gay couple?
Whereas here when they see two girls holding hands and walking down the street most people seem to assume
friends or sisters because it's not so far forward in their conciousness
Maybe
That's why we get asked a lot if we are sisters
That is similar in England in some places to be fair
When we were down in the west-country in Cornwall visiting your mom I think we got asked all the time
are we sisters?
Like every day! We are not even the same race!
Christ!
Oh the passports! Yeah yeah!
Oh my God!
When we arrived in Thailand, was it here? No?
Malaysia was it? When we were leaving Malaysia to come to Thailand
we were going through passport control and in the hurry of things Jessica had passed me her passport
and she got mine and we didn't realise we went up to different counters
and the woman had looked at my passport being like yeah, fine...
Then you have to do the little like ID finger test and they would scan your fingerprint to double check it's you
and it scanned, and it scanned...
And we were both waiting...
And whilst I was still there holding my fingers like this is taking a long time, and the woman was 'this is taking a long time;
Over at my counter the guy was just happily flirting away with me, and on the flirty spree he goes:
Ok Claudia!
Nop
And then she came running up like I've got your passport!
And I was like oh!And this woman was like 'who is this?'
I was like oh that's the girl who's passport you are holding
But yeah anyway back to the fact that we basically look like sisters
Anyway we are just waffling on
I think the important thing is just to be respectful of each other's cultures
So be respectful with the fact that they maybe don't want to see gay kissing in the streets
And they should be respectful of the fact that we are married
We kinda came up with this policy, when someone comes up and says 'oh are you sisters?'
Might be an older person or something, like you said, it's not in fron of their mind that we might potentially be a couple
Then we will probably just say yeah!
No no, we are best friends±
Because is just why embarass the person
Why invite any sort of awkwardness, we are just on holiday, just being polite and kind
Equally, if someone comes up and says 'oh are you a couple?' we are not going to be like OH NO!
Like we know we are not hiding anything, and that is just how we deal with our sexuality
in a place where is not considered, well, were is not legal I guess
Yeah
Cause is not illegal for us to be
We are not malaysian
we are allowed to visit the country, is not Rusia
I don't think we'd be allowed in Rusia
Exactly, that's why I said it
We literally promote gayness .
Yeah we are not allowed in Rusia
Yeah and Malaysian citizens, we have plenty Malaysian who watch us and is not banned, they are not banned to watch us
Hi guys!
And it's very interesting cause now we are in Thailand is like, it does highlight those things
Because as we were saying sexuality here is viewed very differently
mainly because their main relegion in the country
The main thing is Buddhism, that's why they had this book in the room
And I opened it on a page and where was it
It was the page about human sexuality
I was literally just saying to Jessie: oh what do you think thais think of sexuality?
And here's the page:
'What does Buddhism have to say about human sexuality?'
I thought it was quite interesting
Buddist teaching do not view same-sex relationships conducted between two consenting adults as inheritably evil
The Buddhist ways reflections on sexual desire are equally true and applicable whatever gender your object of desire might be
So there we go
They think there is nothing wrong with same-sex love and sexual relationships
Which I thought was very encouraging
I hope we have answered some of your questions
Sorry for waffling on!
We are gonna go to the pool!
I love your oh it's alright..
hahaha I said is alright cause I'm going to edit this later
Wecome to room toor number 2!
So we are now in the Fairhouse VIllages and spa, we have this little villa all to ourselves
Come upstairs here
We have our little chairs so we can sit in the evening and look out at this beautiful
Oh my god look at that view!
They even have plug points here
In case you want to charge your phone whilst sitting in the evening
Now onto the thing that I am most excited by
Look at this
I love it and Im not even showing you the room and that's beautiful too
So through this sliding doors
I really like sliding doors
Come in
Sofa
Television
Fridge underneath
With, and this I really like, complimentary water bottle is already in the fridge
That's an important detail
Hopefully Claudia can have her tea now
in the mornings cause you know she needs it
Beach towels
You'll like this mug
Claudia likes any kind of rustic looking earth ware...
[ Claudia laugs]
We are such old ladies, all our likes and dislikes are just
I lovely place to sit, do your make up
And I really like by the way that this hotel is very into green conservation and whatnot
And they have a special garden where they grow all their own fruit, vegetables and herbs so you can go visit
And they only wash your things if you ask
and they change your bed every third day
Lovely big wardrove
oh!
a torch!
In case you get stuck in the garden
I think you need it at night-time for the beach
Oh .yeah
Better take this with us then
What's in here?Oh hair dryer, I thought it was going to be really exciting
And come and see the bathroom
It has the heaviest door so bear with me
There's a bath!
And a useful towel on the floor!
Nice tiles
It's gorgeous
Look at it, oh yeah
Eugh...
It's gross look
It's growing through the bandage
I'm gonna have a third foot by the time we get back to england
Anyway look at this
I really appreciate this too
Nice bowl
Look at the outside
Rather nice isn't it?
Shower, very important for you
Yeah
You don't shower
I have baths, I don't like showers
They are weird
No one wants to stand in the rain!
Why would you stand in a shower
Choosing to get rained on
I live the ceiling too
Are you happy?
Very happy!
Let's go look at the beach
Okay!
We are currently trying to work out
how to get from our villa down to the breakfast pool area
Which is down here
No clue
Although my wife looks beautiful next to the sea, look at this
Hello gorgeous!
It was confusing but we made it
And it's so worth it
so beautiful!
look at these elephants
let's go see the beach
even though my foot really hurts
Are you better?
Yes
Look at the view
So Jessica was really shocked by a
Massive snake
Yes it was a massive snake
It's horrifying
They've put flowers as blood in its mouth
Pretty sure it's just its tongue
It's blood and it's coming to get me!
Claudia just decided she is going to use this hotel to get fit
By walking up the place they drive
Are you ready?
You go girl!
Wo that's good!
The steepness does not in anyway show on camera
okay
observe
steepness
that's not even that steep
steepness
steep
Strong woman
Very nice
Now I have to come to you
Oh my gosh...
it's quite something this
can you hold the camera?
can't take it
Oh no your flower!
Almost fell down there
Rolled backwards down
Okay, oh dear
oh boy
Yay!
have we not gone high enough?
here we are!
I'm exhausted
I don't know how to go down I'm scared, you go first
Fun fact: as a child I didn't swim in the sea for six years cause I was terrified of jellyfish
I've come so far
I miss my chips already