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We flew into Phuket (lower left)
went to Koh Phi Phi, Krabi,
made our way across to
Surat Thani and then took the
ferry up to Koh Samui. Here we
will be island hopping between
Koh Samui, Koh Tao for diving and
Koh Phangan for the full moon party
before heading up to Bangkok. |
I signed off with my last post stating that it was time for me to talk to my bus buddy, Sam. Just to follow up on that conversation, for the remainder 2 hours of the dreadful greyhound ride from Krabi to Surat Thani, Sam talked my ear off about ecosystems and martial arts, two of my most favorite subjects…NOT. And somewhere between bee pollination and legumes, he asked if I minded if he could rest his legs on me! Did I mention there was no AC and I was already sweating bullets? What a weirdo. I could tell I was probably the first English speaking person he had had a normal conversation with in months, so I let him ramble on and actually walked away from the bus ride debating whether or not I should tear up my parents yard back home and plant an ecosystem of my own. Yes is what I concluded but that will have to be another blog of its own. J
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| A great way to make friends. |
Van, greyhound, a cricketity old ferry ride across the bay and another hour long, open aired, jammed packed full taxi ride later, we finally made it to our hotel in Koh Samui! Our ferry boat seemed like we were on the Titanic and could be sinking at any moment. Katie, Mike and I opted to seat in the AC down below while the majority of people sat on the sun deck and dangled there feet over the rail. The only thing that kept me entertained on that ferry ride was everyone’s feet happen to be dangling over a rail that lead straight to a window in front of my face. Yes, you read my mind. It was the prime opportunity to open the window and present their tender feet with the tickle of my fingers. This little prank was very entertaining for the select few of us enjoying the cool AC below. Upon arrival at our hotel we were very pleased to discover it was quite nice and had an AC vent that could cool the room down in seconds! To me, a powerful AC vent over here is like going on a first date to McDonalds and being able to order anything I want off the dollar menu; glorious!
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| Failure to plan is planning to fail. |
Our first morning in Samui it was raining so we actually woke up and went for a group run on the beach. Katie claims she isn’t much of a runner but she was being a great sport and decided to come along. It’s now been three days and on top of her already painful motor bike muffler burns, her calves are so sore she can barely walk. In the afternoon we rented more motorbikes because Mike had mapped us out a list of must-sees on Koh Samui. Our first stop was some temple that I don’t even remember the name of because as soon as we parked, I spotted a guy doing the JetLev flyer down below and took off running. I was so excited I could barely contain myself. I approached the guy, completely overjoyed and out of breath and asked if I could try. He said yes, we actually have a promotion going on right now for one person - 7,000 baht for 20 minutes (that’s about $226 USD). Once I talked him down to 6,000 baht we had a deal. $200 USD for a 20 minute ride is pretty pricey, but come on, have you guys seen the YouTube videos?! I had to watch a quick tutorial and then it was time to fly. The guy actually let me ride for about 40 minutes and towards the end I was completely exhausted and had face planted into the water more times than I ever care to do within that short of a time span. It was defiantly harder than it looks on all the videos. Coming out of the experience, my only complaint/concern is the bottom half on my body. As you can see from the pictures, my legs were dangling as I straddled over a metal pole and I was basically supporting my body weight with my crotch. Let’s just say I don’t know if I’m going to be able to have kids anymore due to the trauma in the region. But it was well worth the money and I can’t wait to buy of one those JetLevs for my own!
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| This is what got my attention and had me sprinting! |
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| Learning to fly. |
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| You can barely seen the pain in my face behind all the joy! |
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| Grandmother. |
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| Thumbs up for a beautiful sunset and grandfather rock in the background. |
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| Grandfather. |
The next day we woke up early in attempt to complete our list. We checked off two temples in the morning, a mummified monk, waterfall 1, attempted waterfall 2 (waterfall 1 and waterfall 2 are the real names of these waterfalls), a market, The Koh Samui big Buddha and a 100 year old temple. We intended to eat lunch at the market but quickly changed our minds once we got there. It was the most disgusting marketing we have been too thus far. I really wish my camera had a ‘capture smell’ setting so I could give you guys a whiff of the smell of this market. It was all I could do to walk thru the market without wrinkling my face and plugging my nose in disgust. It rinked of old fish and there were flys everywhere.
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| Waterfall 1 |
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| Lighting candles and incents in the temples |
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| Samui Big Buddha |
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| In LOVE and tearing up with joy. |
Our attempt at waterfall 2 is one the many highlights for me of this trip so far. We decided not to take the 30 minute hike to the waterfall, because we had just came from waterfall 1, but at the base of these tourist traps are what would be the equivalent of a small petting zoo with many exotic animals. We all know, from the monkey bite, that I have a deep desire to hold and touch every furry animal (for the most part) I encounter. To fully understand how meaningful this was to me, you must know that for weeks before we came on this trip all I talked about was getting my picture with a tiger, just ask Katie. So here at the base of waterfall 2 they give you the opportunity to have your picture taken with tigers! And yes, I got to bottle feed a baby tiger! I was so happy I almost cried. That little guy sat in my lap, wrapped his paws around my hands and drank his milk from his little bottle. His little tiger roar was just like baby Simbas in the movie The Lion King. It was everything I had dreamed of, minus that fact they wouldn’t let me bring him home. I just hope that one day my babies are as cute as this little tiger cub. I also got to have my picture taken with a leopard and play with a 3 month old elephant. And for good measure I attempted to feed a water buffalo on the side of the road but got scared of what his horns might do to me if he and I made eye contact and he sensed my fear.
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| Best Friends. |
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| 3 months old. |
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| The PANKCAKE MAN and 3 wannabes. |
What better way to end an action packed day than with dessert. We have been eating these banana nutella Thai pancakes everyday now for two weeks. It is basically a crepe but over here they call them pancakes. You get them at these street vendors on the side of the road and they are one of the best things I have ever put in my mouth. Tons of oil, butter, sugar and maybe a little fruit if you’re feeling healthy. On this night I decided to ask the guy if we could all make our own pancakes. I offered him 100 baht (3 USD) for all three of us to try our own and add any toppings we wanted, he agreed. I was the first to give this pancake making a go and it was a major fail. The guy ended up throwing my paste away and said I ruined it! He made my pancake crust for me and just let me put whatever I wanted in it and do the cutting. The guy had to tag team in for every one of our pancake crust making. Katie, Mike and I just couldn’t seem to get out wrist and our hands moving in the same motion these Thai people do, again an art they make look really easy! My pancake consisted of cinnamon, banana, nutella, peanut butter, and sprinkled with condensed milk and chocolate. Yum Yum! Katie had a banana, strawberry jam, and nutella pancake and Mikes was banana and peanut butter. I’m not sure if anyone loves sugar as much as me, but I must say, I was very pleased with the concoction I created. Katie told me last night that she thinks her teeth are going to rot out because of all the sugar I’ve been eating on this trip. I’m going to tell her dentist it’s not my fault she wanted to have a bite of all my sugary treats!
Tomorrow we are heading off to another island, Koh Tao, for 3 full days of scuba diving. Katie and Mike are going to get open water certified and I plan to take a refresher course, since I haven’t dove in years, and complete a few dives of my own.
XO,
Whitney
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| Getting blessed my a monk |
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| Obsessed with everything small and furry. |
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| Elephant Crossing. |
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| 100 + years old! |
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| Not too close, not too far. |
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| Pure Bliss <3 |
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