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Published: June 20th 2008
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Lobby
Gies you an idea of what our 'lobby' looked like at the salad hut. Alright, so it's about dur time for some new posts! Unfortunately I still don't have my camera cable on me, so I am unable to put up any pictures as of yet, but I'm working on it!
I DID forget to mention that we saw a few monkeys during our stay in the jungalow; Erin saw one swinging right above our veranda one day and it just hung around the trees for a little bit, and then made its way across to all the other trees of the jungle. Thought I'd mention that for all those monkey fans out there (you know who you are!).
So the final morning of our time at Khao Sok N.P., we got a ride from the owner of the jungalows to the bus stop at the edge of the park and after a bit of waiting, our bus in shining bus armour (?) came to sweep us off our tired feet and into its nicely air conditioned housing. We were bound for Surat Thani. The purpose of this town is basically to be a jumping-off point for all travellers headed for the three main islands off the east coast of Southern Thailand (Koh
Samui, Ko Pha Ngan, and Koh Tao).
When we arrived in Surai Thani, we were taken to a travel agency (which we actually expected). There's a well-known con in this area (especially this town) where the bus will take you to a travel agent so that they can sell you WAY overpriced tickets to the islands, but you won't know any better because you JUST got off the bus and into town; they'll try to convince you that its the best deal in town, but really, after what we've been through so far, I would not consider ourselves to be green enough to fall for that trick. And so we didn't.
We went off on our own (after trying to convince the rip-off artist lady that we'd 'be back in an hour', just like she said we should be) and got some food. I wanted something like home, so we hit up an Italian place; the most ironic part of this restaurant, I would say, is that although they advertised that they made pizzas, they in fact had none. Though I was shocked and appalled by this, I decided to eat some greek sandwich, which turned out to
Salad Hut rooms
The room we slept in at the salad hut! be half-hearted and definitely not so good.
After looking in our travel books, we noticed mention of the well known (and most trusted) travel agent in town (and also mention of the conning-areas which we got dropped off in) and made our way to buy some tickets. The bus ride was uneventful (though I finished reading Erin's 'water for elephants' book) and we soon found ourselves on a boat, and then on the island of Koh Samui. Now, I'd love to write about how great Koh Samui was and take up a whole blog post with its greatness... but the truth is, Koh Samui SUCKED! Due to this fact, Erin and I have decided to mention it, but not expand much at all on it, as it was uneventful, expensive, and unfriendly. The only thing I DO have to mention about it is that when we arrived in our room (which we stayed only one night in), just before going to bed, we were greeted by a huge (almost the size of my hand stretched out) spider sitting on the wall near the bed. Now again, this was one of those situations I've never been forced into before, but
Erin.. Driving... a MOTORCYCLE!?
Yup, and that she did! Here's proof. we had accomodations for that night, and there was no point in going to another place, so (after much being scared and bouts of true unhappiness with the idea) I had to squish it with my shoe. I am not a spider-lover, to say the least, and this was definitely one of the most raw, shocking parts of the trip. I had to move towards it very slowly (so it wouldn't jump out and bite me-->for it could have been potentially poisonous) and CRUSH IT!! The most hilarious thing about it was that it actually made a squishing sound after I killed it. At any rate, that was the only point of remote excitement during our stay on Koh Samui.
Next up would have to be Koh Pha Ngan! The was definitely my favourite place to stay out of the places we went.
When we arrived to the island (after a bit of a rocky journey to get there), we needed to find some way to get to the other side of the island (without paying a relative 'arm and leg'). The taxi drivers tried to charge us each 300 baht (10 dollars) to get there (which is
The giant swing
the gigantic swing that was attached to a huge tree on the beach (Salad Beach, that is) completely not worth it, as you can definitely do it for cheaper), so after the kind help of a shop-owner lady we found ourselves on taxi corner (A.K.A.-chicken corner) to barter our way down to a reasonable rate. It started out the same price as the other taxi people, but after playing a few of the drivers against one another, we got them down to 300 baht for both of us. I think our bartering skills have definitely increased since we've gotten to S.E. Asia.
Our destination was a place called "Hat Salad", which was cool enough on its' own, and then we got to the "Salad Hut" and realised that it was even better! This place had it all... dark wood construction, open-air eating spaces (where you sit on the ground on pillows), included breakfast, huge rooms, a swimming pool, ocean view, and so on and so forth. It was INCREDIBLE!! So we booked ourselves in for 4 nights and that was that! The first day we rented an automatic motorbike (which neither Erin nor I had ever ridden) and after a bit of figuring out, had a great time free-riding around one side of the island. The roads were something like the mountain roads in the Rockies, but to a smaller scale. It was a great time! Other parts of our days were spent sitting by the pool (which, at the right angle, gave the illusion that it fell right into the ocean), reading our books, or sitting on our porch, chilling out on our hammock and comfy pillows and other things to that extent. All in all, it was a thoroughly enjoyable time and definitely worth the money ($40/night).
There's not too much more to say about the Salad Beach extravaganza, so I'll close off for now, and fill you guys in on just the last 4 days or so up until today that are left to talk about!
See you later for now!
Ben 😊
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Jeff Ruehle
non-member comment
Love it
Well its just so darn funny, I love to read all your travel tid bits and and thoughts you guys, it just makes me laugh, and wish I could be there too!