Samui Part I

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Its a wonder what 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep will do for a person. We figured out why they had such a large and warm comforter. The air-con was actually retro-fitted from a blast freezer. The low setting must have meant that the temperature would be low. At least my feet slide across the iced up tiled floor to the bathroom.
Brrrrrrrrr.
I could still hear the load roar of the wind outside and was surprised upon opening the door. Instead of wind-whipped trees and dark clouds, I was blinded by the bright sunlight reflecting off the ocean that roared up onto shore in front of me. In utter amazement, I stumbled out onto the already warm beach. The "storm" we had heard last night was in fact the waves crashing up onto the beach. The sky was blue with a few lazy clouds way up in the sky.
I sat and watched a stray bitch (of the dog variety) walk along the shore. She had teats like an 80 year old women, dragging through the surf as she walked. Not the way I wanted to remember my first beach on Samui but then what did it really matter. I'm on a beach in S.E.A. and where are you?
After walking along the beach and thawing out, I went back and joined Candace for breakfast. We had no plans as of yet and decided to rent a scooter to just tour around the island. Of course our guest house had scooters for rent and it took no more than the signing over of our first born, handing over our passports and hopping on to start our foray into the Samui country side.

Our first stop was for fuel. We passed several bottle shop gas stations. These consisted of a rack of what looked like whiskey bottles filled with fuel. This was the expensive way to fuel up but is very convenient due to the frequency of the locations. We had seen an actual gas station on our way to Amity but it was quite a ways back and we considered ourselves lucky when we made it there as the bike came coasting in on fumes.
Now this is not the first time on a motorbike but it was only the second time I had driven in Thailand and this was only too evident every time we came to an intersection. In Thailand they drive on the opposite side of the road then in North America and one can easily forget that when turning, you need to be cognizant of what country you are in. Let's just say that when turning right from the left lane, a whole lot can go wrong when you are looking the wrong way.
After causing what some would say was an international traffic jam due to a failed right hand turn into on coming traffic, Candace agreed to remind me at every intersection where I needed to be heading. With time, I'm sure it'll get easier.

Fueled up and in one piece we decided that our first stop would be the Samui Aquarium. With the map opened up between us, Candace gave directions as I guided the bike through the thick traffic. Although there were two lanes going in each direction, the curb lane was filled with parked vehicles forcing everyone to use the one lane. Of course in typical Thai fashion, this meant that the one lane would widen and narrow depending on how many scooters and cars could pass you on both sides at any given time.
People drive really close here.

In our hurry to get to the aquarium, we forgot to stop at an ATM. Of course the aquarium is out of the way and we found that the admission was almost double what we had between the two of us. Not wanting to drive all the way back, we pleaded with the girl behind the desk to let us in for the price of 1 person. At first she would not hear of it but when I asked in my broken Thai she stared at me, begun to laugh and agreed to let us in. I thought I complimented her but perhaps it came out a bit different.
We were so excited as we expected to see some great exhibits. Thai standards are a different from Canadian and this was apparent very early on. Each exhibit we saw consisted of a tank that held one or two fish in the most unnatural setting. Some tanks had burnt out lights and others no fish that we could see. We were surprised when we happened up some Sharks, Manta Rays and a large Grouper. Of course the turtles took the center stage and we were able to buy a bowl of lettuce and feed the turtle using metal tongs.

Of course no aquarium is complete without caged tigers and leopards. We were lucky when we happened upon the sign warning that the leopards will spray you if stand to close to their cage. This fact was not lost on two English girls that obviously missed the sign. We later saw them in a cage feeding two baby tigers. I'm surprised the cubs didn't attack them or "mark" the girls as well.
Outside there were cages with different birds, monkeys and squirrels set up. The monkeys were really not happy to be locked up and the squirrels were running in circles, apparently a sign of stress.

I'm really glad we did not pay the full price. I am concerned thought that Thailand needs to address the way animals are treated for tourists. Yet, it seems I continue to support these type of things by visiting them.
We stopped in the gift shop and found out that they had a demonstration later in the day with various animals. Neither one of us wanted to see it but did by some souvenirs. The Vancouver aquarium had better watch out. Samui's is up and coming.

Still not sure what we wanted to do, we decided to start driving and stop whenever we saw something that looked interesting. It wasn't long before we stopped at Wat Khunaram where the body of a Mummified monk is kept. Still early in the morning, we had beat the usual throng of tourist that come to see the mummified monk sitting upright in a glass cabinet wearing traditional Buddhist robes and strangely enough, dark sunglasses. Very weird but interesting. As we were leaving, 5 large 4 wheel drive jeeps showed up with the missing tourists. Our guest house owners had asked us about taking one of the many tours around the island but we couldn't bring ourselves to be rushed around and squeezed in with others, herded site to site like cattle. We've always avoided organized tours for this very reason. Glad we held out again.

We took off again and headed to Grandfather and Grandmother rock next. Candace had found them on a tourist map and wanted to check them out. We ended up coming back into the tourist area and followed signs that showed us where to park. I have to admit that I got taken by the matter of fact ease in which the "parking" attendant directed us where to park and the official ticket he issued before asking us to pay for the parking. Hats off to him for getting 20 baht out of me. A whole 66 cents and I never batted an eye. This guy was onto something.

Scam # 423 - Make tourists knowingly pay for parking when parking is free. Make it seem legit by issuing said tourist a claim check ticket. Make price trivial to tourist who will not question said charge.

From the "parking" area, we made our way down to the beach and then through the bush. We then lowered ourselves down a small rock face with an old tattered mooring line that one would find on any commercial boat. Enjoying ourselves we never questioned the route we were taking until we emerged at GF/GM rock area itself. One could go towards the ocean and see the rocks or you could walk past the opening in the bush we had just walked out of and meander down the paved street, choosing from fresh cut fruit to ice cold coffee. And look free parking. I'm sure the "parking" guy saw me and many others coming from a long ways off.

We took the obligatory pictures of GF rock and attempted to get some good shots of GM rock but the surf had made the rocks quite slippery and Candace was not feeling that adventurous. I told her I wouldn't have let her fall in.......she had the passports. Being by the ocean and standing under the hot sun, we figured we should have some lunch and sit and people watch. The pineapple was fresh, the iced coffee was perfect and the green coconut caramels were unique. We happened upon the first caramel stand and did not know what the green pyramids of goo were. By the 4th stall, we opted to buy a small sampling of 3 little pyramids of green goop wrapped in a plastic wrap. The taste is of caramel and coconut but our eyes couldn't put what they saw with what we could taste. I wish we could have brought some home for the kids to try.

After making our way back to the scooter, we made sure to give our parking stub to a couple that were pulling in, explaining the scam going on. Perhaps I shouldn't have done that as the dude was only trying to make a few extra baht. I guess I got caught up in the idea of the principle behind it.
According to the map, the road we just turned onto was going to lead to two waterfalls. The first falls we came to would have been spectacular in the rainy season but in February, it was more of a small stream. We followed the road as it wound its way up. Several times, the scooter seemed to be laboring quit hard to keep ascending. Just as we figured the bike was going to give out, the terrain flattened out and we found ourselves at an Elephant Trekking site.

Now I've had the opportunity to ride on a elephant before but Candace hadn't so we agreed on a price with one of the Mahouts and found ourselves perched up on the back of one. The Mahout guided the elephant off into the jungle on a well worn path. Along the way, the Mahout got off the elephant along with our camera and snapped pictures of us seated in the bench that was strapped to the elephants back. The Mahout then had Candace climb onto the elephants neck and she got to ride where he had been. I could tell that Candace was nervous but couldn't help but smile watching her hold on for dear life.
Our ride ended back where we began, the elephant seeming to run a bit faster upon seeing her pen. The reason for this became apparent when the Mahout asked us if we wanted to buy bananas to feed to his elephant. She had known it was snack time, hence the near run to get back.

We of course bought some of the fruit. Candace had started to peel one of the bananas before catching herself, realizing the elephant would eat it skin and all. And eat she did. Our two bunches of bananas disappeared as quick as she could pick it up with her trunk. What a marvelous beast.

We continued around the Island and ended our day by heading down to Chaweng Beach, not to hit the beach but to walk down the strip of girly bars, restaurants and street vendors to people watch. It was very crowded and crazy.
We have decided that we don't like Samui as much as we did Krabi and Ao Nang. We found an internet cafe read some emails, got caught up with all the latest gossip and decided to call it a night.

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Photos

Morning Views
Views from Amity's front yard

Feeding Turtles
They really bit the metal tongs hard. I'd hate for them to have missed and grabbed a finger.

Leopard
They spray when you get tooo close. Watch out!

Froot Loops Abound
Toucan Sam's brother, Toucan Tom!

Rock Star?
Even the mummy has shades on!