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Published: February 2nd 2009
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Since our last post only a few days ago, many things have happened, both good and bad. This past week won't be remembered as one of my (Kate's) favourites...for those readers who don't already know, my dog, Levi, had to be put down a few days ago. It was a long time coming because he had been very sick for a long time. He will be missed very much and I hope he's in a better place now. And so, the quiet days we spent on Lamai Beach on Ko Samui were much needed. Apart from another motorbike trip and the craziest night market either of us had ever seen - I bought wooden earrings and Tyler got some short-shorts - these days were mostly uneventful. I think Tyler grew weary of this town a lot faster than I did because the tailors were relentless...
Although we never really planned to go to Ko Samui in the first place (we heard it was really "tourist-y"), we had plans to meet my friend, Bryan, on Chaweng Beach. We beat them to the resort we had chosen (Matlang Resort), checked in, and headed to the beach which was absolutely gorgeous. I regret to
admit that I was so stunned by the beauty of the beach that I forgot to take any pictures...however I'm pretty sure Bryan snapped tons, so I'll try to get some up here as soon as possible because I don't think I could find any words to do it justice. When Bryan and his German friend, Dan, arrived, we met them at the gates and as we were taking them to our cabin, I heard someone (other than Ty, Bryan, or Dan) call my name..."Who here knows my name???" I turn around to face the cabin next door to ours and...staring right at me with arms outstretched and a big grin on his face is Sam, one of our Welsh dive buddies from Ko Tao! Turns out he, Gandhi, and their friend Ben are our next-door neighbours!! I can't even begin to explain our excitement - these were perhaps our favourites of the friends we had made so far and we were so happy to see them! Needless to say a few festivities occurred later that night... We started off the evening with a pilgrimage to the Rose and Crown (which will only hold significance for those of you readers
who are current or former Tsawwassenites, or for any of you who have ever found yourself in Tsawwassen on a Thursday and feeling particularly thirsty...) and finished off the night with a visit to the Green Mango where the (eleven) boys I was with performed a Full Monty-esque dance for a crowd of 500+ onlookers.
You might have already guessed that the following day was an awfully mellow one. Not much to report about that day...lots of lounging, hangover-nursing, and procrastinating. However, the next day, Tyler and I were out of bed early - we had decided to motorbike over to the immigration office in Nathon, a town on the other side of the island, to have our tourist visas extended. After having been told that this would only cost us 500 baht (or 20 Canadian dollars), we were extremely dismayed to discover that it was actually going to put us back 1900 baht (nearly 80 Canadian dollars). We decided to go ahead with it anyway, and after an hour, our passports were stamped and passed back to us...only the part where the immigration officer asks us to fork over 3800 baht never occurred. Slowly, we backed out of the
office and as soon as the door had shut, we hopped on our bikes and took off down the highway! Should I be posting this story online? I don't know...I hope no Thai immigration officers stumble upon this little ol' blog of ours...
The rest of the day was spent back on our beautiful beach, bumming around with our Welsh buddies, our Aussie buddies (who had also turned up on our beach, although that meeting was pre-arranged) and our Canadian friends. Now, I don't mean to put anyone on the spot...name names, or point fingers...but during a rousing game of water football, SOMEBODY forgot to take our room key out of his pocket before making a heroic dive to catch a Hail Mary (or something equally exciting) and "misplaced" the key somewhere in the ocean...Luckily his awesome girlfriend was around to save the day -found the key and saved the couple the 1000 baht it would've cost to replace it. Aren't girlfriends great??!
Our last night on Chaweng brought us back to the Green Mango where, yes, the boys gave an encore performance. As ridiculous as it was, I DO have to give them some credit - they managed to
get a party started on the one and only deserted dance floor in the club. People we didn't even know were taking pictures and hopping up onstage with them. I think they all think they are celebrities now...
The next morning was a little sad - we just weren't ready to say goodbye to our friends! And to make the day a little worse, our trek to Krabi (our next stop on the map) was awful - in the van, out of the van, wait here, come here, on the bus, off the bus, wait, on the ferry, wait, off the ferry, on the bus, wait, off the bus... Typical of "Thai time", a trip that should've taken 4 hours actually took 11. It was a real bummer and we were incredibly relieved to arrive at Baan To Guesthouse later that night and find a lovely little hotel-like room with...a real hot-water shower!!
Our one day in Krabi was spent looking for the beach, which turned out to be 18 km from our guesthouse! We set out on foot and got very, very lost. Most of the shops were closed due to the Chinese New Year (we thought people would
be celebrating in the streets, but most public areas were deserted), so we headed where any rational North American would go to ask directions - the Baptist Church! The pastor explained that the beach was too far away to walk to so we hopped in a taxi and headed to Ao Nang Beach, where we did a bit of a hike and saw the obvious highlight of an otherwise stressful day - dozens of monkeys swinging in the trees!
The next day brought us to a nearby island called Ko Lanta. Our first impressions of this island were not good. At the suggestion of our Baan To hosts, we booked a room at a guesthouse run by a friend of theirs...we liked Baan To so much and figured that since these people were recommending this place that it would turn out to be just as nice... We were oh, SO wrong! The guesthouse property was so far out of town that taxis wouldn't even drive there and our bungalow turned out to be home to a very large colony of ants. We toughed it out for one night (doubling up on the mosquito net and burning mosquito coils in our
room) and then quickly relocated the next day to LD Lanta, a wonderful little place on Long Beach run by a girl named Saidy and her gay brother. Our cement bungalow was perfect, the beach was stunning, and we ended up staying 3 nights. Not many adventures here though...just a lot of swimming, sunbathing, card playing, eating, drinking, and book reading. It almost feels like we're back in Hawaii! Next, we are off to explore Ko Phi Phi...we are very much looking forward to it because we hear from so many people that it is the most beautiful place they have ever seen!
Keep reading to see if Phi Phi lives up to the rumours...
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Aunty C and Uncle B
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Helloooooooooooo
You guys sound like you are having way to much fun! Looks beautiful and sounds like you are meeting some good people, eating good food and getting lots of sunshine! Glad you are having so much fun and staying safe. We are enjoying your blog and if it continues to be so interesting maybe uncle brad and I will get there some day too. We will stay in touch, Love you guys!