The Beach

---

Hi Everyone

I arrived on Ko Samui with one of the Canadian women that I had met from the hostel in Bangkok. We booked a little bungalow on Lamai Beach (Cheap, it was crazy). Yes it was wonderful. The weather has been pretty good, a little cloudy and some rain but mostly at night. The Island is beautiful, really green and lush and the beaches are simply amazing. It is probably the most touristy of all the Islands, but thats what I was after, so it was great.

The people here are so friendly, its still low season, so there aren't as many tourists and the bars and restaurants aren't very busy. One night I wandered into a bar while waiting for Rhoda to book a ticket back home and the women working there poured me a drink of their Thai whiskey and visited with me, so when Rhoda showed up, we started playing Jenga with them all at the bar and got a motorcycle ride back to our hotel from one of the women. She wouldn't take a single Baht from me.. very cool.

After a day or two of lazing about on the beach drinking cocktails and soaking up the sun, we went on an all day tour of the Island. It was really great. Started off with an elephant show, the elephants were performing 'Thai' massages on some of the tourists, they played soccer and basketball.. It was pretty funny actually. We then went for a 45 minute elephant ride to the top of a hill to check out the view. It was a spectacular view, but I felt sorry for the elephants. We then went to a coral reef to go snorkelling. The amount of fish all around us was crazy and it was so much fun. We went to the Magic Garden up in the mountain, they have a picture of it for the tour, looks really old, then you find out its about 30 years old.. oh well. The last stop was a waterfall, it was about 80 meters from top to bottom and really cool to see. The road into the waterfall is a dirt track and its rainy season, so there were HUGE ruts in the road and the driver asked us if he should put the jeep in 4 wheel drive and go for it, the 4 of us on the jeep said sure why not... holy smokes, we went down the first part and the jeep totally felt like it was going to tip over onto the side I was sitting on. Well when we got to the next flat spot we were all jumping out of that jeep, walking was NOT a problem at that point. Now getting back up the road was an adventure in itself. We tried a few times, were asked to hop out, we had no where really to stand, so we all got sprayed with the wet, red coloured dirt. It took 5 guys and a lot of attempts for that driver to get the jeep back up that hill.. it was absolutely hilarious.

After that adventure I spent the next day relaxing and finally got a Thai massage.. it was really great. Its a relaxation massage with no oil, and they stretch your body out for you.. felt good, I am getting another one in Chiang Mai before I leave Thailand.

Having a great time, I could spend months here, but am running out of time in Southeast Asia. This is a spot I will be back to again for sure.

Take Care

Tami

---