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Published: January 13th 2008
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Ko Samui Airport
Small, but the nicest airport I've ever seen Wow this entry has an unruly title, worse than "The Hudsucker Proxy" I think!
We landed on Ko Samui to spend about half of our holidays on the islands, for Christmas the plan was to zip across to neighbouring Ko Phagnan for the Full Moon Party, then Bangkok for four or five days and New Years Eve. The plan didn't go according to the script but Thailand and the vacation were spectacular.
Ko Samui - Fantastic spot. We were on Chaweng Beach, which is the busiest beach on the island, not crazy crowds but some very interesting sights indeed. We stayed at Al's Huts the first two nights (we only booked two nights and planned to just roam about after that) the huts were not a luxury spot but had everything that we needed and were clean. The property was right on the beach and they had a decent restaurant/bar as well as massage tables right down by the sand, very nice.
There really isn't too much to say about Samui, the weather was perfect and all we did was lay around on the beach. I had a couple of suits, six shirts and
A world without...
...copyright lawyers a pair of shoes made and we got tans. Perfect.
After a couple of days on Samui we took a ferry across to Ko Phagnan where the full moon party takes place every month. This year it fell on Christmas Eve and it was the 13th full moon of the year (rare, they say) so it was a big one, I heard estimates of 20 000 people on the beach. We're not the party animals that we once were so our plan was to settle into a nice spot on a patio and just people watch and that's what we did.
What you drink at this thing is a "bucket", you choose a small plastic bucket that has a mickey of something along with mix, the guy selling it fills the bucket with ice and then dumps in the booze, the mixes and a straw. All the buckets included redbull or another energy drink called shark (we were warned about the redbull here because it was actually the syrup from which they make the redbull back home). I had one bucket, which I bought from a kid about 11 years old, it was gin, redbull and
Als Hut
Really nice little place. Simple but clean and beachfront. shark, they didn't bother putting in any pop (it cost about $6cdn). I'm no bucket connoisseur so it's hard for me to comment on it, if forced to I would say it was disgusting. In any case we watched people going by and having a good time, the atmosphere is really great. Everybody is very young and very drunk but there were no troubles, a lot less ego than 10 000 drunk North American boys trying to impress 10 000 girls, didn't see a single dust-up.
We wandered back down around 8:30 Christmas morning and the party was still going pretty strong at one end of the beach. There were some interesting sights to be sure garbage, passed out people and bathing suits were strewn all about the waterfront, I really did wish I made it here while I was in university. Oh the moon, yes the full moon really was spectacular. I took some pictures but they don't do it justice, I guess you'll just have to go for yourselves (if you're going to get a bucket ask for Buangam, he's a good kid).
We spent four days on Ko Phagnan, more than we wanted
Our Hut
Good'ol number 25. but during the full moon party they have minimum stays. The 45 minute ferry ride back to Ko Samui was considerably more subdued than the ride over. If there were a confessional on the boat the line-up would have been endless, I got drunk just off the smell of the bench in front of us and I think I'm addicted to E now.
The day before the party we took a half day tour that included an elephant ride, trip to a Chinese temple, hike up a "mountain" and a swim in a waterfall.
The elephant ride was more of an adventure than I would have thought. Our elephant, a 53 year old female (who we now refer to as "the angry old lady") did not want to give us a ride. The other elephants had drivers but ours they just let go with a handler kind of hanging about with a stick. The angry old lady cared not for his puny stick! She wanted to eat and while the handler was away (most of the trek) she went four-by-fouring with us tied on top. We had to scramble a bit to push branches away from
The Strip
We were on Chaweng beach. This is the strip of stores, restaurants, clubs, tailors and (don't ask me why) optometrists. our faces but thankfully TAOL stopped six feet short of a branch chest high and about 12 inches around, that would have stung!
The Chinese temple was interesting, the views were incredible and our tour guide was very nice. He explained that the way you bow to people is based on their age and when he wanted to show how to bow to an older person he used me as an example. "Okay" I thought, he knew I was easy going and was a safe person to choose. At the end of the tour we each had to ring a bell three times (I can't remember what each ring represents) and the tour guide said I had to ring first because I was the elder...so I says "pardon?!?" I rang the bell, prayed for Buddha to kill our tour guide, sulked for the rest of the day and repeatedly asked Michelle if I was still pretty.
Then we hiked up a mountain, it was high and swam beneath a waterfall, it was cold (I think I'm losing interest in this entry).
Back on Samui it was just more sun tanning and walking about. We
Day one
down on the beach. Directly in front of "The Hut" had an incredible Christmas dinner on Boxing Day (to make up for the chicken heart skewers that we had on Christmas Day but that's another story). A pub, the Admiral Lord Nelson, made up their Christmas leftovers for us and it was superb, a massive amount of food that included turkey, roast beef, mashed and roasted potatoes, yorkshire pudding, we started with shrimp cocktail and finished with plum pudding. I felt absolutely gross afterwards, not gross like after a gin/redbull/shark bucket but a happy gross.
We extended our stay on Samui right 'till the 31st so we didn't arrive in Bangkok until New Years Eve (~8:30pm). We had a really nice meal in our hotel restaurant and watched the new year start about a dozen hours before most of you. New Years Day was our only day in Bangkok and we spent it almost entirely shopping. I must admit there was a feeling of nostalgia to be amongst all the big corporate brand stores again, there is something to be said for knowing what you're getting when you go into a store.
All right that's it, we are off to Vietnam (possibly Laos and Cambodia also)
Same but...
...Looking the other way. We photographers call that "turning around" but I'll spare you the technical jargon. in two weeks so I figured we should get this sucker updated. We bought a new camera in Bangkok so complement us on our next set of pictures and don't forget to vote in the RockStar contest (Michelle is spelled J-a-k-e).
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