Drag Shows and Marine Park

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The trip is winding down now just as the climate is changing here on Koh Samui. It started to rain this evening and likely will rain almost every day for the next month. We lucked out on the weather. The other odd thing, is after a week of not seeing any Americans, they now seem to be poping up all over the place. We even met two guys who graduated from MSU with Colin in 2003. The island is beginning to get a different crowd than those who were here earlier this week.

I did a ton of shopping for friends and family yesterday. I'm doing a good job with bargaining. On most items, I offer 25% of their offered price and then will go up to about 50%. Some shops seem particularly generous, others ask for amounts that no shop in Michigan could get away charging. No point in bargaining in amounts of less than 50 baht ($1.25), but I don't like getting screwed either. Anyway, I have gifts now for everyone but Joel. The boss is always tough to shop for. That's my project for tomorrow.

Last night, Colin and I went to the Amsterdam bar and saw a girl-boy show. It was a lot of fun and some of the guys who passed as girls could convince anyone. With their small frames, hairless bodies, etc., the Thai kathoey (transvestite) tradition has been entertaining people for years. It's very accepted in Thailand and seemed to be very accepted by the almost all-straight tourists who were at Amsterdam (a gay bar) last night until the show ended. Anyway, it was something we had to see before we left. Great fun, but we were home by midnight because.....

This morning we got up at 6:30 a.m. to take a tour of Anthong National Marine Park. This tour was certainly worth the $35 cost. First, we took a 1 hour speedboat ride over to the Anthong island group and spent an hour sea kayaking. Colin and I found a secluded beach on an islet and went swimming. After about 10 mintues we started to feel sharp bites on us but could not see what was causing it. Turns out they are sea lice. Painful little bastards.

After the kayaking we went to see the Emerald Lake and got some great shots. That was followed by lunch -a Thai buffet. Immediately after lunch, while most of our group (about 2 dozen young American/European travelers) laid on the beach, I convinced Colin to climb the mountain with me to take photos from the top. He was leary about this and had good reason to be. The climb was treacherous over mud and very slippery stones -often at angles of 60 degrees and never less than 15 degrees. After a half hour, we gave up and did the even more difficult climb down. I banged my ankle and dropped my camera which was in its expensive waterproof case at the time. The camera fell down the mountain about 60 feet before I recovered. I expected both the case and camera would be ruined, but by some miracle neither was damaged at all. My photos have survived.

The last thing on the trip we did was diving/snorkling on a reef. I got some decent photos of the corals and other divers. As you might expect, this was my favorite part. I bought a new mask yesterday for $30 to replace the one I lost earlier in the week. This new mask is my favorite mask yet. After being underwater for an hour, we headed back to Ko Samui and the rain started. It's raining out now and the sun has set. Colin and I decided to take a break from Thai food and had burgers, fries, and spaghetti for dinner. Now we're going to take an easy night back at the resort rather than do the bar thing for what would be the 7th night in a row.

Not sure what plans are for tomorrow before we depart the island at 10:00 p.m. I think I may go back to Big Buddha. If it's not raining, maybe we'll lay out and have a final Thai massage. We have decided that we're going to treat ourselves to a dinner of king lobster and seafood as our goodbye meal.

I'll check in one final time tomorrow afternoon before we fly back. Have a great weekend everyone.

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Comments

[Tim]

Your trip sounds amazing. I hope you are having a great time, as in Michigan it is snowing now. Not the news I'm sure you wanted to hear. It will be good to have you back so I can hear about the trip maybe over drinks, now that I'm 21. Hope all is great and fabulous and I hope to hear when you get back.