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Baan Samui Resort
5am wake up was a shock to the system, especially after the long day beforehand. We had a quick brekky at the Miracle Hometel in Bkk then headed to the airport for our early flight to Koh Samui.
This flight was with Bangkok Airways and we were given Yoghurt and Chocolate Danishes for breakfast. So what if we had already eaten, we weren't going to turn down a second brekky, especially Shan seeing as chocolate was involved!!
Koh Samui airport was certainly different to any other airport we had seen. It was smaller for one, but it consisted of cute little pavillion "huts" as the main buildings which was cool.
We had a driver waiting there for us as I had prearranged all our transfers which made life easier. We headed straight for the Baan Samui Resort which is located right in the middle of Chaweng Beach on the beachfront, this we would call home for the next 4 nights.
Luckily we were allowed to check in when we got there which was around 10am I think. It was a nice resort which was well maintained and a nice layout.
Restaurants and bars at the front and back (beachfront) of the resort and a beautiful pool right next to the beach. We were happy with the room and seeing as it was one of the cheaper resorts on the beachfront, we both agreed we had made the right decision to stay here.
At midday we headed out to the main road in front of the resort to look for somewhere for lunch. We found a place called Khaosan Restaurant and ordered food and drinks here. The lunch was very good and all up cost us about AUD$10. Sweet!
Then we went back to the resort for a swim in the pool which was much needed as we were suffering a little with the humidity and heat. Shan felt a bit sick so went to the room for a nap while I swam at the beach. An hour later Shan joined me for cocktails on the loungers at the beachfront of the resort. We found the beach sellers/vendors of bracelets, balls, sarongs, food and icecreams quite a laugh. We soon realised if you didnt wave them off quickly you were soon having a conversation in Thaiglish or being serenaded
by the ice cream guy!!! LOL. Was all good fun though!!
What Day Does Songkran Start??? Hmmmm....
We later headed back to our room and got cleaned up and dried off. We then headed out to the main road again to find a place to eat dinner. Did I mention we dried off???
Only a few metres down the road we started getting bombarded with water, an early beginning to the Songkran festivities!! This was all good as it was hot afterall, but I had not planned to get wet and had my mobile phone and camera in my pockets!! Luckily these didnt get wet and further down the road we stopped at a restaurant to ask for a plastic bag to put my stuff in. They pretended not to understand as they poured buckets of water over us aswell, then thankfully got me a bag to keep my stuff dry.
Soaking wet, we decided we might as well have dinner here. This was the first of many nights spent at "The Grill" restaurant. The dinner was delicious and very cheap, we sat back watching the staff drenching unsuspecting tourists, which was
very funny we had to admit. They kept asking us to join in the fun with them so after dinner we headed back to the resort, put on more appropriate clothing (swimwear), put my camera in its underwater case, then headed back to join the craziness!!
On the way back to the restaurant we bought a "super soaker" water pistol, the weapon of choice for most farangs (foreigners in thai).
The next 3 or so hours was spent drinking beer and cocktails, which kept coming even though I wasn't paying for most of them (Thanks Red) and basicly having a massive water fight with anyone that walked by. The hose from The Grill was running all night, as they were from most businesses on that street. It was impossible to pass by dry, it just wasn't going to happen!! LOL
At The Grill we also met Tyron and Kristy (T-Bone & Sunshine), an Aussie couple from South Australia, who were there on their Honeymoon. We had a great time teaming up against passers by and egging each other on.
Other than wetting people, the other thing they do is put wet baby powder on your face. I'm
not sure of what this symbolises as such, but as you can see from the photos Shan was fair game, I think I may have had something to do with how much powder she ended up wearing!!! HAHA
They also use another powder which I think they call "Prickly heat" which is VERY cool on the skin and almost feels like it burns at times. Shan washed this off as soon as she was painted with it, which was quite often. The Thais really love the tourists getting involved and we had so much fun "playing" with them!! If you haven't had a Songkran in Thailand before, you must do it at least the once.
I took heaps of photos, a lot of which turned out quite dark due to lack of lighting on the street, but I am sure from these pics you can tell how much fun we had. At about 11pm we were both exhausted and decided to call it a night. The owner of The Grill "Red", and the staff insisted we join them the following day, the 13th, which is the big Songkran day of celebration.
Songkran Day
~ Fun in the Sun
After a bit of a sleep in we had our buffet breakfast at the resort then went back to our room to prepare for the day ahead. We covered up with sunblock, prepared the camera in its water proof case and filled the water pistol in readiness to return fire as soon as we left the resort.
We walked down to The Grill and joined them at about 11.30am, the hose was already flowing and there was a cold beer waiting for me when I got there. I am not sure what time Red started drinking but he was "well on the way" when we arrived!! It was absolute madness, with the streets being filled with cars, utes, scooters and trucks, all carrying large containers or plastic drums full of water which were used to fill the buckets or water pistols of those on board.
There were quite a few tourists, riding scooters, on the back of utes, and just walking the streets firing their water pistols at anyone within reach then filling them back up wherever they could.
The staff from The Grill would every now and then appear
with some ice to put in the water, as would other people down the street. Let me tell you, that water was sooooo bloody cold it wasn't funny!! It caught a few people off guard...
T-Bone and Sunshine joined us about an hour after we got there, just after Red slipped over and had to be helped up due to being rather drunk.
Shan found it quite amusing that the ladyboy from the "massage parlour" across the road was scratching him/herself whilst sitting on top of their big plastic water drum. Red dragged Tyron and myself across the road a few times for the ladyboys to pour water over us and put powder on our faces - he's a sick man!! LOL
Unfortunately The Grill was closed, as were the majority of businesses along the road, however we did pop across to the family mart to stock up on beer and pringles for lunch.
There is not much more I can say to explain how much fun we had so I'll let the photos do the talking!!
That evening we met up with another one of our chat friends from Bkk who was in
Koh Samui for Songkran aswell. We invited her for dinner at our resort, away from all the water and craziness out on the main road. We had a nice dinner and a few drinks, then had a quiet walk along Chaweng beach, taking in the atmosphere and the beautiful lights and scenery.
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