1st stop in the islands - Ko Samui

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I have managed to survive 6 whole days in the island of Ko Samui. It was a tough act but I did it!

I arrived at 11:30 AM last Friday after a 12 hour overnight train ride (1st class sleeper is the only way to go), a 2 hour bus ride and ended with a 1 ½ boat trip which landed me on island Ko Samui. Having forgotten to write down my hotel (was a bit frazzled by the Red Shirts before departing Bangkok) I found the nearest internet café (they are like Starbucks here) and located my reservation. I haggled with the local taxi drivers to take me to the Green Villa for a mere 400 THBT ($12USD) well done since he was charging me 600 THBT, I’m no fool.

I arrived at the hotel which is about 500 feet from the beach, YEAH finally the ocean and a cool breeze. Needless to say I was starving so I headed to the beach for my first island meal, something tropical. Since I hadn’t eaten in over 16 hours I was famished and just found the first place I saw, which happened to be a very swanky beach front resort (of course) so I ordered something safe, a parma pizza and a bloody mary (my staples). Not a bad meal although the bloody mary was sweet (and those who know me know how I treasure a GOOD bloody mary). Got the bill which was 800THBT ($25USD). WHAT!%^* I am on a BUDGET and I just spent $25 for pizza and a drink, Oh dear lord I’ll be home in a week at this rate. So I headed down the beach to explore and see what other nonsense I could get into (I felt like Elizabeth Shue in Cocktail). Ended up finding a local watering hole and ordered a local beer Singa, not bad again 100THBT, what the hell, I thought Thailand was suppose to be cheap. THEN I was basically foot raped by a local woman telling me my feet where in horrible shape and she could fix them up for me at a special “dark person” price (I was the only “dark” person mixed in with all of the Euro’s. UGH, fine again taken for a total tourist 40 minutes for 400 THBT (now remember I got a full Thai massage in Bangkok for the same price and 2 hours long…UGH again, what is the deal.

So after my first day I will admit I was getting a bit discourage that I would quickly start spending WAY more than I had budgeted for…THEN I met my first set of fellow travelers Jackie and Mike from where else CANADA. God, what would we do without Canadian’s? They were a God sent. After telling them of my first day they quickly set me straight on where to eat (local food vendors), where to get water and beer and a cooler if need be (7-11, where beer is a dollar) and what places to see on my next leg of the trip in Asia, all priceless information.

So I woke up all invigorated the next day and was off to explore, so I braved the elements and rented a motor scooter (OMG). It was Saturday morning so there wasn’t much traffic which was comforting but I was still going 50 MPH next to trucks and cliffs but what the hell the locals do it every day with babies on their laps how hard can this really be? It would be a piece of cake if you knew how to TURN, which sadly I learned the hard way that I had no idea. I bit it once nothing crazy just enough to give the locals a good laugh. Found some amazing vistas to take some cool photos, the Big C (their version of a Super Walmart), a Starbucks and oh yeah RAN OF OUT GAS! I was like Chris Rock this day cracking up locals at each stop.

Chilled out the next few days, took some dips in the pool read a little and again was like what am I doing here alone (couples are in abundance here). Then I thought what my girls always say “you aren’t going to meet people in your apartment (hotel) you need to get out)..and that is exactly what I did. I booked an excursion to the Angthong National Marine Park, where I was sure to if nothing else get to see another side of the island and possibly some fish.

The trip started with a 1 ½ boat ride out to the park where of course I sat on the sun deck with my ipod on trying to contemplate the purpose of the trip (or just being anti-social, I am trying I swear). Finally we arrive and for our first part of the trip we would be kayaking around 4 of the 40 islands. Since I’m SINGLE I have to be paired up with someone else our tour guide Liam Neelson tell me, so I get Lauren, another single gal they looked like she could pull her own weight in the boat (I’m surprised some of these girls didn’t get blown over board they were so freakin skinny). Well I was so happy she was from Sydney, spoke English and was just visiting the island for a couple weeks. So we paddled out from the boat for instructions from our guide a very cool woman from Romania. As she was giving instructions on what we would see and do a dog along the shore kept barking and she kept stopping and saying to the dog “ in a minute” we were all kind of scratching our heads as to why she was “fake” talking to this dog. So we were to follow here a gingerly pace, but in doing this we were following her near shore and into a wall of rocks…WTH? Little did we know that the DOG was part of the trip. He ran down the beach, and over to the rocks for a good 200ft before jumping in her boat with a little bit of bark-a-tude of “dude, what took you so long, you talk too much” we got a good laugh and off we went, dog and all.

Landed at the 4th island where we could walk up this incredibly steep staircase that would lead to the inner “green lagoon” amazing. Took a quick dip in all of 3 feet of water to cool off, it was HOT like HOT. As I was getting out totally scraped my hand on some coral, on the little boat back to the ship Lauren sees the cut and asks if I had a tetanus shot? No, I reply why? Well coral can give off a toxin that can do all sorts of weird things to the brain, spine…WHAT? Oh no worries mate, the coral we were in was dead only live coral can do that. Are you sure? Pretty sure! AWESOME, I feel so much better…NOT.

Did some snorkeling at the next spot, again the water was super shallow and I was terrified at this point that me not being much a floater was going to sink right into Volkswagen size coral and just plain DIE. So I stayed close to the sandy shore. Finally Lauren was all the way out and was like oh dear lord Nicole grow some balls and just got out, so I did. I kept seeing these tubeslike things in the water and I was told they were Sea Cucumbers. Lauren picks one up and gives it to me..ewwwww as it suctioned itself to me, but I felt cool holding something from the ocean that I knew wouldn’t kill me.

Back to the boat to head home after a long, hot, sunny day. Before the boat departed one of the crew was on the upper deck and asked if Lauren and I if we wanted to jump in? WHAT? Sure. So without thinking jumped off a 3 story boat in front of oh 100 people going WTH was that noise. As we rushed to do it again the adventures boys were like HELLS YES and joined, that was by far the coolest part of the day.

Lauren I decided to grab some dinner, a fish feast in the town of Lamai…So good. Ash, you would have been in HEAVEN. You get to pick out your fish and how they are going to prepare it.

The day ended with me having the most fun, meeting a new friend (FINALLY) and really rethinking my travels in SE Asia. With Lauren being from OZ and talking it up so much I was getting so excited on getting there a lot faster than I thought (Yes, Deb you were right). So I think I am going to explore the big ticket items in Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Malaysia and Indo and get to Australia probably by the end of July.

Heading to Ko Tao tomorrow for a few days before heading to Ko Phan-ngan and the Sanctuary for a little yoga retreat.
Until we meet again!

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Photos

My First Photo
The international symbol for "take my photo" hold up the camera, smile like an idot and point.

Hotel Mascot
Thought it was a statue until it moved its ears, I soon gone after that.

Grand Pa Rock
I think it should be called College Boy Rock, don't think Viagra would be aroud if this was the case.

The Best Meal
This little vendor hidden in the alley has given me so far my best meal and you can't beat the price $1.25.

Fishing Boats...
Going to catch dinner!

The Dog
We never got his name but he was the captain for sure this day.

The Cave
We were able to paddle into a sea cliff cave, so cool. And it was 30 degrees cooler.

Angthong National Marine Park
This is the Green Lagoon, no Brook Shields or Christopher Atkins...not sure if there is Blue Lagoon here.

Winston
He has been dealig with the heat, but decided to make the journey. He was King of the World this day.

What to Have
These were our dinner selections.

The Feast
All this for $20

Comments

[Azella]

Yaaay! a new ozzie friend :) where's the pics of her? Glad you finally took off your damn ipod earphones and talked to somebody :) Sounds like fun!!1

[Mamma Peklay]

Brave
Nicole, you are so brave. I love reading your travel blog. You are very dark girl, hope your using sun block to protect you skin. When I die I want to come back as you. Until the next blog, love you and God keep you. Mamma p

[Nathan]

Hola Sis
Hey girl! I love reading your story, it is so interesting- making me want to get out there with ya! I was reading your 2nd log - buh bye Bangkok and once I finished I popped in one of my favorite movies " The Beach". Little that I knew was that the first 10 minutes of the movie was in Bangkok! It was so cool to see a possible glimpse of what you were experiencing! Anyways - keep being adventurous and safe and I can't wait to see more pics that are yet to come. Love ya - your bro

[Schach]

Fish
Love the shout out - was there lobster in that $20 fish meal? Yes I would have loved it.....though if I scraped my knee on the coral I would have immediately had to have been rushed to the hospital. :)