Ko Samui - Final Week and Farewell

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Good Day!! I'm quite depressed as I write this. Our 4th and final week has come to an end which means we're back in Bangkok!
What an incredible month it has been. Trace and I have been reminiscing about this past month for the last few days. It all feels quite surreal. As I’m typing this, it’s 05:30 by the way and I’m sitting in McDonalds, just had a big hearty breakfast and trying to kill time while we wait for Bangkok to wake up. Our first mission for the day is to find accommodation for a couple of nights. Somewhere that is close to Coffeeshop 19 of course!
So let me get on with telling you all about our last week. It was great! Monday and Tuesday Trace and I walked the beach without being accompanied by one of the Thai guys. We were asked by every Jet Ski stand where our “shadow” was. So yes, we have become quite well known along the beach which is nice as they all offered ice cold water and a chair in the shade if it’s too hot. It’s too hot most days!
On Wednesday, a friend of Tracey’s arrived in Samui with her boyfriend so we met them for dinner. It was great having 2 more familiar faces on the island and we met up with them a couple of times after that. Thursday was work as normal but Friday is a day worth knowing about!
Friday morning Trace and I had set our alarms for 4:15am! Crazy, yes! We had decided to wake up early and take a walk to the beach to see the sunrise! So with our BIG mugs of coffee and camera off we walked to the beach. It was still dark when we arrived but it was perfect. The sky was illuminated in different shades of orange, red and yellow and it kept changing. It was beautiful! We sat out there until the sun had come up properly and headed back to our room at about 6:30. A great breakfast of coffee and croissants from 7-11 kept us up and ready to start our day. However, we were not going to work at 8:30, we were going to Samui immigration in the town of Nathom to extend our visa’s! Wow, something that was meant to be quite a simple process was drawn out and we were only able to get to work at 13:30. Firstly, staying on a street with tuk-tuks and taxi’s on every corner we couldn’t find one. So we started walking and eventually were able to climb onto the world’s slowest tuk-tuk to ever grace the streets of Thailand! We were obviously not meant to arrive early and so after over an hour of travelling across the island of Samui we arrived at immigration. Quite simple actually. We fill out a form, hand over our passports and photo then wait an hour. Of yes, we had to pay! B1900 might not sound like a lot, but it was to us, especially when the internet mentions B500! But anyway... I always find it amazing how a place like the immigration office is located in the quietest and most industrial side of the town. This place is meant for tourists and only tourists, make a plan! There was nothing to do. It was extremely hot and we didn’t want to sit in the tiny waiting area so decided to take a walk and see what was available... Nothing! We resorted to a internet cafe/coffee shop which made a really good Ice Tea. But imagine the money that people would spend while doing something that is so important! I don’t know, I just found it strange that they wouldn’t try to make some money on one of those street corners when they’re trying every 5 metres everywhere else on the island! So anyway, maybe I was a bit tired and grouchy from being awake for so long, I don’t know! That evening we decided to tick something off our list of To-Do’s while in Samui list. About 100m down the street from where we stay a PINK VW bus sets up a cocktail bar on the side of the street. They have a sound system, tables and chairs, flashing lights and of course, great cocktails! We’d walked past this stand every evening and due to our tight budget we decided to wait until Tracey’s friend Amy was there and we’d do it together! Well it was great! Now please realise that during the day this is a car park. The bus brings all the equipment and sets up every evening and packs it all up when the evening is done. O yes, forgot to mention that this was also the first VW of any sort that we’d seen in Thailand so we thought... well heck of course we had to go! It was great and was just how we’d imagined it to be!
Saturday and Sunday were spent at work planning our farewell with Noom and Ning. It was decided that on the Monday night, we were to have a seafood BBQ on the beach with Thai whiskey! Well we couldn’t wait, it sounded great and we’d been wanting to have a get-together of sorts with the guys on the beach so it worked out well!
Monday cam e and it was work as normal. Trace and I were walking alone and were able to take it easy as it was incredibly hot! That afternoon the Captain had heard about the party and said that we didn’t have to work the next day, we could come and relax with them, tan, swim and take it easy. Awesome, especially knowing that Monday night was going to be late!
So Noom offered to come and pick us up, Amy and her boyfriend were joining us, and off we went. That day Noom had taken one of the speedboats to a Long Tail boat out at sea and bought the freshest seafood possible. We had Red Snapper, White Snapper and lots of squid! I was in foodie heaven and it wasn’t even cooked yet! We arrived at the beach and carried all the drinks, utensils etc to our possie. They had set up holes in the sand and filled them with coals with a grid on top. A wooden plank was found and was used as the surface to scale the fish on and the descaled fish and squid were rinsed in the sea water and were ready to be cooked. Tinfoil “pans” were made for the fish and the squid was cooked directly on the grid. The smells were incredible. You could smell the freshness. I think our location made the experience even better. Polystyrene containers were our plates and the only accompaniment was chilli sauce, but can you think of anything more fitting than chilli sauce! Especially to an accustomed palate! So there we sat, our polystyrene containers on our laps, plastic fork in our hand, and fish and squid a plenty. It was established that eating with our fingers was a lot easier and more fun. What a meal! There was an endless supply and we all ate so well! This was an experience that I wish I could’ve bottled to take back to SA with me! It was a special and extremely memorable evening!
On Tuesday we had a slow start and headed to the beach at about 10. We had decided to walk the beach one last time to be able to say goodbye to everyone and would then walk back along the road to do any last minute shopping. We did our walk, were able to see Noom and thank him once again for a lovely evening. I’d made him a CD of all the photo’s with them and us taken over the last month so he was very chuffed and went straight home to look at them. At around 15:30 we’d done all our shopping and went back to the beach for one last swim in the sea. We’d also decided to treat ourselves and had a Thai Massage on the beach! It was fantastic! We felt refreshed, alive and ready to take on what obstacles came our way. I had appointment at 11 that evening but that’s for another blog entirely!
Wednesday morning was our last morning on the island. We had said our goodbyes and couldn’t go back to the beach due to my appointment the night before. We finished our packing, bought bus chow at 7-11 and were picked up outside our hotel at 12. We had 16 hrs of transit ahead of us and were not looking forward to it too much. But here I am, sitting in McDonalds, it’s now 7:13 and we’re about to have our second round of breakfast... why not? We’re on holiday!
Just to keep you posted, I’m in Bangkok until Saturday and then make my way to Chiang Mai to do a 5 day cooking course! I can’t wait! I’m super excited for both the city and the course. It’s going to be amazing! But you’ll be hearing about that as soon as I arrive in Chiang Mai - have free wireless where I’, staying which will make life even better 
Until next time...

Ciao Ciao Bye!

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Comments

[Lia Gallagher]

Advice
Hi, I was wondering if you could give me some advice? Three of us are due to fly into Bangkok on Mon 18th from Ireland, the international embassies are advising not to travel to Thailand at all due to the political unrest in Bangkok, if your blog is recent then you have been there in the last few days, could you advise as to the situation for tourists? we were hoping to travel directly to the islands once arriving in BKK would this be safe to do so in your opinion? Thanks Lia