Around Ko Samui

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Today started like most, with the free breakfast at the hotel and a lot of people watching. People watching is so much better here than in America, just because of all of the different cultures you see.

After breakfast, we went up to the front desk and rented a scooter for the day. A 24 hour rental only costs 250 baht, which is about $8. We knew we wanted to go to Bophut beach because that was where the kayaking/snorkeling company we wanted to book with was located. There is a main road that wraps around the entire island, so we took off north knowing that the road runs right into Bophut beach. After about a 20 minute ride, we arrive in Bophut, but have no idea how to read the street signs that point to our desitination. We randomly choose one, and it turned out to be the right one.

Walking into the tour company called 100 Degrees East, we were greeted by a former Londoner who owned/managed the tour guide service. He was really nice and walked us through the tour we would be going on. We signed up for a tour on Tuesday, that will take us west of Ko Samui to the Ang Thong National Marine Park. Here, we will get to snorkel, kayak, and explore a cluster of islands about an hour boat ride from the main island.

We left the tour guide and decided that we were going to make a complete loop around the island. We needed some gas, which is found sold by all sorts of little vendors on the side of the road. All you have to do is pull over to their stand and they grab an old liquor bottle with a liter of gas to fill you up. Simple as that. It's really quite effective for the thousands of scooters you see on the road.

Just down the road is the most famous temple on the island called Big Buddha and you don't have to guess why. We drive up, park our scooter and there is a giant buddha sitting right off the beach. It was a nice area to walk around because it was kind of its own little village of shops and restaurants. We took a break and walked around for about 30 minutes and then it was back on the crazy roads.

On the northwest tip of the island, we found an awesome little restaurant called Footprints right on a picturesque section of beach. I ordered the Pad Thai Chicken, which is a popular Thai dish. Kayde ordered chicken nuggets (who knew?) and french fries. She needed something American. I'm pretty sure my Pad Thai was made across the street (because we saw the waiter/owner carrying the plate from across the street) and Kayde's chicken nuggets looked just like those at McDonalds. Oh well, it all tasted good. We sat there for about an hour just looking at the ocean and watching the Olympics which were in English thank goodness. The owner said that he was from Switzerland, and was trying to make it to Australia 18 years ago, but never made it. He fell in love with Thailand and opened up this hotel/restaurant/bar.

We took off again and started are way again around the island. It was about 1:00 in the afternoon at this time and it was starting to get hot and muggy. Even at the 40 mph or whatever the scooter could do, it was still brutally hot. We had planned on trying to explore some of the mountains, but the weather took care of ruining that idea. We spent the last 45 minutes of the ride just trying to not sweat all the liquid in us out. We stopped one more time for gas and to put on some sunscreen.

We got back to the hotel around 2:00 (we got slightly lost on the way back) and headed to the beach to just lounge around. It was still hot, but at least we had the breeze coming off of the ocean. Kayde decided that she wanted to take a nap before dinner so we went back in and she fell somewhat asleep. I watched Fox News because it is one of the few stations we get here that is in English. At least in Bangkok we had ESPN and I could watch the Olympics, but not here on the island. It is odd watching it because during the day here, it is all of the programming that would be on during the middle of the night back home.

We went to eat dinner at a small Italian restaurant in downtown Lamai owned by two men from Italy. The food was great, so we will definitely be going back sometime during out stay. Tomorrow looks to be a day of just lounging around. We will talk to y'all then!

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