Adjusting to the Island Way of Life

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Well I got what I asked for¡K a beach bungalow DIRECTLY on the beach¡K. Literally. However, I failed to realize that a few of what I previously considered ¡§standard¡¨ accommodations are now definitely ¡§luxuries¡¨. It was a ¡§treat¡¨ to wake up each morning wondering what new creature had crawled up the hole we have in our bathroom¡K if you can call it a bathroom! Apparently it¡¦s much nicer than some on the island based on other people we¡¦ve talked to, but I guess my expectations were a wee bit too high (or as Marcos tells me¡K I was expecting the Westin Thai furniture and a thatched roof haha). But as we neared towards the end of our four night stay¡K we grew quite fond of our little bungalow. We couldn¡¦t have asked for more - relaxing right on the porch and falling asleep with the sound of the ocean in the background¡K well okay, we could have asked for proper plumbing¡K but that¡¦s another story! Once we settled into our bungalow lifestyle, we learned to love it ƒº

You¡¦ve got to love the island life - definitely more up my alley! Everyone runs on ¡§Thai time¡¨ and you¡¦ve just got to take what you get. We did everything from a Thai cooking course to a full day excursion of kayaking through the sea caves and hiking through the Marine Park. We have yet to catch a muay thai match, we¡¦ve missed them so far in Bangkok and Koh Samui, but we¡¦re hoping to catch one in Koh Pha Ngan.

We didn¡¦t have much of an opportunity for Internet access in Koh Samui as we were pretty removed from everything. Getting down to the major beach was quite the excursion the first day¡K ended up just wandering around for hours trying to find some sort of tourism or civilization. By the second day, we had a grasp on how to catch the truck drivers that circle around the island picking up/dropping off people along their route.

We¡¦ve heard bits and pieces of what¡¦s going with the coup in Bangkok right now - but only through other English speaking people. There are apparently tanks in the streets and they¡¦ve enforced a curfew, but unfortunately we have yet to get a firm grasp on what that means for us getting home. We¡¦ve heard a number of things and are wondering if we¡¦ll have problems flying back to the US in a week or so¡K guess we¡¦ll just have to wait and see in a week or so. Some outbound flights have been canceled, some are still going - kind of hard to tell. But we¡¦re sure you¡¦re all worried, so we just wanted to let you all know we¡¦re safe and out of harms way down in the islands. All of the Thai people on the islands refuse to talk about it or answer any questions¡K we think to try to keep all the tourists hopes up and desire to return!

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Photos

Our beach bungalow
our bungalow