Spent the morning sleeping in, I think I got up around 10am. Not really any plans for today so decided since the weather was good we’d head to Lamai, another part of Kho Samui where the 2nd best beaches are, and not as crowded vendor wise as Chaweng. Because the cab ride to Chaweng was so expensive there and back (about $10 each way), we asked about other options and was told about a pickup truck that drives by every 5 min picking up passengers and it was only about $1.25 a ride. I remember seeing these guys on the main streets (and being honked at by them along with all the cabbies and motorbikes), and I’d seen people in the back all crammed inside, but didn’t realize they gave rides – I just figured they were like any other Thai trucks packed with lots of people off to work, etc. So we waited by our hotel and the first one that passed us was too packed. The second one wasn’t picking anyone up. The third one was the charm and we hopped on. There was nowhere to sit so we literally hung off the back steps of the truck driving down the street. It was fun & exciting, the wind blowing through our hair, sun at our faces and the excitement of trying not to fall off if the truck hit a bump in the road!Once in Lamai, we didn’t waste time walking the streets looking for anything. We went straight towards the beach through a resort tried to find a place to lay around. It was pretty packed, but we found a few lounge chairs and thought about what we wanted to do for lunch. I didn’t really eat much since my tummy was STILL feelin’ a little uneasy. I can’t complain because so far I have eaten pretty dang good. The fruits here are delicious and so fresh, and they are easily accessible too by the beach vendors wanting to sell the sunbathers something cool & refreshing. And all the restaurants I’ve sampled have all been very good, a little better than I expected actually.
Since I was a little red on my back from the sea adventure, I took it easy on laying out and just worked on bronzing more a little and kicking back with my book for a few hours. The Kite Runner so far is really great and I’m really enjoying getting back into reading that I hope I can keep it up when I get back home. The sun started to go behind the trees so we thought we’d make our way up north on the beach. The bungalows along the beach are so cute, but I peeked inside to one that had an open door and literally the place was laid out just like ours! I figured they would be a lot better since they looked newer. And also, some didn’t even have windows! I wonder how much they were paying for them, if anything they are mostly paying just for the location itself. We passed by a cute little place that looked inviting to have a snack at before we headed back to our side of the island for dinner. Come to find out, this was the place we actually had been wanting to come start our day at in Lamai! Our driver wasn’t sure where we wanted to be dropped off at so we just picked any place and figured we’d make our way, and lucky enough we found it accidently.
The place was call Spa Samui and it boasted on being really healthy and tranquil. I had the brown rice and onion and a bowl of fresh veggies in broth, Mike had a great veggie salad. After all the eating we’d done over the days, we were both feeling the urge to eat healthy and get some veggies in us. They made an excellent lime juice with honey that I am definitely going to make at home when I get back. Wow, was it good! The place was a spa and also a retreat in which people came for “cleansing” programs, either 3 days, 7 days or even weeks – such as fasting, body detox and enimas. Hmmm… not sure about the daily enimas but hey, if I was gonna get one done, I’d do it here where I could at least enjoy the view!
We said goodbye to Lamai, hoping to maybe come back and enjoy the spa place again. Back at the hotel, I dropped off all my dirty laundry at the front desk. For 40baht a kilo (little over a buck) they wash, dry and iron all your clothes. Seems a lot of people do this while traveling which makes me wish I had packed just a teeny bit less. Although, I did pack light for having almost 10 days worth of clothes. We had just ate so we weren’t too hungry and decided lets just head to a place for some drinks. We had passed this place called Gecko on our beach walks home and they always had great music playing so we thought we’d go there. Not to mention they were having a huge New Years Eve party too so thought we’d check it out incase we wanted to go there for our Eve party celebration. We listened to some music, had a few watered down drinks and people were coming and going – the crowd seemed mostly of groups traveling together. Out of the blue, these two English guys (Sean and Woody) come and join us, buy us drinks and strike up conversation. They had just met that night and were going different places along the beaches to hang out. Woody had a motorbike and asked if I had ridden one while in Thailand yet. I replied no, and of course he kept insisting on taking me for a quick ride to truly experience Thailand. Well, I agreed, and we all said we’d head over to Chaweng to party a little more over there – Mike and Sean would ride in a cab, and I would go on the motorbike with Woody. Long story short… Mike ditched Sean because he was annoying and decided to head back to the hotel. The motorbike got a flat tire on the way over to Chaweng and so we ditched it and begged a local schoolboy to give us a ride on his bike – 3 of us on a moped… crazy! Finally get to our destination and went to a few places… 1) a girlie bar where the thai girls danced near the red light area (I had to experience thailand right?) and 2) a beach bar where there was good music. Not up to hanging out much longer, we walked along the beach to find a less crazy place, had a few drinks at some bar, then I said goodnight.
A full week in Thailand so far and I’m starting to feel local… And homesick too…
