In addition to the fantastic cheeseburger (with one onion ring on the side) that I devoured, my happiest purchase of the night also was my “Same Same” t-shirt. Not sure exactly how it got started, but everywhere in Thailand there is someone trying to sell you something and when they have two items that are similar style but maybe slightly different (like color), the Thai people say “Same same, but different”. Why they repeat it, dunno. And even the tribal kids were doing it too with the bracelets they were selling. So I had to get it – it’s totally Thai!

They mentioned in my travel book that the area at night around the night market can be shady for women alone. More so on dark side streets. I was around a ton of people while at the market so I felt fine and safe there. But after a night of shopping and eating, I headed back to the hotel, which was down a dark side street and it felt a little scary – So I ran my ass off back to my hotel…

OMG! I think I woke up like 3 or 4 times in the middle of the night, FREEZING cold! I had just one thin little blanket on me, and my sleeping bag was made of a thin polyester so there was nothing really keeping me warm. I had 2 pairs of socks on, 2 t-shirts and a zipper jacket but damn was I cold. I did what I could to keep warm. Finally got up around 8:30am to some coffee and tea and a hardboiled egg with 30 gazillion pieces of toast for breakfast. I could’ve used an extra egg instead of all the extra toast! Luckily I snagged a few bananas from lunch the day before which I was saving to eat during the trekk – I knew I wouldn’t be eating much in each meal anyhow. Today was our elephant ride! The elephants arrived at our village about 10:15am. There were 4 of them. Tony & Netta were nice enough to let me ride with them (remember, I was the odd ball out when it came to having a partner). They are such nice people – actually, everyone was so very nice and thoughtful of each other. We were all taking pictures and joking around, and trying to sing our elephant song we had learned the night before. I was so looking forward to this elephant ride too! Ours was named “Koh” and she was a very hungry girl – stopping many times along the walk to rip branches off trees or from bushes, stripping the leaves off with her mouth and trunk. Tony rode on her head first with Netta and I in the carriage seat. Then we switched and I was loving every part of it! She was so gentle and precious – I had my legs behind each ear and I literally could feel her grasping me as she bent down to take her food. We rode for about 45min I guess, and then they dropped us off further into the jungle to continue on with our trekk by foot.

We walked for about an hour to a waterfall, unfortunately it wasn’t one we could swim in, but we were told we could shower there if we wanted (hhmm, was that a hint since none of us showered in the river at our village? Haha)… The water was nice and helped cool us down since the up and down hill trekking with our back packs in the rain forest was pretty hot! We continued on and walked another hour to a lookout point. Here we stopped and had lunch. Dang made us chopsticks out of bamboo, and had ramen noodles in banana leaves for us to eat. It was pretty neat, and we were all hungry! More walking continued – up and down the hillside, through streams, through the forest, and along side farm areas. We eventually stopped at DORONG village to stay for the night. This was a step up in where we stayed the night before… still a hole in the ground for the toilet, but it was a little more luxury with 2 toilets, and a closed off shower area. We were all feeling pretty grungy and decided to take turns in the shower… but the later it started to get, the colder it was getting too, and all we had was a faucet providing us cold river water. I hurried in the shower, washed my hair and all the sweat off of me. I couldn’t help but think about where I was at and what I was doing. I recalled thinking the first day as I was going up hills that I was insane to be doing this, and that I was not going to make it through. These kids were younger than me and they all had someone to support them and lean on. But I was so proud of myself for what I had accomplished so far. By day 2 I thought, there was no way I was going to give up, I pushed myself even more because I was here to prove something to myself. And I wasn’t alone like I thought… I had this group with me who was supportive and helpful and we were all leaning on each other, one way or another. I could feel that my anxiety was absent and I was really comfortable with everyone there. My pedicure was really jacked up though! Haha… I finished my ice cold shower, with the pigs in the background and chickens up in the tree. We had dinner and then the local girls in the village danced and sang for us. We sang back to them too – jeremiah was a bullfrog, as well as our attempt to recall the chong chong elephant song. They knew it better than us though and finished it off much easier than we had started! We all warmed up by the fire again and played the guitar and asked Dang a lot of questions about his own village he was from, as well as many questions we had about the Thai culture. It was about 10pm and I was ready for bed – yep, a late night in the jungle! Since there were more mattresses and blankets than people – I doubled up. I was not about to freeze my booty off like I did the night before.

4:30 in the morning and “cock-a-doodle-doo”!! Ear plugs drowned it out, thank goodness, but it was still there. And it wasn’t just one rooster, it was about 8 of them, all taking turns with their wake up alarm in different parts of the village. Next came the oinking of the pig right outside of our cabin/hut. We all managed to sleep in a bit at least though, waking up about 9am. We opened the door and immediately stepped out into a sea of women and their homemade goods – here we go again! We were being watched like vultures as we ate our breakfast… they surrounded us from the back, from the front and definitely on the sides where they knew we’d have to go to the bathroom or back to our sleeping area to gather up our belongings. I felt a little bad and bought a handmade scarf from one of the ladies… I kinda felt bad for talking her down some too, but hey, she was starting off pretty high! She knew what she was doing! D ang told us today’s walk would be pretty easy. We walked through a few other villages, taking pictures of the local people and children. Their faces could tell so much and even though they were curious, or maybe annoyed at us, they smiled with big grins and warm eyes. We stopped for soup before the last part of our trip – a bamboo raft ride down the river. We had 3 to a raft and local guys helping to guide us down the current. By the middle of the trip we were hopping on each others rafts, splashing & making each other wet, knocking people off with the bamboo sticks, and just having a good, fun time! A few of the rafts had so many people on it that it started to tip over and sink… all we could do was laugh. It was a great way to end the trip. We all enjoyed each other’s company so much, it was kinda sad to say goodbye. We piled into the back of the pick up and prepared for the hour and a half ride back to Chiang Mai. We shared email address with everyone so we could exchange pictures, and I was the first to hop out. I said goodbye and was sad that I was leaving this new group of friends. I got some pointers on Cambodia and even gave pointers to others on Bangkok and Kho Samui. And now here I was, back to being by myself again and I was feeling a lot better about it. I was so glad I did the trekk. If not for the experience and learning of the culture and village people, but also for the accomplishment I felt. I was looking forward to my next adventure, but I was also going to miss the people I’d just met.

At the airport in Bangkok, it was pretty confusing. Long lines of people, one agent saying the flight was delayed, one saying it wasn’t. The departure board saying one gate, another board showing another gate. It was a little hectic. Sure enough, the flight was definitely delayed AND there was a gate change! Two hours to kill so I headed over to the Bangkok Airlines lounge, knowing they had free Internet access, goodies to eat and drinks to consume. I must say, Bangkok Airlines rules! Not just because of their lounge, but even on the way from the island to Bangkok, it’s only a 50min flight and they served a full lunch and everything!

Finally time to catch the flight to Chiang Mai, I had to laugh going through the metal detector as the security guy saw my backpack and said “Yahoooo!” – an International icon… I felt proud! Haha… Flight was good – arrived in Chiang Mai with no problems. And I didn’t have to hassle the taxi fare to the hotel either, it’s a flat price from the airport to downtown. Got to the hotel (ride was a little freaky but at least he knew where he was going!) and as big as the room and bed was, the amenities were less to speak of. No towels, no toilet paper for the potty, and I was on the 3rd floor so had to lug all my stuff up by myself. I had read in my travel there was a night bizarre nearby so decided I’d go check it out. I needed a watch of some sort since I had lost my cell phone and had to have a way of knowing what time it was. And the guy at the hotel said to meet him at 8:00am the next morning to go over all the items I would need for the trekk. I had to make sure I woke up in time! The night bizarre was insane! Pretty much a big ‘ol swap meet of vendors selling all the same stuff, and bargaining like crazy to get you to buy their goods. I eyed a few things I would come back for and kept an ear out on prices so I knew not to get ripped off when I did came back. I also wandered around looking at everything, to see who had junk and who had quality (as best quality as possible I guess!). I bought a watch for $5, some cough medicine since I could feel a little dry throat (probably from all the exhaust in Thailand), and some strawberries and green tea for dinner. Then headed back to the hotel for a long overdue shower, with only my sarong to dry me off (thanks for the great tip Mike!) I finished off another chapter in my book and said goodnight.

But all that talking and catching up now limited us in opportunity hours to get to and from the Full Moon party. From talking to a few guys that were staying at our same place, I found out there was a 2nd boat option that just came about. “Speedhawk” was offering speedboat tours on the hour, and coming back starting at 3AM. This was much better than the one the hotel was offering. And luck have it too, it was starting to rain, so we figured, let’s go later after the rain has stopped, have dinner in Kho Phanang, then catch the early boat back to Kho Samui. Well, seems like everyone else wanted to catch an earlier boat too because by the time we went to book the boat ride, only time available was the 11pm boat. Crap – now plan B. Since the ride was only 20 min long, at least we’d get to the party before the countdown – so we were still good. Everything was arranged, and our ride was to pick us up between 10-10:30pm.

We figured we’d head to our favorite hangout place, Cactus, for dinner, but when we got there, it was a fixed menu for like 950baht (approx $30), and the menu wasn’t really that appealing. So we headed over to this place we had seen so many times on our walks to dinner, and one we had laughed at each time we passed it – Mr. Poo’s BBQ! Each time we went by it was packed with locals, so we figured it had to be good; we just kept laughing at the name! We didn’t know what to expect, but we were game to try. It turned out to be like a Korean BBQ place, where they have a hotpot in the middle, and all the raw meat and veggies is put on top to cook it. Some of the meat wasn’t too appealing unfortunately (bugs crawling), so we chose what looked good and less buggy. Mr. Poo was great; helping us with the noodles, picking out what he thought we’d like, and showing us how to cook the meat. All-in-all, the meal was pretty good! And totally cheap – like under $3 for all you could eat (the bugs would have probably cost us extra).

With the rain coming down pretty fast earlier, and the wind blowing pretty hard, I was a little freaked out knowing the year before there was the Tsunami just on the other side of Thailand. We timed things perfectly though, the rain had just stopped, the air was steady, and we finished dinner early enough to freshen ourselves up quickly before our ride to the boat came. It was 10pm and waiting with with us were a few young Aussie boys, all pumped up, ready to party on the island with their shoeless feet & full bottle of Jaeger Meister! We waited, and waited, and waited – each time the guy at the reception desk saying “Ride be here in 5 min”… well, we waited til 10:45pm and had to figure out, do we wait more and risk the boat leaving or catch a taxi over? The Aussie’s flagged down a cab who said he knew where Speedhawk boat was at, so we jumped in… we didn’t want to risk missing the 11pm boat and then be stuck not being at the party for the countdown. I’ve learned in Thailand, expect the unexpected and don’t think that anyone knows where the heck they are going! The driver took us to Seabreeze, Seatran, everything else sea related except Seahawk! So about 20-30 min of going back and forth on the same 1-mile street and not finding where we needed to go, we finally came to the landing dock – totally hidden from the street. The boat was just about to leave. They could fit 4 people on, and there was 5 of us… the Aussie’s were great, telling us to go, so Mike and I wished them happy New Year and jumped in the water to get to the boat. We were soaked knees down but we were on our way!

So let’s shorten the story a little more… the ride over was fast and bumpy, the island was packed with people, and we had about maybe 5min to get from the landing doc to where the party scene was at the beach. We hauled butt – people everywhere! Drinks being sold in sand buckets, people painting themselves, and partying from every nook and cranny of the street. We made it to the edge of the beach, or should I say, the beginning rim of the party madness. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…. Happy New Year! OMG! We had just made it! Fireworks went off, people were all over, music from every angle we turned. We pushed our way through the crowd and just started walking to where the music sounded best. We danced at various places for about 2 hours, thinking we’d make the 3am boat back. But we were having such a good time so… why not stay another hour! Our clothes and shoes trashed from all the people and the beach water/sand, we would maybe never experience this again so why not enjoy the most of it – and the music was really really good! I hadn’t danced in quite awhile so it was nice to just let loose. Making our way back to catch the 4am boat to Samui, people were passed out along the beach, along the streets. Complaints of wallets being stolen, food vendors lined up, people ditching mopeds – it was a madhouse and no one wanted to stop partying. At the boat, we did what we could to get on – we pushed our way through all the complaining people, literally jumped full body in the water and made our way onto the boat. I didn’t care who i cut in front of, that boat was not leaving without me. D renched from the water, shoes trashed from the beach & pee & everything else I walked in, we were back on Kho Samui by 4:30, and in bed by 5am….

Happy New Year!

On with our journey in our little car, we made our way to the wonderful rock formations on Kho Samui – Hin Ta & Hin Yai, better known as the grandfather and grandmother. What’s so significant? The grandfather is a rock shaped like a big pecker, the grandmother is a rock shaped like a big va-ja-jay. Funny how the Thai people are so proud of these formations! Back in the car and headed our way further south to see some waterfalls. We trekked up the mountain and there we found this amazing waterfall. People were swimming towards the top but it was a little crowded and they were being annoying – it would have been more enjoyable if they weren’t there. Mike took some time to sit in the water’s path while I admired the scenery away from the irritating boys. It was very beautiful.

We only had a few more sights to see. The last one was a drive further into the mountain to a lookout point where you oversee the island and out into the ocean – except that the clouds were getting a little overcast so you couldn’t really see the water. It was still beautiful, and we shared some home made spring rolls as our treat. Making our way back home we went through a town that had a big fish market action going. We stopped to check it out and there were some amazing looking fish, shellfish and other interesting things. I saw shrimp, mussles, blue crabs, all kinds of fish like baracudas and silver dollar fish, even eels that were still moving. And I saw chickens and rats! Lots of flies around, and the smell was a little overwhelming. People were packed along the side of the road, all coming by to do some shopping. We took a few pictures, walked up and down and then headed on our way.

I was still feeling very sick, sneezing like crazy, and Mike wasn’t feeling any better. We got home and took about a 2 hour nap, thinking it would help us both. Instead we woke up, feeling dazed and confused from wanting more sleep, but forced ourselves to at least get up and get some dinner, then call it an early night. I wanted that pizza again – so off to Baia we went and this time I got the spicy salami and cheese (basically, pepperoni & cheese). I also had about 4 cups of hot tea, hoping it would make me feel better. Negative – well, it did a little bit, but I was very achy and tired and congested. I had taken some Benadryl and that was helping a little, but I just wanted to sleep it all off. So we skipped the after drinks and even dessert and dragged our butts back to the room where I passed out as soon as I hit the pillow.

Oh, and eaarlier in the day I realized I lost my cell phone – probably misplaced in one of the bathrooms I visited that morning. Talk about an even more buzzkill. Hope some Thai person is happy with my phone!

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…

I can’t say it was all that bad – just a little over embellished on some things. We boarded the boat. But the boat was not a speed boat as promised in the brochure. Apparently the speed boat wasn’t working that day (shocker!), and a few others we were with were complaining as well. The guide said we could talk to the hotel where we booked the tour and ask for some money back (which we did later on and got back about $3 each). So instead of a 30-45min trip to the sighseeing and snorkeling area by speed boat, it took us double that time on a big party boat. I went to the top deck and took advantage of the extra time by sunbathing. Once at the location, we were split into groups – my group did the canoeing first and then the snorkeling second. The canoeing was crazy and Mike and I were out of sync a lot, making our canoe end up in circles or too much to the right or too much to the left. I think it was just the fact that our strengths were different, but either way, it was fun. Right when we started I had seen a jellyfish over by the boat area so I worried about how many more would be out there – hope we weren’t going to tip over! We started out along the rocks and then in between them, getting some great photo opportunities in. We paddled around some and then went in a little early and chose to start the snorkeling part. But while we were waiting for our gear, we overheard a few people say they got stung by the jellyfish and also that because the waters were so merky you couldn’t see anything below! What a bust! So as nervous as I was, I went in anyhow, but they were right, you couldn’t see jack in the water. I figured I wasn’t going to stay there sucking down sea water and possibly get stung by a jellyfish, so I went up into the boat while Mike stayed out. Kids were having a good time, jumping off the side of the boat into the water and when Mike came up he did so too. I got some great shots of him jumping out. Then I did it too (keeping my eye out for those crazy jellyfish!), and yes, it was fun! But I think I popped something in my ear as I hit the water cuz my ear has been a little hollow sounding since then. The pictures we took jumping off the side of the boat were fun.

Once everyone got back on board we ate a traditional thai lunch while making our way over to the national park. We boarded a small little pontoon like boat and motored our way to the island. We climbed through the trees and stuff, but definitely not as vast of a trek through a rainforest like the brochure said – another bust! We made it to the view point at the top, took pictures of the lagoon in the middle and made our way back down again. On the way back to the main island on the boat, we sat again up at the top of the deck and sunbathed more, I think I even slept for about an hour. We all piled into the jeeps again and started making our way to the final part of the trip – the elephant feeding and ATV ride. But seems like the tour guides had another agenda in mind which was to take us about 2-3 miles past the final destination area and stop at a souvenir store for about 15min. Nice eh? Finally we headed over to the last part of the trip. The ATV ride was not what we expected either. It was more like a track that you got to ride around twice before you had to get off and let another person go. I didn’t even get 2 rides around because my ATV broke down before I made it around the first time! I fed 2 baby elephants, they were so cute! Both kept trying to take the last of my bananas. It saddened me to see they were chained up and so I had to get outta there before I started to cry.
  

For dinner I was craving pizza and I read about this place called Baia which served Italiano food, but mostly they bragged about the pizza being so good. So I wanted to check it out. No more Thai food for awhile, I wanted to get back to eating regular foods. I think so far, Baia is just about my favorite place we’ve eaten at – oh my goodness the pizza was sooo good! And it really hit my craving for just what I wanted. I had a funghi pizza (mushroom & cheese) and added onions to it. I ate everything but 1 slice, I couldn’t believe I put all that away! I guess all that adventure in the water made me really hungry. Since it was kinda early still, we decided to go have an after dinner drink at a place we’d seen on our walk in the Village called Starfish & Co. They had a really cool Persian style to their decor with people sitting on pillows to eat, and the music was a little techno-ish. In addition to drinks we got a banana flambe with coconut ice cream – yummy! We didn’t quite feel like going back and call it an evening yet so headed further down the Village some more and stopped at this English pub called The Frog & Gecko. We chatted with the bar owner for a bit who was from Chicago and listened to a guy called Chris sing for an hour or so. I had a few shots called a Quick F**K… which quickly went to my head and not too soon after that, I went home and passed out on the bed.

Mike decided to go with me and we trekked our way up the hill – turns out it was a bit longer than I thought! Either case, we made it and relaxed in the air conditioned coffee shop for a bit, then headed into the Big C to get some items. We had to be careful not to over buy since we still had to walk back to our hotel and I didn’t want to be carrying tons of stuff in that heat! We grabbed a bottle of wine, some cheese (not a very good cheese selection here), prosciutto, and crackers, along with some chips and gum. There was a big food court in there too so we had some noodles for breakfast since we definitely missed the time for our free breakfast back at the hotel. The walk back was even hotter but we made it and settled in our room for a bit to just be lazy. We dined a little on our wine and cheese/meat selection and watched a little TV – not many channels to select from. Later we moved our lazy butts up from the room to the beach, where we chilled for about another hour or two. Dinner time was approaching soon and we made it an early one tonight, going down to the Village again and eating at a place called The Pier. It was a little more expensive than our usual food outings, but then again it was featured in magazines and so more advertising = more expensive. The restaurant was cute, very romantic like if you’re there as a couple. It was right on the water, and the tables were very low and you sat on small couches with bean bags as back support. I chose to keep my dinner simple since I was eating a lot of spicy, heavy foods and maybe that’s why my tummy wasn’t feeln so good. I had baked chicken and white rice. I ate it all too – It was good!

After dinner, we exfoilated our feet for a 3rd night in a row by walking along the sandy rock beach back to our hotel. Such a nice day to be lazy and do nothing. I was exhasuted from doing nothing, and just laid my head down and drifted off to sleep.

We thought we’d try a different area of the island today – Chaweng – which is more populated and supposed to have the best white sandy beaches on Kho Samui.  Oh, and also – it has a Starbucks!  We got dropped off towards the end of the town so we could walk up.  There was a lot of the same things we saw in our area of Bo Phut … silk tailors wanting to make you an Armani suit, restaurants, pubs, pharmacies, street vendors, etc.  We stopped at a bookstore and I bought “The Kite Runner” since I had read through all my gossip magazines and needed something to occupy my mind.  I had my MP3 player which I filled with music before I left but I had yet to listen to it on the trip since I just wanted to enjoy the local sounds, etc.  As we kept walking, of course I had to stop at Starbucks too (ha!), and I picked up a few other personal items I needed like shampoo and conditioner, sunscreen and more bug repellant to be prepared for my jungle trip.  Thinking that since last night everything was off the main road and by the beach, we made our way through one of the resorts and found out again, all the happening stuff is where the water is.  The beach was packed with people, even with the overcast weather.  We stoppd and had lunch, and I was still feelin’ a little sick – mainly just my tummy not really feelin’ good, but nothing to do with a food virus or anything.  I think it is just all the heavy foods we’ve been eating the past few days that I’m not really used to. We walked around some more and decided to head back to our room since the weather wasn’t being very cooperative.

Today seemed to be more of a loafing kind of day – after coming back from Chaweng we decided we wanted seafood for dinner.  We had passed by a place the night before called Shades, and the fish/shellfish selection looked amazing!  Tiger shrimp the size of my hand and large lobster tails.  On our way out to dinner, we stopped at the front desk area and booked a sea safari tour we had read about which took us out to the Ang Thong national Marine Park.  We were looking forward to getting some snorkeling and site seeing in, and end it off with an ATV ride – we booked it for 2 days later to make sure the rain wouldn’t ruin our adventure.  We headed down and shared a lobster dish, tiger prawns and garlic bread.  We literally needed to be rolled out of there – our bellies were sooo full!  Walking back to our place on the beach again, we couldn’t help but stop at Cactus again.  Only this time, they didn’t have the music going like before, it was a soccer game.  No biggee – we got the same bottle as the night before and thought we could have the bananas again as our dessert.  Unfortunately the kitchen closes at 10pm and we had arrived there around 10:15, so no fried banana dessert for us!  After some drinks and back at the “resort”, I decided to get a massage since it was still a bit early in the night, and I hadn’t stuck to my daily massage promise at all!

The massage was ok.  I asked them to go harder (“more strong”), but she was still a little too light, and the english/thai translation wasn’t working this time.  But as I lie there, I realized I suck at giving massages.  I could probably be the Monica Geller of massages, so maybe I’ll take a class or two on massages when I get back to LA.  Heading back to the room, I found the gem of a toilet by the pool area!  It was sooo much nicer than our room.  I couldn’t believe I was getting so excited over a nice looking toilet!  But now I knew where to get some privacy since our room wasn’t so private.  The thought of a nice, clean, private bathroom in the morning put a smile on my face that I fell asleep to.  ha!

First off, the room had such a musty odor, like it hadn’t been used in a decade.  But then we noticed there was pooh all over the floors… did they clean the room before they decided to rent it out?  And what kind of visitors were we going to have with us?  For the price, the room was expected as far as amenities etc.  Mike and I paid a total of $36 a day to rent this room.  We had 2 twin beds, a TV, a sink, a toilet and a separate shower stall.  The bathroom wall that shares the bedroom wall is open at the top, so literally we can hear all that’s going on when you’re doing your “thing”.  And speaking of that, most places in Thailand have bad plumbing so you’re asked to not flush any toilet paper down the toilet.  Provided next to the toilets are waste bags to put your paper into and then throw it in the basket next to you.  But overall, despite some of the non-standard immenities you’d find in a “resort”, our room has AC so we were livin’ in luxury!  We decided to not worry about the room at the moment and just get our bathing suits on and head to the beach… afterall, that’s what we were there for!  Beach was primary, room secondary.

The beach area was really nice, despite the rocky sand at our feet.  Other beaches on the island have smoother, white sand but this one was noted to be the rockiest of sand. Either way, the view, the water and the sun was amazingly beautiful. Not many people were enjoying the water and sun so it was pretty quiet, except for the beach vendors there trying to get you to buy fruits, grilled corn on the cob, ice cream or jewelry and silk scarfs.  Just from a few days of walking around Bangkok I had already started to get brown so I tried to even some of the lines out and read my gossip magazines.  Hunger pains started setting in for both of us and we roamed around the main street looking for something to eat.  I was a little disappointed that as much as the area boasted about what to eat, that we couldn’t really find anything!  Nothing around but local pharmacies and tourist agencies or places to tailor you a suit.  Up the road just a bit we found a cute little place and enjoyed some thai food and pineapple shakes, then decided to go back to the resort and haggle about the room.  We wanted a newer room, not a manure room!  After showing a few options we moved to a better one – less of a musty smell and no animal pooh (which i guessed to be Gecko pooh).  Both of us were a little tired from getting up early for the flight so we opt’d to take a nap and catch up on rest (such a rough life eh?).

Up from the nap, only logical thing to do was… head back to the beach!  This time we went to the place next door since their beach lounge chairs were much nicer.  We started looking at all the maps we collected and dove into the travel books to see where would be a good place to have our xmas dinner.  After seeing the main street earlier and what it had to offer, i wasn’t quite convinced we had picked a good, populated area to stay in.  The authors were raving about all the variety of foods to choose from – but where was it? How could this beautiful, touristy island be so limited in choices?  So after my 2nd shower of the day, off to dinner we went to see what the “Fisherman’s Village” was all about.  Maybe I was missing something.  And boy was I right!  From the main street, about a half mile walk, a left turn and a left turn again, we found the gem of a street with bars, restaurants, shops, etc.  Had we walked up the beach, it would have been a no brainer to see what the rave was.  Everything is a lot more visible off the main streets it seems.  We walked a bit down this restaurant row to see what we wanted to eat, then settled on a place called “Billabong” since Mike was craving a turkey style dinner and they seemed to be the ones that were serving it.  Food was good – they played a U2 benefit concert from Scottland so that kept us entertained, as well as a fireworks show in the background.  I had a big burger for my xmas meal, and wasn’t feelin’ too good afterwards. I’m thinking it was the coconut in my drink, but I hurled like there was no tomorrow….

We walked around a little more to see all that this Fisherman’s Village had to offer. The books were right! And I was spotting a few places they recommended for eating and entertaining so we noted those as places to come back and try. On our way out, we chose to walk along the beach back to our hotel instead of on the main street with all the exhaust & taxi’s and motorbikes beeping at you for a ride.  It was such a nice evening and totally picture perfect.  There were quite a few restaurants behind many of the resorts with people eating their dinner on the sand.  And a cool little treat was seeing a few “moon floaties”.  These are large paper like lanterns and at the opening is a round piece that is lit and set on fire.  As the fire continues to burn, the lanterns start to fill up and within a minute or two, you can release them and they float up into the sky lit.  They are usually very popular on moon party days, and at times you can see hundreds of them in the sky at a time.  As they float up, you’re supposed to make a wish and hope that it will come true.  I’m vowing to get one on New years Eve!  As we continued walked, we heard some good tunes being played a little further up and decided to go check it out.  I was feeling much better than earlier and so figured it was ok to sit down for a bit and enjoy the music.  The place was called Cactus and it was very laid back, relaxing. The music was a soft techno/trance kinda sound and was totally putting us in the mood to just chill. We ordered a bottle of wine and talked a lot, and chatted with a few others there too. We had to top off our xmas meal with dessert and chose to have fried bananas and pineapple – oh my goodness, they were sooo good! I have to say that there definitely is no shortage of good food in Thailand, whether it’s street food or restaurant food, it’s all been good so far! Bellies full and slightly buzzing, we headed back to our fabulous “resort” and off to bed.  I’m really glad we found that area – definitely the disappointment feeling is gone!

Merry Christmas everybody!