This weekend we took a trip to Koh Samet and fell in love with it. Koh Samet offers the same beauty as the far south islands, but is less expensive and closer. Nathan, Ryan, and I left school around 2 p.m. on Friday to pack our bags and catch a taxi to begin our trip into Bangkok.
Buses to Koh Samet leave from Ekkamai, the bus
station nearest us. We took a four hour bus to Ban Phe where we met up with four other friends. The last ferry to the island leaves at 7 p.m. and we were unable to get there before than. Luckily, we had enough people to take a speed boat. The speed boats cost more, but are way faster and more fun! Once again we got charged the farang price at 200 baht a piece while the Thai's only paid 100 baht. It is very hard to not get mad about this, but sometimes it is just not worth it to argue. Nathan and I were loving the speedboat to the island. It was Lake Minnetonka style, but better. Koh Samet is a National Park and has an entrance fee of 200 baht, but because we took a speedboat at night we were able to just pull up to the shore and 'sneak' on the island.
Many of the people we were traveling with had already been to the island so navigating where to
stay was a breeze. The first night we all got cozy in Jep's Bungalows sleeping seven people in a four person room. We have all become used to snuggling. The room was among the nicer bungalows we have stayed in, but it still had giant ants in the bathroom. After getting situated he walked to a bar called Naga's. The people who had previously visited said we wouldn't be disappointed and they were correct. They played great music and we were all having a blast.
Saturday morning we checked out of Jep's and headed to Si Chiaew Village down the beach because we could get more beds for cheaper. Score. Then we took a long walk down the beach to the best bay on the island. It was beautiful, but proved to be a long walk in the hot sun after a night out. We ate a restaurant with awesome Thai and American food then spent the day on the beach. Saturday evening we ate Ploy's, a restaurant on the beach. It is amazing to see the beach transform from day to night. The tide goes out at night and when that happens all the restaurants begin setting up their tables on the sand. It took awhile to realize that where we were eating was where we had walked earlier that day because it looks so different. Ploy's is a huge restaurant that sets up small tables on the beach and diners sit on pillows in the sand. Pretty awesome. We ordered dinner and were highly anticipating the fire show we had heard so much about. Every island has fire shows and I am sure that every Thai male growing up on an island knows how to throw fire. Soon enough it was time for the show. Out came about six insanely ripped Thai men and three younger boys all ready to perform. I have no idea how they learn to do the things they do, but they have no fear of fire.
After the show they began the beach games that after visiting a few islands have become standard for us, we were explaining the rules to on-lookers. First there is fire limbo, then fire jump rope, then the balloon game. My favorite is the balloon game. They get about 10 participants and put a balloon on their ankles attached with a rubber band. The object is to be the last one with an un-popped balloon. I gave it my all, but just couldn't win. However, Nathan won and got a pink whale stuffed animal to show for it. After all this fun we headed back to Naga's deciding we didn't get quite enough the first time around.
Another amazing weekend in Thailand. I'm not sure how I am going to be able to deal with winter next year. I just looked up the weather in Minneapolis and it feels like -19 degrees while Bangkok is at 97. Hmmmmmm.
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