As per Adina's instructions, I begin this post by mentioning the fact that I am a heathen and should not be blogging right after hearing Eicha (the reading of Lamentations, or the saddest point of the Jewish calendar.)
Last you heard from us, we were stuck in an airport praying to make it out on time. Thanks to the help of the fastest taxi driver we've ever seen (and the only Thai person I've noticed rushing anywhere) we got from the airport to the bus in record time. Then, since our bus was late we even had time to stop in and get some dinner while we waited (again.) Then it was an overnight bus and a high speed catamaran hop, skip, and 15 hour jump to the shores of Ko Samuai. We got there Monday a bit after noon. On the way we caught a gorgeous sunrise and a few hour of off and on napping. Guess which we appreciated more.
When our taxi (no tuk tuks on the island!! Not that that means there's no peddling or constant requests, but it's a start) dropped us off in front of our 'resort' we got a little worried. It was on some loose gravel on the side of the road nowhere near any of the other fancy looking resorts. It also was just a few trees covering up a shabby entrance to a restaurant with a broken sign that even in its best day would never have attracted much attention. Uh oh. BUT, when we walked through the shabby entrance and small little restaurant we were greeted by a tiny, isolated little beach on a secluded bay with turquoise blue waters, gentle waves crashing on the white sand shores, and picturesque rocks dotting the horizon beside the cliff of a penninsula to our left. Un-effing-believable. After setting our eyes on this place, I'm not sure we're even allowed to refer to Margate as a beach anymore. Lucy the Elephant be damned. To our right was the neon lights of the Samuai Yacht Club, but its pretty easy to just face the other direction. About eighty seconds later we were in our bathing suits and up to our waists in warm ocean water. We probably should have taken off the backpacks first, but whatever. They'll dry eventually.
That night we explored a bit on foot (despite every pickup driver on the island honking the hell out of their horn at us as they drove by) and came across a few great little finds. One was an ice cream store with an overly friendly scooper that insisted on giving us free tastes. Of everything. We had 16 little plastic spoons each by the time we walked out of there with our $1 scoop of sorbet (made out of some fruit i've never heard of). Then, in the shopping center attached to a ritzy new boutiqe hotel we found a western grocery store with dozens of things that belong nowhere near this country. Like Amy's frozen dinners. (for $9 each). Or a propane grill, or Athenos Hummous (though I do feel dirty spelling it that way, I've got to go with the label). It was weird. Our favorite stop was some beachside bar where a bunch of kids were setting of fireworks, including a whole box at once. That was one hell of a grand finale, which we really appreciated since we mostly missed them on the fourth of July.
Tuesday we spent on a tour of Angthong National Park, a little archipelago of 42 of the prettiest limestone cliff islands jutting out of sparkling blue waters you can find. It reminded me of the scene in The Incredibles when Flash discovers he can run on water. Our guide fashioned himself as quite the comedian, though jokes about leaving people stranded in the middle of the ocean do get old after a while. I do feel a little bad for him having to make the same jokes every day of his life. We really only made two stops on the tour. The first was at one of the islands with an emerald grean saltwater lagoon in the middle of it, completely surrounded by limestone cliffs. Apparently there are underground caves linking the lagoon with the ocean and feeding it salt water. Quite pretty, especially the part before the little British boy in front of us started whining about how steep the steps were. The same boy later cut his foot a little and very unappreciatively used one of our plasters. (Bandaid. One more Britishism we've picked up.) Ingrate.
The main stop of the day was at another island whose name I don't remember but translates to "Sleeping Cow Island", though there were no cows to be found. Instead there was a 500 meter climb up to a platform perched atop the jagged (and hot) stone with a birds eye view of all 42 islands (though I only counted about 18) and one frightened wife. Though to her credit she did a great job climbing up the last 20 meters using just a rope on the rock and did not have a freak out on top like she did on Huayna Picchu last year. We also hiked up with two of the nicest people we've met anywhere on this trip, which was fun. We were lucky enough to be the first ones of the boat and up the trail so it was just the four of us all the way up. Until the top when the Operation Magic Carpet reunion tour seemed to drop off about 25 Israelis on our little platform. Though it was nice when the one we asked to photograph us used his Israeli personality to clear away about 10 others to free up some space for us. It took us a lot longer to get down and we barely had time to snorkel at the bottom. Luckily that was fne because there was no visibility, the "reef" was rubbish, and Adina got stung by something about 35 seconds in. Don't worry, she pulled through. Such a trooper.
When we got back we were pretty tired so we rested a bit and caught most of what I'm pretty sure is the best movie ever. Has any one ever seen Hot Fuzz? I vaguely remember dismissing it after about six seconds of the trailer, but I promise it is worth your time. Even Adina decided it was more important than dinner, though her rumbling stomach felt otherwise. It is British humor at its best, every little detail was priceless. Thankfully the restaurant at the 'resort' was still able to give us some plain rice and ice cream for dinner.
Today we woke up for sunrise, but ended up at a beach facing the wrong direction. Maybe we'll try again tomorrow, since as it turns out our beach faces the perfect spot. Oops. After napping we spent the day on Chaweng beach, the main touristy spot on the island. Even though it is sort of in our nature to avoid crowds when we can, we've also found that there is usually a reason that one spot becomes the favorite, and this beach definitely earns it. We sat, we swam, we played paddle ball (though not nearly as well as the other guys playing nearby), and we had some corn. Without a doubt the recipe for perfection.
Tonight was Tish'a B'av, so we headed to the madhouse that was pre-fast Chabbad. It's amazing how rude some of those people were to the staff. Argh. Tomorrow should be another lazy day of air-conditioning as we fast, then we're off to Ko Toa on Friday to start the classroom part of the diving course. yay!!!
Hopefully photos of the last few days will comoe tomorrow, this computer is being stubborn and I'm being kicked out of the computer room.
Have an easy fast! (To whom it may concern.)
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