June 2 – June 8, 2016
Koh Samui, Thailand
To get to Koh Samui we had to take a van from Koh Lanta to Surat Thani on the other side of the island, then take a 2 hour ferry to Koh Samui and then take another van to the other side of Koh Samui where our hotel was. The Koh Samui ferry was much larger than the ferry we took to Koh Lanta and we were in the VIP section which basically meant it was air conditioned and there was a TV with a Thai drama on. Regardless, I locked Lil’ Sun out :-).
When we first arrived in Koh Samui we stayed at the Prana Resort Nandana. It was newly opened at the time so they had a pretty good deal and breakfast was included. They are also right on the beach and had an infinity pool. Pretty nice hotel…the beach was eh…a bit dirty.
Once we had settled in and checked out the pool, we headed into town to check out the local market and search for dinner. We went around sunset and were treated to a vibrant and lively market and a beautiful sunset. We started with some street food. But we were still hungry so we picked out a restaurant where we were able to sit on the beach. Funny thing was they had to provide mosquito spray so we wouldn’t get eaten alive. We still got a few bites. Food was okay. Afterwards we wandered the market a bit more. My favorite part was the cute kids that put on a dance performance for the tourists. They were wearing traditional costumes…it was very colorful and cute. Of course, we got us some mango sticky rice! Oh and we went hunting for gifts…and ended up buying…’same, same, but different’ shirts. They didn’t say that but you’ll get it once you see the picture…maybe.
The next morning, after a giant buffet breakfast we went to explore our hood and figure out what there was to do on the island. We learned that there was a nice beach a little further north so we worked on finding a way there. While we were trying to find a shared pick-up truck (songthaew) a guy on a motorcycle stopped and offered us a ride. We looked at each other and started negotiating. We were able to work out a good rate, we would just have to use him to bring us back as well, so we hopped on the back of the bike and the three of us whizzed our way to the beach. It was a lovely beach, where we lounged and swam and ate lunch and swam and lounged some more. A great beach day! And at 4 our motorcycle buddy showed up to take us back to the hotel. That night we ate at an Indian restaurant that was next door to our hotel called Haveli. It was surprisingly good, so good in fact that we went back again.
The following day we took a tour of some of the smaller islands in the Mu Ko Ang Thong Marine National Park. This tour took us to the North West of Koh Samui. We met on the beach near the hotel and there were about a bazillion other tourists going on the same tour. I remember my original thought being “well crap” but there were also a lot of boats. Luckily, we were split in to reasonably sized groups. We speed boated over to the other side of the island where our guide told us the fancy four seasons resort was and where Beckham has a home. La di da! Who cares, he’s not special, am I right :-). Then we left Koh Samui behind and headed to the national park. BTW, this archipelago was mentioned in the book, “The Beach”. We landed on our first island and started with a kayak ride around one of the many tiny limestone islands surrounding the island where we landed. It was an easy kayak ride but there were people on our tour that had never kayaked before so there was more whining and screaming than normal. We just rolled our eyes and kayaked ahead of the whiners. The water was a beautiful shade of turquoise and in places where the water was calm, you could see cute little sea urchins ready to poke you and cute fishies wandering around. The island that we circled had many nooks and crannies where little critters were hiding as well. It was lovely. After the kayak ride, I don’t really remember the order in which things happened but we headed off to another island were where we had lunch, and on that same island we also had some time to swim a bit to cool down. This island had macaque monkeys but since it was the middle of the day and super-hot, they were hiding in the trees somewhere and we didn’t see them :-(. But the swim in the ocean was delightful. I remember high sandbars that allowed me to walk out pretty far and lay on a small stretch of sand that was only a few inches underwater. I remember I enjoyed it. From there we went to Koh Mae (Mother Island), which has an inland saltwater lagoon called Emerald Lake (Thale Nai). You can climb up some very steep and narrow wooden steps to get a beautiful view of the Emerald lake and then down the other side to get a closer look. It was a magical, green, hideaway. The water seeps in through the underground caves and it seems, so do little critters. I remember seeing little skates and fishes in the Emerald Lake. After Koh Mae we went out a little further for some snorkeling. We passed some amazing little limestone formations that were eaten away near the water and looked like anvils. We snorkeled near a teeny tiny little island in the middle of the ocean with not much else around. At this point it wasn’t surprising, but several of the people on the tour with us had never snorkeled before and many of these people also did not know how to swim but they were adamant about going snorkeling. Our guide gave them a mini-snorkeling lesson and life vests so they wouldn’t drown. He also instructed them not to step on or touch the reef. None of this mattered however, because they flailed around like lunatics, and touched, kicked and STOOD ON the reef. One guy freaked out thinking that he was drowning and stood on the reef until someone came to rescue him. Despite the dopes, this was the most colorful, vibrant and life-filled reef either of us had seen up to that point. It was truly wondrous!
That night we went in search of a place to get a Thai massage (BTW, by this point we had gotten many massages, most for about $7, one of the best ones we had was in Chiang Mai, good stuff). We saw a few places but they looked sketchy and I vetoed them. But I kept vetoing and we were running out of places so the next place that Lil’ Sun suggested I said okay. We went in and asked for a regular Thai massage but the lady convinced us to try an oil massage because it was the same as a Thai massage except that they used oil… First weird thing, there was a woman sleeping on the floor towards the back of the establishment. Second, they didn’t have clothes for us to change in to. Everywhere else we had been, they had pajama like outfits for us to change in to for the massage, this place told us to undress completely and gave us nothing. Furthermore, there was just tiny hand towel that they used to cover us up while we were lying naked on the massage table…awkward! I got the lady that sold us the oil massage and Lil’ Sun got another lady. My lady seemed to be doing a watered-down version of the Thai massage but with oil. Lil’ Sun’s lady was basically giving her a very gentle rub down with oil. Sun kept asking the lady to apply a bit more pressure but the instruction was completely lost on this woman. SO, they decided to pull aside the curtain separating us and switch sides. Now, I had the gentle rub down lady and Lil’ Sun had something closer to a Thai massage but still terrible AND we could see each other. Most importantly, while we were being massaged, the sales lady started telling us a bit about herself. She started with innocuous stuff like how she learned how to speak English and how her boss was a good boss but then moved on to tell us that her boss doesn’t make her massage anyone she doesn’t want to. They have to work long hours but her boss doesn’t force them. She was just working there to find a boyfriend that would take her away from her difficult life. The lady in the back was sleeping because she had too many clients that day…
And then we finally realized that we were being massaged by prostitutes…with oil…while completely naked…with weird hand towel sized towels covering us. After our massage, we ran home and took lengthy, scalding showers to wash away our shame. I believe we considered burning our clothes but then decided we might be over reacting a bit. Needless to say, while I love and respect Lil’ Sun, I will never listen to her suggestion for a massage again :-).
Thankfully, the next day we moved over to our next hotel, a luxurious SPG property, the Sheraton Samui resort. It was VERY nice. Like VERY, VERY nice. So we lived it up in luxury and celebrated Lil’ Sun’s birthday our last few days in Thailand. The highlights included our discovery of an amazing local (Koh Samui local) treat called Kalamae (a play on caramel), our visit to the grandmother and grandfather rocks (basically rocks that look like a penis and vagina), making fun of people (mostly couples) getting their glamour shots on the beach and Lil’ Sun’s birthday dinner and breakfast. We were first exposed to Kalamae at the Sheraton, it was part of our welcome treat. Kalamae are little pyramids of awesome. There was a green one, with pandan, and a brown one that was straight caramel. It’s a gummy caramel candy that tastes like slightly sweetened rice and has little sesame seeds on top. We loved it so much that we called the front desk to ask where we could get some. They actually had to call around to figure out where we could go buy some and it just so happened that the vendors selling them were right by the grandmother and grandfather rocks. So we had a combo trip to get our hands on these. I need to learn how to make them. Here’s a bit more info about these.
Here are my glamour shots of the glamour shots…
Thailand was a picturesque, tropical, elephant snuggly and delicious stop on my journey and having Lil’ Sun as my first visitor on the trip made it extra special but there was one thing that stuck out as a negative, the ubiquitous sex tourism. You honestly couldn’t get away from it (usually a paring of a young Thai woman with a much older white man). I know that in some cases it can be a mutually beneficial situation, and I’d like to believe that, but it’s hard to accept when one party clearly has more power than the other. Maybe it bothered me because I grew up in a pretty conservative home or maybe it was just hard to be reminded while were gallivanting around enjoying our tropical getaway, that some of these young women had no choice but to work in the sex trade.
In terms of planning out my trip, Thailand was as far as I had gotten with mapping out my route. From this point forward, my itinerary was open so after bothering Lil’ Sun about where I should go next I landed on Vietnam. But before I left, I had one more Khao Soy and one more mango sticky rice.
Thank you Lil’ Sun for being my fellow wanderer and for one of the most memorable massages I’ve ever gotten ;-). Can’t wait for our next wandering.
nomadshak 
How long till we get to South Africa.
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Your adventures are cracking me up. I like the Thai Massage write-up. Thailand looks beautiful.
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I just read some more. The sex tourism business sounds like it is rampant. I am sorry to hear that.
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Yeah it was a bit gross to see. Maybe it was just me but I felt like it was everywhere. Thank you for reading BTW :-).
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