Previous Post Continued....

*Laura and I barracaded in our room by MONKEYs!


Last I wrote i ran out of time and had to save the rest for another day... I left off after we survived a monkey attack... After a while the monkey's got bored and found something better to do than torment us and so we were able to venture out to the lodge for lunch. Just as we sat down to eat we noticed some ominous dark clouds in the distance and within a few minutes it started raining and then POURING down. It was so relaxing to sit under the covered porch and just listen to and watch the rain coming down. The whole area we were in was so beautiful. This picture is of the boys swinging out into the river in the middle of the pouring rain.
The next day we decided to head into the national park and do some hiking with James and Jow, the two boys from London, we were all pumped and found a trail that claimed to be 4 km long and set off! The trail was beautiful, but before long we realized that it was not quite what we had bargained for.. we went from walking up cement stairs and walkways to climbing up muddy narrow little pathways. The trail wound around up and down and half the time we weren't even sure if we were on the right trail at all... another fun addition was that after about half an hour Laura and i checked our shoes and each had sevaral leeches trying to make their way up to our skin. After that we were super paranoid and were checking our shoes constantly and spraying bug spray on our legs. The boys, on the other hand, didn't really take us seriously and a short time later they each found several leeches on their legs and we had to stop so they could "de-leech" themselves. It was very unpleasant, to say the least. After about 2 and a half hours of hiking we FINALLY made it to the waterfall at the end of the trail, it was really pretty, but we weren't quite convinced that it was worth all the work it took to get there.... We didn't have much time so after a short break and leech check we headed back down. At that point we were so ready to be outta that rainforest that we booked it down and made it down in an hour! Laura and I were ready to kiss the ground, the "4k" hike was really closer to 10k, but we did it and we survived!

That night as we were going to bed we decided while we were really glad we got to see the rainforest and have the experience, we were definitely ready to leave and relax on the island beaches!

We had to be up and ready to go the next morning at 5 am to get back into Surat Thani in time to catch the local bus to the pier where we would catch the ferry boat. It was a few hours to the ferry and then a few more hours on the ferry until we finally arrived at Ko Samui, our first island experience in Thailand. (The picture to the left is our view of Ko Samui from the ferry boat) Our guest house was situated right on the beach, from our room we walked up a little pathway, past the swimming pool, and down a couple stairs and we were there, 10 feet from the water. It was amazing, the water was so warm, but just cool enough to combat the sweltering heat of the sun. We really enjoyed just sitting on the sand listening to the water.
We also happened to be in Ko Samui on the days of the Thai New Year. The new year tradition in Thailand is to splash water on everyone.. it started as more of sprinkling water, which symbolizes a cleansing... but now its more like a full on water fight. Our first night there we went to dinner in one of the busier parts of the island and there were people lining the street with buckets of water and hoses. After dinner we walked down the street to the place where we were meeting our group and by the time we got there we were completely SOAKED. It was so much fun, there were people everywhere and everyone was joining in the fun, its seemed like the tourists embraced the holiday even more than the locals!
After meeting up with our group we all went to watch the "ladyboy show". It was similar to the one we saw at the market in Chaing Rai but much, much more extravagant. We saw Beyonce, Tina Turner, and Christina Agulara, to name a few. The show was so funny and very well done. James and Joe from our group got called to the stage at the end, along with a few other guys from the audience, and dressed in girls clothes and danced for us. It was definitely the highlight of the night, we laughed so hard.
The next day (monday, april 13) we realized that the night before was just warm up for the New year, it was the even of the new year and we hadn't seen anything yet... We hung out on our beach for a bit and then we and most of our group decided to head over to another beach on the other side of the island. As we walked to the street in from of our hotel there were people all over both sides of the street with loud music playing and giant buckets of water and hoses.
Then trucks were driving up and down the streets with buckets and loaded with peope in the back. After about an hour we were finally able to get a taxi to take us to the beach (no one wants to work on the new year!) About ten minutes into the trip we realized that maybe it wasn't such a good idea.... We hit stand still traffic and we were in the back of a sawgthaw so the back and sides were all open and we were soaked within minutes. We were sitting targets for every person on the streets to dump water on. At first we were having a blast, but the drive that was supposed to take ten minutes and it was creeping up on an hour and a half. Let me tell after an hour an a half of sitting in the back of a truck getting buckets of water dumped on you starts to get old.. we were wet and freezing so before we reached the beach we finally got out and walked up to a restaurant to take a break and walk the rest of the way to the beach. When we finally did reach the beach it was nearing sunset, but the beach was beautiful and the water was perfect. We had ended up walking through this really nice 5 star resort and onto what was probably there private beach. It was definitely a very different atmospere than the area of the island we were staying.
Fortunately the getting a ride back to our hotel was not nearly as difficult, we were driving away from the maddness rather that towards it so there was no traffic.

The next day (Tuesday April 14) we caught another ferry boat, this time to go to Ko Tao. Ko Tao has been by far my favorite place so far. We have been here for 3 nights so far and still have one more night left. This island is considerably smaller than Ko Samui and has a completely differnet feel to it. Ko Samui just felt more like a city, too big and too developed. But Ko Tao is exactly what we were hoping for, it just has such a laid back, go with the flow feel to it. We are staying in little bungalow huts right by the beach on the west side of the island, meaning that we get to see the most AMAZING sunsets ever. Yesterday Chad, from Austraila, rented an ATV and we all wanted to go the another beach nearby and see a new part of the island. So Laura and I rented a scooter so Chad wouldn't have to try and do ten trips back and forth to take everyone. However Laura hasn't ever done any kind of motor bike riding and we decided pretty quick that we weren't going to try riding with both of us. But it was good for Laura to ride around and get used to. Today we had to say goodbye to our tour group because they were heading back to Bangkok and going home from there. We are staying here one more night and then heading over to the west side of the country to stay at Krabi and a few more islands. So today after saying goodbye we rented another scooter and have been exploring the island. It has been a blast and it hasn't been as hard as i thought it would be to get used to driving on the "wrong" side of the road!
Well, i am out of time, we are going to go and enjoy another amazing sunset on the beach! Love you all!