Koh Samui, Thailand
Friday, March 7th, 2008
The last 4 days, Shelly and I have been recharging our bodies after 2 months of long, hard travel. We’re on the island of Koh Samui and are staying at the Baan Bophut Hotel. Our room is probably 100 meters from the quaint beachfront town of Fisherman’s Village, which is full of shops and fun restaurants. In fact, I’m typing this post in one of Shelly’s favorite shops. It’s a chic Chinese B&B that also includes a women’s shoe store, a small Internet cafe’, and a beachfront cocktail bar. Shelly can’t imagine a more complete, perfect business to run.
Above is the view from my computer of Shelly’s favorite shop. The beach and cocktail bar is behind me, while the B&B is above.
Unlike previous countries, we haven’t seen any historical sites or even taken a taxi outside the village to explore other parts of the island. It sounds boring, but it’s just what we needed. Our days have been spent lounging on the beach, watching $2 DVD’s bought from street vendors (Michael Clayton… very bad, Juno… very good), and getting $6 Thai massages. Shelly’s friends will also be happy to know that she got fitted yesterday for a custom-made suit and a few dress shirts. They’ll be ready for re-sizing today and the finished product will be done tomorrow. She also bought another pair of shoes, so she’s now up to 5 for the trip.
As for me, on Thursday I updated my Open Water certification and went diving at a site called Sail Rock. It took 1.5 hours to get there on a small, diesel fuel-bleching boat and some of my fellow divers lost their breakfast on the way out… not the best way to start a day of diving. The water was relatively clear at the site and I was able to see schools of barracuda and tuna. Sail Rock is known for its hollow chimney that starts about 16M underwater and exits at about 6M. It was pretty amazing to ascend and descend a few times through the chimney.
Lastly, I need to say a few words about the place where we’re staying, the Baan Bophut. I would highly recommend staying here if anyone reading this post is coming to Koh Samui. Each room has a full beachfront view, DVD player, the best bed we’ve slept on in 2 months, and the location is ideal. The staff is amazing and the hotel’s dog named “Black Head” is never far from our sight. The staff is so friendly that one of them offered to make us a traditional Thai meal one night. He whipped us up some butter fish, which is a fried garlic-encrusted white fish, and some Thai curry crab. Just thinking of the meal still makes my mouth water.
Tomorrow, we’re taking a boat about 60KM north of Koh Samui and are spending 4 nights in Koh Tao. The island is the main place to dive in the Gulf of Thailand and I plan on going every morning. Most of the island accomodations are pretty primative, so we’re staying on a beachfront bungalow with no telephone, t.v., or hot shower. It should make for an interesting few days. A few more random pics from Koh Samui:
Shelly teaching a local boy “Rock, Paper, Scissors”… he won 3 out of 5 and struck a pose.
Our walk home after a typical Thailand rain storm
nkurtz