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105: Samui

Friday, March 17th, 2006

I left Ko Tao and moved on to Ko Samui today. Took the Seatran ferry and had a rather pleasant 2h trip over to Ko Samui.

Reason I went here is twofold:
a) I fly out to Bangkok from here to cach my flight to hong kong and b) I want to visit the Ang Thong National Marine Park nearby for some kayaking and snorkelling. The Marine Park consists of lots of small islands about an hour north-west of Samui with stunning secenery (I think “The Beach”was shot here)

SoI will hang out here on Samui for a few days and also try to read up about Japan and maybe also learn a few words of japanese 🙂

52: Scary Creatures (2)

Saturday, January 7th, 2006

And then there are the other kind, those linger mainly on the main road in Chaweng 😉

There are a few bars with “bar girls” or hostesses for using a kinder word and you have to change road sides or swiftly pass them or be prepared to literally be dragged into their bar.
Another type are Ladyboys. I didn’t notice any Ladyboys in Bangkok (maybe I’m blind or didn’t go to the right places) but here in Chaweng are plenty of them. Scary Creature I would call them without meaning to insult those people. I wonder why there are so many here in Thailand, I know they are “famous” but what’s the reason for there being so many in Thailand in general? On thing that comes to mind is what I read in a Do’s and Dont’s In Thailand Book that I bought a few weeks ago. Aparently Thailand is very open minded with regards to sexual orientation. There is no right or wrong, good or bad. AparentlyThais simply accept whatever sexual orientation someone has without a second thought. What that means I guess is that it’s much easier for people such as Ladyboys to follow they preference openly.

Interestigly however, despite this openmindedness Thais strongly refrain from showing any affection in public. You will never find couples kissing in public, going arm in arm or maybe hold hands. These affections are not supposed to be suitable for public display. If you were to see a good friend on the street after may years for the first time, a hand shake is the most you can do according to the proper thai ways, a hug or tap on the shoulder is apparently too much already.

And one other thing is that (although probably not quite like that anymore these days), no man should touch a woman in public. Story goes a few hundred years ago a princess was on a boat down the Chao Praya I think) to meet the King. Her boat capsized but no man dared rescuing the princess from the river because they did not dare to touch a woman in public and so she drowned….

It sounds far fetched to a westerner but it shows how strong Thai Traditions were and still are these days…

Anyway back to the scary creatures (of any kind), I can live with/around them (as long as they leave me alone and don’t bother me *haha* ;-))

51: Scary Creatures (1)

Saturday, January 7th, 2006
Scary Creatures one can find on this Island and I don't only mean the ones that belong to the animal world though lets stick to that category first :-) Not really scary scary but it was a bit of a "spider" ... [Continue reading this entry]

50: Getting Wet

Saturday, January 7th, 2006
I have not been up to much for the last few days. Still on Koh Samui mostly hanging out on the beach, reading a bit at Starbucks (yip there is one on Koh Samui:-) or walking around town. It has ... [Continue reading this entry]

49: More Pictures

Wednesday, January 4th, 2006

_MG_1052xe
Originally uploaded by saschas.

I have added a few more pictures to my flickr space and added comments.

In ... [Continue reading this entry]

48: Not leaving just yet

Tuesday, January 3rd, 2006
I was supposed to leave Koh Samui tomorrow but I extended my stay by a few days at least. For now I might leave on Saturday the 7th but I just wanted to get a few more days to decide what ... [Continue reading this entry]

47: 1st Picture

Tuesday, January 3rd, 2006

_MG_1030
Originally uploaded by saschas.

It is a struggle with those pictures but I'm slowly getting there so here is my ... [Continue reading this entry]

46: Exploring Koh Samui (2)

Monday, January 2nd, 2006
Took a trip down the south-east coast of Koh Samui today. Weather was great and I was tempted to just hit the beach but did manage to get my acts together, grab my scooter and hit the road. See the Map ... [Continue reading this entry]

45: New Years Eve Party

Sunday, January 1st, 2006
Happy New Year Everyone :-) I'm still in Koh Samui and despite many (thousands) of people having gone to Koh Phangan (about 15km off Koph Samui) for the New Year Party I didn't bother and stayed put on Koh Samui. No ... [Continue reading this entry]

44: Exploring Koh Samui (1)

Saturday, December 31st, 2005
Hired a Scooter today and drove around the northern part of Koh Samui a bit. I only left around lunch time as the sky became a bit overcast and the beach wasn't that appealing anymore. So I left my resort in ... [Continue reading this entry]