Ko Samet

3/20/09
14:46

Thailand Day 3: Ko Samet

Mauritius may have been an island paradise, but we were only there for about 8 hours.  Ko Samet was an island paradise and I got to spend a whole day and night there.  Whaaaaat an adventuuuuuuuuure.

So Lia and I took a taxi to Bang Phe.  It was probably an hour-long drive during which Lia and I just talked about our lives, our families, our futures.  Then our taxi driver dropped us off at a bay, where a speedboat would take us to the island.  He took our picture before we got out, to “remember” us for the ride back to the ship.  So I’m pretty sure my face and Lia’s face will surface somewhere in Thai porn.  Score!

We sat around for our boat for a while, trying to spot the SAS buses carrying our friends.  We didn’t see the buses and then our boat arrived.  We hopped in with a British man and his Thai wife and her cousin who were on ‘holiday.’  Lia and I had gotten a little bit apprehensive about whether or not we would find our friends, so we asked our fellow travelers how big the island was and if it would be easy to find people.  Our British friend said that we were getting dropped off right along the main stretch of beaches where all the hotels, restaurants, and bars were, so back to carefree adventure mode.

The boat dropped us off a few meters out from the beach, so we said farewell to our helpful boat mates and walked barefoot in the white white sand on the beaches of Ko Samet.  The sun was beating down on us so we put our backpacks down under umbrella and ran into the ocean.  It felt amazing.  The water was clear and warm but not too warm, the sun was shining, the sand was soft.  Heaven.

Not too long after our dip, we saw Bradee so we asked where the SASers were staying.  Turns out Lia and I were only a restaurant or two away from the hotel where the SASers were staying so we began to walk down the beach.  Within minutes we saw Keith, Hussain (he spells his name with an  ‘a’ I found out), and Steve.  We ran over to them and we all decided to get some lunch.  I had very tasty chicken pad thai.  Surprisingly, though, I didn’t finish my meal.  Rare.  I guess I wasn’t as hungry as usual. 

After lunch, the boys took us to their room so we could drop our bags off.  We left the room clad in our swimsuits and weighed down with no belongings.  We were free. We went hurdling into the ocean and stayed there for hours.  It was sooooo much fun. 

Keith, Hussain, and Steve are best friends and they acted like little boys playing, frolicking, and splashing in the waves.  Lia and I loved being a part of their shenanigans.  I probably laughed the most in Thailand, compared to every other country.

We played in the water for a long time, until we decided it would be a good time to nourish.  None of us had any sense of time at all, so we realized it was a bit too early for dinner so we decided that it would be dinner one, or D1.  We walked down the beach and stopped at a place called Jep or something like that.  Hussain, Steve, and Keith ordered Thai dishes and Lia and I decided to split nachos because that sounded really really good.  They boys all got their food and we told them to dig in.  They finished their food and Lia and I had still not received our nachos.  We asked a passing waiter if our nachos were coming and he said yes.  More waiting. No nachos.  Finally Lia went up to our waiter/waitress…our human (we struggled to tell if this human was male or female) and asked the human about our nachos.  Our human said that s/he forgot to tell us that the restaurant didn’t have nachos today.  Forgot to tell us.  So Lia and I skipped D1.  But it was okay, no one could put a damper on how happy we were.

More coming from Thailand, but tomorrow I arrive in Vietnam.  Sorry it’s taking so long for me to update, but we only have two days in between port right now and I had a lot of art to do.  The next month is going to fly by.  We only have like 7 days of class or something like that.  Craaazy.