Weekend in Ko Samet

I'm finally going to write about my three day trip to Ko Samet. On Jan. 11th, the Friday about a week ago, some friends and I took a minivan taxi, also called a "bus," and rode three hours southeast of Bangkok. The bus was filled to its capacity, holding 11 passengers. (Who would have thought that you could fit 12 people in a minivan? The people in the car probably outweighed the car itself.) Anyway, I rode in the front, and I must say that every eighth mile, I thought I was going to die. (Allow me to provide some insight of what Thailand driving is like. The laws aren't enforced, so you see people driving recklessly and on the wrong side of the road. What Thai drivers especially like to do is drive in two lanes at the same time. They can't decide which lane is faster so they'll drive in both. And they love tailgating. But Thai drivers are very good drivers, it's just that they take quite a few more risks than people in the states would. I think the leading cause of death in Thailand is from driving on a motorcycle. Motorcycles are so abundant in Thailand because they can weave in and out of traffic.) So I sat in the front, and accepted my dismal 63% chance of making it to Ko Samet in one piece. When we got to a little town, we got into a speed boat and boated for 10 minutes before getting to the island. The views were so beautiful, mainly because we were arriving about when the sun was setting. The boat pulled up to the beach and we just got out and stepped onto the sand. Along the beach, there were bungalows, one of which where we slept. Ko Samet is kind of touristy but not that much. It's not that developed like Phuket or Pattaya so that was a good thing. (I'm sure I'll have to go to both of those places sometime while I'm here.)

Because it was getting dark when we got there, it was time to change and go out. Because everything is on the beach (the bungalow, the restaurants, the bars), we basically just stepped outside of the bungalow and walked over to the restaurant for dinner. We then went to one bar for some drinks. It was quite interesting in that it seemed like everyone would walk along the beach while hitting up the bars that they passed by. It was a fun night, from what I can remember.

The next day, a few of us rented motorcycles for the entire day. Yeah, even after everything I've heard and seen about motorcycles. We paid the motorcycle guy and he just gave us the keys. No forms, no waivers, no helmets, no tutorial, not even instruction on how to start the bike up, just the keys. The motorcycles were fun to ride, especially when you need to squeeze pass an oncoming car. [The picture above was taken by someone who was riding on the back of another motorcycle ahead of us.] I have to say of the exchange students who rented motorcycles, about 80% of them crashed and got injured. One guy suffered a broken arm. For another guy, his motorcycle's throttle got stuck and his breaks stopped working so he couldn't slow down except for hitting a tree and getting really bad scrapes. I was lucky enough to not crash. Anyhow, we rode the motorcycles all over the island, making it to other beaches that you couldn't really walk to. Speaking of beaches, the beaches were magnificent, just what you see in pictures– white sand, clear water (very warm), you name it. (By the way, I've been able to steal many pictures from my friends so I don't really need to take any.)

On the beach, there were Thais who were carrying large baskets of food on their shoulders. They offer cooked food (from the guy who's carrying a grill on his shoulder), fresh fruit, ice cream, and other food. I bought coconut and ice cream. I don't know if they had coconut ice cream. At one beach, we did a little snorkeling near the rocks where there were a lot of fish. You don't realize you're swimming with several schools of fish until you look in the water with the snorkel. And you also don't realize that there are weird looking black spiky creatures with white eyes that stare at you in the water too!

When night rolled around, we went out again, but I made the mistake of only drinking beer for dinner. It was a short night for me, but I did win a spiderman doll from throwing darts at balloons.

The following day we did a lot of the same things. (I didn't find it necessary to deviate from the ultimate plan of having a good time– lying out in the sun and going in the water during the day and going out at night. There are boat day trips, jet skiing, kayaking, and scuba diving but I didn't feel I had to do everything because I know I'll back to this island again. It's too close and too good.) It was on this day that I got my first Thai massage, and it was on the beach. It was an eye-opening experience, even though my eyes were closed during the massage. For only two hundred Baht, I got a one-hour massage and I was SO relaxed after it. I felt like I was on drugs.

On the last day, we were able to take in a little more of Ko Samet before leaving at 3 in the afternoon. We took the speed boat, the bus, and finally a taxi to get back to Bangkok (in one piece).