Day 5: Koh Samui (Saturday, Oct 29)

This Leopard was pretty scary.....thank goodness there were two fences in between us

So beautiful........from a distance =) 

The amazing Banana Pancake with strawberry Jam 

loving it

Part of the Sea lion show 

Sitting with a real tiger.......gave us quite the rush 

Brent's Baby Monkey Friend

He was so stinking cute and hyper as ever

the tiger show.... they didn't quite respond to well a few times and the trainer seemed a little worried so they cut the show a little short......had we not gotten our picture with one of the tigers prior to the show we may have chickened out lol 

dancing with the trainer 

beautiful beach at the tiger zoo

For breakfast this morning we had our same fruit smoothies and pastries. We rented the mopeds for another day and decided to try and find the waterfalls we saw on the map. We took the wrong road not knowing we were originally on the right road and wound up going to the Tiger Zoo and Aquarium instead. We watch a sea lion show as well as a bird/tiger show. Right in between these two shows we got our picture taken with a tiger. The tiger was not chained up but the trainer was in there with us and told us the tiger was tame. It was quite exciting and thankfully nobody got eaten =). Bruce and Brent each ordered a Banana Pancake which very delicious.

Day 4: Koh Samui

This morning, Julie and I woke up a little before the sun rose and went for a walk on the beach. Brent had only gone to bed a couple hours before us so he slept in for quite some time after we woke up :) We walked up to a fruit smoothie place near our bungalow and had some tropical fruit smoothies and croisants for breakfast. We walked around for a while and found a delicious bakery where we got some pastries. We went back to the bungalows and decided to go swimming/wave jumping. We don't have any pictures or videos of this but maybe we will soon, but it has turned out to be a lot of fun.

We decided to go to Chaweng, the next beach over but all the taxis tried to rip us off so we decided to look into other options. We found a place where we could rent 125cc mopeds for only $5 a day! This has turned out to be one of our best decisions so far. Brent got his own, and Julie and I shared one, although we did see plenty of people riding three to a moped. We slowly and safely made our way Chaweng :) we got a little bit lost, due to following people who we thought were headed to the beach but they weren't. We ended up eating some curry and pad thai at a market, as well as some fresh pineapple. We managed to find our way back to the main road, and went to a beach lookout point where we took some pictures. When we got back to our Bungalow, we had all got a lot of sun, and decided we shouldn't go back in the sun for the day. This was partially due to the pills we are taking for Malaria making us more sensitive to the sun. After hanging out on the deck for a while enjoying the view, we went and found some cheap and delicious pad thai. We ran a couple errands, and got another delicious pastry. By now it was nearing six and Brent was getting pretty tired :) We looked at a map of the island to figure out things we wanted to do, and called it a night.

By the way, part of the reason we are writing these blogs is so we can remember what happened later, so  sorry if they are a bit lengthy and detailed. 

Sunrise

Mopeds

Dinner

Sunrise

Chaweng

Chaweng

Mopeds

Natural Moped Rider

  

Day 3: Headed to Koh Samui

View from the bungalows

 
              Brent's Bungalow

After the train ride....waiting for the bus- Brent and his breakfast pancake

Thai version of Redbull ($.33)- this is how we operate - just for you mom ;)

Our Ferry 

Brent and Bruce on the ferry

Arriving at Koh Samui

Pad Thai -Amazing!! 

Bruce's Prawn Black Pepper Stir Fry

The whole gang 

Once we got to Surat Thani we ate breakfast and then took a bus to the ferry port a couple hours away called Don Sak. From there we rode the ferry for about 2 hours to Koh Samui. From there we took a mini bus to Lamai Beach. We all walked along the beach looking for cheap bungalows to stay in for the night. After passing up a few options we finally found what we were looking for, two bungalows right next to the ocean (about 50 ft. away) for only B250 which is about $8.00 a night. They have a lot more space than the one in Bangkok and there is a little deck on each of them where you can watch the ocean. It wasn’t quite the beach that the book made it sound like. It is great for swimming and wave jumping but isn’t very clear water and the sand is a bit rough. We got settled in and headed down to the beach for a little swim. The water felt so good!! There are some pretty big waves right at the beginning but once you get about 40’ out it becomes much calmer. From there we headed back to our bungalows and on the way back spotted a good looking dinner spot with free Wi-Fi. We took the long awaited showers that were once again cold, but so perfect for this hot humid weather, and headed out to dinner at Café Del Mar. It was pure deliciousness, partially due to the fact we were all so hungry. Brent got a hamburger, Bruce got a Prawn Black Pepper Stir Fry and I got Chicken Pad Thai. We also got Strawberry milkshakes and bottled water. The meal was more expensive than we wanted to pay but it was literally right on the beach and best cooking we have had yet. It came to about $16.00 for Bruce and I. The boys worked on Fantasy Football while I caught up on Facebook.

            The moment we started to leave the restaurant the rain began to pour! Thankfully our bungalows were like an 1/8 mile away. We sat on our decks for about 20 min until the rain had passed and then headed out to go find some grocery stores and scout out new eating spots. Found a 7-Eleven and stocked up on some Red Bull, soda, water, and snacks. Went back home and sat on the deck and chatted for an hour or so and than headed to bed.   

Day 2: Bangkok

Brent's sleeping quarters

Our train car

We woke up early today because we are still adjusting to the time change. We ended up going to McDonalds for breakfast because it was the only place open that early. On the walk there everything smelled like garbage, but we found out later that was because the entire street was flooded the night before. Apparently the flooding hadn’t been bad and it was due to the high tide combined with all the floodwater. We spotted our first sewer rat on the way to McDonalds, which was kind of disgusting. After breakfast we decided that we should get out of Bangkok so that we wouldn’t be stuck there if the flooding gets worse. Its also difficult to tour the city when traffic is even worse than normal, and lots of areas are on a “holiday” to prepare for the floods. We went to the travel desk at our hotel and bought bus tickets to Tung Wa Laen beach about 250 miles away, for a little over $10 U.S. per person.

            After that we decided to go get our hair done. Bruce and Brent got their haircut extremely short…not quite a buzz though, for only $5.00 U.S. I got my first set of highlights for $20.00 U.S. While I was getting my highlights the boys went and purchased fresh mango and Brent bought some shorts. This is by far Bruce’s favorite thing in Thailand. Everywhere we go he asks for mango. We decided to walk around the backside of the main street and found matching necklaces and got our first 1 hour Thai massage, which felt amazing for only $6.00. Incredible!! Left the massage place and tried a street vendor’s coconut snack, which consisted of grated coconut inside of warm sweet bread.

            Next we went and visited the Buddhist Temple near our street. There was very helpful kid there, which escorted us about. Instructing us on when to wear and when to take off our shoes. Then he led us to an old man who warned us of all the tricks the Thai people pull on the tourists, and convinced us that the tickets we purchased earlier were so cheap because they were planning on robbing us. Supposedly people report reburies from the super cheap bus rides every day. He told us we should go visit the TAT (Tourist Authority of Thailand). So we let our friend flag us a honest tuk tuk driver to take us there. From there we purchased new train, bus, and boat tickets for a total of $118.00 U.S. per person, which we decided later was maybe more than we should have paid. The tuk tuk driver took us back to our hotel where we packed our bags, checked out, and flagged a taxi for the train station. Once we got there we found out that we were going to have to catch a bus to a different train station due to the floodwater. The Thai train station personal were really helpful and came and got us when our bus arrived. We took a bus over to Nakhon Pathom and close city where we caught our train. With much help from the locals we found the right car and then searched for our seats. Much to our surprise we had one upper bunk bed and two seats. We had been informed we were getting three bunk beds because the train ride was 8 hours and through the night. Everyone else in our car had bunks. Needless to say we were not pleased with the set up and confirmed we had the right seats and were in the right car with about 12 different people. Passengers around us were beginning to laugh at us but we were sure there had been a mistake. We finally started to accept our fate of sitting for 8 hours in these very uncomfortable seats instead of sleeping on comfortable beds. Twenty minutes later we saw a train employee come to the car right next to us and fold the seats into a bed and pull another bed down from up above. We all had a good laugh and were very relieved. We all slept very well and arrived at our destination at 7:00am. 

Thailand!! We made it!!

Brent's $5 room

Backpacker's road 

Our first meal - Street Pad Thai-- Delish

My substitute ring 

Hey everyone, thanks for all your prayers for our flights! Thankfully everything went well!! I have never slept so hard on a plane! Thanks to the amazing plane pillows Brent bought us all, we got a full nights sleep. The food on the plane was delicious but I am already starting to miss home cookin ;) We landed in Bangkok at 11:30am this morning, got a taxi to a popular spot for back packers. Got two rooms for $5.00 per person and our first meal for $1.00. Insane!!!! The street vendors are everywhere and they try every tactic in the book to get us to buy stuff lol. Bruce did by me a substitue ring thankfully cause it was driving me crazy to not have my wedding ring on. Well it is 6:30pm here Brent's already asleep and we are headed that way too. Lots of love to you all! Keep in touch! We love hearing from you!!