Day 11-18 November 4th-11th

Sorry it has been so long since we have updated this. We have stayed in Koh Samui for two weeks now and our daily routine began to feel repetitive. I’ll write a short summery of the past week.

Officer of the law 

helmet ticket

the big buddha 

Day 11 Nov 4^th- We took a tour around the whole island of Koh Samui on our scooters. We had barely gotten started on our trip we had to drive past the police station. Some locals came by telling us to not drive up that street, turn around and take a different one because the cops are giving out tickets for no helmets. We tried to yell ahead to Brent cause he was in front of us but he didn’t hear us. So we parked our moped and walked to the police station where they had made him park and taken his keys. There were tons of people getting pulled over so the line to pay the ticket was pretty long. The ticket was B300, which is $10.00 US. We didn’t even think it was required cause pretty much no one wears them. After that we stopped at a cool look out spot for lunch where we could see the big Buddha. I had rice, chicken and a fried egg and the guys had a stir-fry of sorts that had some really strange noodles. Slimy, big, and to gag on lol. Then we stopped once more on a busy street with lots of little stores and did a little shopping.

Some pig faces and hooves for you to enjoy 

Day 12 Nov 5^th – Went and checked out a huge store called Cash and Carry which is similar to the Cash and Carry at home except they have tons of fresh produce. The fish section is crazy. There were tons of fish sitting out on top of these cooler like things to keep it cool. All different kinds of fish were there including octopus and squid. In the meat section they had every part of a pig split out. For example if you want the face of the pig you can have it, the intestines, legs, liver, spine, etc. We ended up buying some banana cupcakes, fresh rolls, croissants, Coke and PB & J.  This way we could eat lunch and part of breakfast at our bungalow.

Day 13 Nov 6^th – Today we got to skype chat with Dad and Mom Hallowell and Uncle Dave & Aunt Lu Thonney. It was great getting to catch up a bit. In the afternoon we went and visited the “C Store”. This is like a mall with lots of nice shops in the bottom level and then a big store on the second level that kind of reminded us of Wal-Mart. While I tried on tons of jean shorts trying to find some that fit properly Bruce went and bought me a necklace to match the ring. =) Finally found a pair of shorts that fit and then we went and grabbed some pizza for lunch in their food court.

Foot Scrubs on the beach 

Day 14 Nov 7^th – We decided to have a slow day and just tan on the beach most of the day. We started at like 10:30am and stayed out there till around 4:00pm. The boys got foot scrubs for B250 because the good sales lady told them they had elephant feet and afterwards they would have baby feet. I told her I was gonna pass but once again the good sales lady told me should would paint me toe nails for free with it......I couldn't pass that by =). She was pretty funny lady. She learned english by doing this job and she had been in Koh Samui for like 20 years and during that time only gone in the water twice. She had two boys and one of them is 27 and the other passed away two years ago at the age of 22 from a car accident. In the middle of the day we went and purchased some snorkeling gear. The water has changed drastically since we have arrived. It is super blue now and crystal clear. There are practically no waves anymore and the water level on the beach has gone down a ton. So it was a beautiful time to snorkel.  

Day 15 Nov 8^th- Slept in pretty late and then went down to the beach for some more snorkeling. Went back to our favorite store (Cash and Carrey) and purchased some more rolls to help us finish up the PB & J.

Day 16 Nov 9^th – We’ve all agreed that it is time to leave Koh Samui now. It has been hard to want to leave with such prime location and bungalows. Plus we have all of our favorite restaurants picked out. So today we went down and bought tickets to go over to Koh Lanta located on the west side of Thailand. Tickets were about $25.00 US per person which includes pick up from your hotel, bus to ferry, ferry ride, bus across main land, and then ferry ride to Koh Lanta. We scheduled it for Friday morning….two days from today. After we got our tickets we returned to the bungalows to have a video chat with Rose, Jo-Jo and John.  It was so great getting to hear their voices!! For the remainder of the day we went snorkeling.

Our all time favorite breakfast shakes

to the right is the road that takes you to Lamai Pearl where we were staying and to the left is the place we bought out tickets to Koh Lanta 

This is the amazing lady that does our laundry.....it smells so good afterwards and she does a great job. Only $1.00 per Kg

Day 17 Nov 10^th Today being our last day in Koh Samui we decided to check out the butterfly garden we had seen advertised. There were some cool butterflies but we got desperate to get out of there. It was soooo hot and muggy!! The ride on the mopeds after that felt amazing lol. Did some more snorkeling and then headed out for dinner. We found this cool restaurant call “The Swing Bar Restaurant”. We all got green curry for dinner and it was delicious! They had a cool fire work show that took place there. Also today was some sort of big festival where people build these little leaf boats and fill them with flowers, piece of hair, toe nails, money, etc. Then they put them in the ocean, lite the candle in it and send it off. We talked to the owner of the restaurant and he explained that they think it is like a new beginning and it washes away their sins.

Day 18 Nov 11^th This morning we had to wake up by 5:30am and be to the bus stop by 6:30 to catch the van that takes us to the bus that takes us to the ferry. The ferry ride was about an hour and a half long. From there we got back on the bus we were on cause it came on the ferry and they took us to who knows where. LOL then we rode with two other people in a small van for a few hours once again out in the middle of nowhere. Some police that were pulling over all the residential vehicles stopped us. We got held up longer than most. Our driver had to get out and chat with the police for like 10 min and made some phone calls. The officer came over and asked all of us where we were from and where we were going. They finally let us through and none of us could figure out what the problem had been. This guy dropped us off in another little town and we waited for an hour or so and bought one night stay at a hotel in Koh Lanta so we wouldn’t have to worry about it when we got there. Some kid came and picked us up in his truck and took us to another bus stop area where we caught the next van that took the three of us to the ferry. It wasn’t really a ferry, more like a barge looking there where you drive the vehicles on and just stay in them. This took us to another island. Our driver drove like a maniac across this island to yet another barge looking thing. Drive on there and then finally landed on Koh Lanta and drove us to the hotel we had booked a night with. This beach has rocks everywhere and doesn’t look like a good snorkeling spot but we will probably spend tonight and tomorrow night here. They have a pool and a restaurant right here. So Bruce and I got Pad Thai and Brent got the green curry again. Then we went for a swim.