Koh Samui
We continued our island hopping to our final Thai beach destination – Koh Samui. Why Koh Samui? Because there is a chabad there (naturally) so shabbos would be a breeze. Getting there was supposed to be easy a simple ferry to to a bus. What we did not take into account was the lunar calendar. You see every month on a nearby island of Koh Phang Nan is the famous/infamous Full Moon Party. These events draw thousands of people and are very well known for debauchery on the beach. We did not plan on going to the party – but everyone else did. So, the boat and bus was a disaster. The boat, a very nice modern catamaran, was overloaded with people and backpacks. The bus did not have enough seats so Danna and I were forced to sit on the floor with our bags. Getting off the boat was no picnic either. Everyone needed to retrieve their own bags at the front and I spent time digging and climbing over bags until I finally reached our luggage. Not the peaceful start we were hoping for but the Thai beaches never disappoint in their beauty.
We stayed in the Chaweng section of the island in a nice budget place near the beach with a very cool pool on the roof. Even though Koh Samui has some very nice beaches, we decided to do some more activities and less laying around. The town is lined with shops and seafood restaurants – which has the entire days catch sitting on ice for you to choose from. The area was nice but the shops were expensive compared to Bangkok and the rest of SE Asia.
One of the least expensive and therefore most popular things to do is rent a motorbike to get around the island. Motorbikes are everywhere is SE Asia and as we have mentioned are a major part of local and tourist life. So, we decided that if you can't beat 'em join 'em. So for the shocking amount of $8 for 24 hours a motorbike can be yours for your vacation. Need to show a license? Not important. Prior experience? Who needs it! If people can can carry live pigs, kitchen cabinetry or little tiny children on these things without falling off – how hard could this be? So, with a couple of test circles around a parking lot we were off to the other side of the island. There was the small problem of driving on the other side of the street and the even smaller problem that the only main road in the island is basically a highway through the mountains!
For the record, this whole motorbike thing was Danna's idea. She always claims to be afraid of things or timid but let it be known that she is actually fearless with anything on the road. Obviously her father's daughter (he is an auto mechanic and car lover) she loves being behind the wheel/handlebars and shows no signs of fear while careening way over the speed limit around blind mountain curves. She wanted to drive – I got on the back and away we went.
Our destination was a fun outing of soccer golf. Basically, as the name describes, it is a combination of soccer and golf. So we had to kick around soccer balls on a golf course and kick the balls into over sized golf holes. It was a fun idea and something different to do. And just like real golf it was incredibly frustrating. There were soccer balls going all over the place. I don't think at any time was a playing my second shot from the proper hole. Crazy as this sounds, I had a terrible front 9 and Danna had a great front 9. The back 9 reversed itself and then we came to 18th hole. Danna steps up and drains a hole in one! A remarkable shot (this is not a miniature golf course either – the wholes are a solid 30-75 yards away) and even more unbelievable is that the hole in one tied the score and forced a one hole playoff. Danna, obviously riding the high of the hole in one and motorbike driving drains amid range shot and took the victory. And like real golf, I was left cursing up a storm and vowing never to play again.
We got back on our motorbike – I drove this time – and starting making our way to one of the more remote beaches on the island. This beach only has two hotels on it and is more of a locals beach than the big resort area of Chaweng where we were staying. We got to the beach and it was pretty quiet. Not wanting to lay around in the sand we looked for something to do. I then saw a speed boat towing a banana boat – perfect!
I love banana boating for the speed and the bumps and the thrill of trying to hang on while the driver does his best to throw everyone off into the water. Its all good fun till someone gets a headbutt and a bloody nose. You see they cram like 6 or 7 people on these things sitting really close together and when it does tip going 25 miles per hour it is usually just a mess of arms and legs going over and smacking into each other. But this time – it was just the two of us and one of the workers who came for the ride to add some excitement. It was a ton of fun – my favorite part was Danna's screaming at the driver no more falling in! Please no more! Which just made him try even harder to dump us over the side. It is really an underrated beach activity – totally spontaneous and a blast from the past kind of fun.
We hopped back on the bike and headed back to our hotel. We made it all the way back and decided to return it just after dark as driving at night would have presented a new set of challenges. When we finally settled back into our hotel Danna and I were both totally sore from the day. We both realized that we were completely stiff from the scary and intense experience of riding on the backseat of the motorbike! Good thing for the rock hard SE Asian mattresses to straighten out are backs.
But now, we are making our way back to Bangkok one more time to get ready to leave Southeast Asia for good. It has been two months of wild experiences and unbelievable travel – I feel like there is so much left to do! We could easily do the same circle over again and do completely different things. But we will save that for another time as we look forward to Australia!
