The Beach

After an 8 hour bus trip, 4 hours of waiting (from 4am – 8am), a 3 hour ferry ride, and a 1 hour bus ride to our hotel, we made it to Koh Samui!  It was worth it.  it is so beautiful here and it is just like paradise should be.  There are palm trees lining a beautiful uncrowded beach. people constantly walk by with fresh fruit, henna tattoos, and foot rubs.  All very touristy but very relaxing and fun.  My SPF 50 sun screen proved to be no match, however, for the Thailand tropical sun, and i woke up this morning looking like a cooked lobster (sorry, dad…I really tried not to get sunburned).  No more sunbathing for me.  The hotel restaurant is overpriced and bad (they wouldn’t make the Thai dish i ordered spicy), but a short walk to the main road produces a pluthera of Thai options with not a white face to be seen (I swear tourists don’t walk anywhere!).  Adam and I found the best Thai BBQ in the world.  you choose the meat that you want (pork, beef, chicken, seafood) and mushrooms and veggies and you cook it up your self on this wonderful BBQ contraption.  Imagine a miniature BBQ grill, but instead of the grill, there is a metal dome with slits on it.  Around the base is broth. So you BBQ your meet and the juices from the meat flavor the broth.  you add the veggies to the broth and you have some of the best tasting soup in the world.  You also get salads and desert – all you can eat. Total cost 89 Baht (a little less than $3).  We have eaten there twice.  Not much else to report.  We’ve been spending our days laying on the beach, exploring the town, and snorkeling (although the visibility near our hotel is not great).  Oh yea, we decided to get certified to go scuba diving.  its a 4 day course, but we get to go diving on Koh Tao twice, which is supposed to be some of the best diving in the world.  i’m still a little terrified about the water (what with movies like jaws and open water forever ruining my enjoyment of the ocean), but i’m determined to get over my fear and do this.  i’ll let you know how it goes.  Thanks for all your comments and e-mails.  I miss you all.