DAY 39 - DAY AT THE BEACH

This place is just AWESOME.  Love the water, love the sand, location is perfect!  There are no roads on this island - you can only get here by boat and get around by foot or by boat.  Well, there are a few locals that zip up and down the beach on scooters, this is Thailand, after all!  Had a lazy day on the beach and couldn't be happier :)

Another gorgeous sunrise

A photo of SOME of the stairs up to the Sunset Bar
It's not the GrouseGrind but in this heat, trust me, it's a grind getting to the top!

Good to see they have a plan...

Long tail boat, similar to one we've booked for tomorrow

DAY 38 - SUNRISE TO SUNSET

First full day on the island and it's totally living up to expectations!  Was up before sunrise, sitting on the deck when I heard that same loud buzzing we'd heard the night before - it sounded like it was everywhere at once.  Could not figure out what it could be - maybe some kind of electronic thing to repel mosquitos or snakes?  Then noticed the sun coming up...  Snapped this shot with my little automatic.

Spent the morning hanging out at the pool, waiting for our new bungalows to be ready.  MUCH better :)  We were upgraded to beach-side bungalows within easy walking distance to all amenities.  Maybe having Priority Club Member points helped?  Or maybe Linda just has a special way with hotel staff :D

Set ourselves up with beach chairs and walked WAY out in the water.  The sand here is powder soft - just awesome.  We were only about chest deep when we saw a whole bunch of these yellow and black fish, some black ones, some white ones, and a few turquoise ones.  These fish are obviously used to people walking around out there - they were swarming us, looking for food.  Also saw a couple of black sea urchins - one small, one larger (about 12" spine tip to spine tip) and some anemones on the coral.  Very cool.  Can't wait to get out on a snorkelling trip.

Around 5:30 we headed up to the "Sunset Bar" on top of a small hill behind the bungalows.  We're on the east side of the island so this is the only place to catch the nice sunsets.  It was pretty hazy so we're planning on going back as often as we can till we get to see a really great one.

Once the sun had set, we were just finishing our glass of wine when again we heard the same buzzing we'd heard the night before.  It got louder and louder till it sounded like we were surrounded in it.  Asked our waitress about it again (her english was very good).  She explained that they were bats!!!

The "noise" on the video is not static - that's the sound of the bats that had swarmed into the tree right above our heads.  The lights out in the sea are fish boats - out for shrimp and squid.  There were more than 30 boats there by the time we left.

DAY 37 - KOH PHI PHI

We left Anantara Resort with some regret given the excellent service we enjoyed while staying there. The resort ordered us a very nice zircon van which took us to the airport. Samui has the only fully open-air airport in the world. Given that, insects thrive and the billiontude of small ants is amazing. The flight to Phuket was about one hour and not very eventful. When we arrived we noticed an over abundance of police and military personnel at the airport. The driver who met us and took us to the dock to catch our speedboat to Phi Phi told us that the Thai Prime Minister was in Phuket on official business and the police and military needed to demonstrate how busy and efficient they are. (Side note:  whenever one of the Royal family travels by road, the police close the entire route off to all traffic until they've passed by.)  Once at the dock, about an hour from the airport, we boarded a speed boat which took us across the Adanman Sea to the Holiday Inn on Phi Phi Island (a one hour trip).  We saw many fishing boats and numerous ferries during the crossing which was very calm for the most part.

Leaving the pier in Phuket

One of the many fishing boats we saw while crossing

When we arrived at the resort it was low tide so the boat could not get that close to shore. This is the first time we have ever had to wade in water up to our knees to register at a hotel. Numerous hotel staff waded out to the boat to ferry our luggage into shore.  The water is a beautiful aquamarine colour and perfectly clear and as warm as bathwater!  When we were in Samui, the ocean temperature was about 28C - I think it's even warmer here!

Phil & Linda wading into shore from the speed boat.
Resort staff following behind with our luggage.

Lots of Long Tail Boats moored in front of this resort

The rooms we were assigned were at the far end of the resort and you had to be part billy goat to climb the hill to get to them (they took us up in a 6-man golf cart).  Well, we didn't bother unpacking....  Linda and Danny were on the phone pretty quick to let the front desk know that this wouldn't do.  While we did have a bit of a "sea view", these units were nowhere near close enough to anything and required climbing several flights of stairs to even get to the one pool that was supposed to be "close by".  They promised to move us the next morning.

Had dinner at a little restaurant next to the resort - Jasmin's - had an excellent write up in TripAdvisor.  Well deserved.  We had some cold drinks and a bunch of appy's.  The food, especially the shrimp, was excellent.  While we were sitting there, there was suddenly a very loud buzzing noise which seemed to surround us.  When we asked our waitress about it, she smiled and repeated "no good" "bad".  Obviously, her english wasn't strong enough to explain further so we just smiled and carried on.  Caught the golf cart back to our bungalows and we cooled off by taking an outdoor shower (another first!) before calling it a night.

DAY 36 - THAI COOKING CLASS / WINDING UP SAMUI

Well, my dear, sweet, darlin' of a husband took a Thai cooking class today and we then got to enjoy the result with a private lunch for two!  No one else had signed up so he actually had the chef's undivided attention :)  The 3 dishes he chose to make were Green Papaya Salad, Tom Yam Goong Soup, and Pad Thai.  Absolutely delicious (but all very spicy).

They gave him an apron as well as a
"Certificate of Achievement"
lol 

Took another stroll down to Fishermans Village for dinner - so many great restaurants to choose from!  On the way back, stopped at the Coconut Bar and had one last drink to Koh Samui, on the beach.

DAY 35 & 36 - ANNIVERSARY / POOL DAY

Day 35 - Anniversary

Celebrated our 17th anniversary today with a special 7 course "wine pairings" dinner at the resort's Full Moon Restaurant.  We had done this before, in Vegas, and were thoroughly impressed so decided it would be worth it again, for this special occasion.  Won't go into all the details, but the head staff were busy elsewhere with a special event so we were served by what I can only guess are less experienced staff…  When they poured the wine for each course, it was a FULL glass.  Picture it - a tiny little bit of food + one full glass of wine.  And not much delay in between each course….  Well, we'd previously discovered it's not easy (or cheap) to get a nice glass of wine here in Thailand so, of course, I couldn't let that wine go to waste…  I wasn't staggering or anything by the time we left but we did have to make a hasty exit following the dessert (chocolate 3 ways - which I didn't finish!!!!) and plenty of wine left unfinished.  

Balcony at our first room, overlooking the lily pond garden.
  Decided to switch rooms on the 3rd day as while the room was nice,
it was just a little too cramped - especially the bathroom

View through sliding doors to the bathroom (from the bed area) of our second room.
Requisite rose petals for the double bath provided daily :)

DAY 36 - Pool Day

Another lazy day at the pool. The sun was the brightest we have seen so far in Koh Samui and as we are leaving Monday, it has a chance of being the best weather for our stay. We bought lunch from the beach vendors - two women who carry their charcoal cooker and all foods to the beach every day. The spring rolls and chicken satay are surprisingly good. At 90 Baht ( $2.90) it is a bargain compared to the resort which charges a minimum of $10 for any food. The beach vendors wear long pants, long sleeve shirts, gloves, hat, and scarfs, all while cooking over a charcoal bbq. There must be some type of immunity to the heat that we foreigners will never have.

Beach vendors set up shop outside the resorts and/or
wander up and down the beach with their wares.

Took a taxi down to the Chaweng Beach area for dinner - very busy, lots of restaurants and shops catering to tourists.  Had a really good sushi meal then browsed through a couple of the shops.

Dashboard of the cab we came back in...

Icons for sale!  Not sure what the fascination / significance of the icons
is...  We've seen them everywhere, including on spirit houses.

DAY 34 - ECO TOUR

Signed up for a half-day "eco-tour" so we could experience a little sight-seeing on the island.  Met 2 couples from Australia, 1 couple from Finland and another couple from England.  I think that's one of the most fun things, having the chance to chat with people from other countries…  The tour itself was a huge disappointment.  Took a lot of photos but the sights, to be honest, were pretty lame.


We  didn't want to do the hour-long ATV ride up to see the falls so opted instead for a 30 minute "elephant trek through the jungle".  As a pet project of the resort we are staying in is protection of elephants in Thailand, we felt that gave some assurance that this tour would be "elephant friendly".  In the end, hard to say.  The mahouts (elephant handlers) seemed to have a good rapport with their elephants…  The "jungle trek" consisted of wandering through a loop of a treed area, the elephants would stop and eat here and there, no big rush to get anywhere.  We rode on one of the female (smaller) elephants, named Lina.

Then, at the end of the loop, turns out the waterfall is a five minute hike in the other direction lol!  As waterfalls go, not too impressed.  We see ones just as nice along Hwy 1 heading up to Hope.

Our English speaking tour guide even dropped us off at one site, saying "back in 40 minutes", there was not 40 minutes of things to see.

Cemetery

See a lot of snakes or dragons
down the sides of stairs

New temple under construction

Monkeys have been trained to harvest coconuts.  Video is short & shaky cause I didn't know what I was doing with the camera...  The monkey on my shoulder looks fierce but is actually just yawning (boring tourists)!

One site we visited that was kind of interesting was Wat Khunaram where we saw one of Samui's two mummified monks.  The story is that Loung Pordaeng, a wealthy resident of Koh Samui, married, two kids, decided to become a monk at the age of 50.  Some 30 years ago, while meditating, he died but no one noticed at first.  When they realized he had died, they were amazed to discover that his body was not decomposing.  His death was considered a miracle.  Against the wishes of the other monks, he was mummified and put in a glass case.  His body is still in a very good state,  he still has some hair, fingernails and leathery skin.  The sunglasses are to cover up the fact his eyes have fallen back into his head.

Got back to the resort around 1:00 and immediately headed for the pool again.  Phil & Linda filled us in on the excitement we'd just missed.  There was a 3 foot snake in the pool (probably the same one Danny had seen yesterday?).  Staff were able to snag it out of the water and then beat it to death poolside.  Everyone clapped.  Guess there were no Peta supporters in the crowd :)

DAY 32 & 33 - FISHERMANS VILLAGE / SKY LANTERNS

DAY 32 - Fishermans Village

In the evening, we wandered down to a nearby area called "Fishermans' Village".  No sign anymore of fisherman; I assume it must have been home to local fishermen at one time….  It is now a very popular tourist area with a ton of restaurants, some convenience stores and many little shops selling beach wear and souvenir items.  Very similar to what we saw in the Pattaya area but quite a bit cleaner and the shopkeepers definitely appear "better off".  Prices are 3 - 4 times what they were in Pattaya; definitely catering to tourists, not the locals…  Had a nice meal at the "Happy Elephant".

Tour boat tied up at Fishermans Village (at the dock shown above)

DAY 33 - Working on our Tans

Spent another relaxing day at the pool.  Walking back to the main lobby, Danny was stopped by a woman on the walkway who didn't speak English but was able to signal him not to walk any further.  There was a 3 foot long snake crossing the path but Danny kept going anyway and the snake just slithered off the path.  When he described it to the staff and asked if it was poisonous, he was told yes but not to worry - they check for snakes around the resort 3 times daily…  Yikes!!!

Apparently there are about 40 venomous snakes in Thailand and about 100 that aren't.  Most can be found closer to sea level but they're in the mountains as well. 

All kinds of seafood - including barracuda!

In the evening, Danny and I headed back to Fishermans' Village.  As it was still early (6:15), we had our choice of restaurants with great beachside views.  Ended up at an Italian place - owned by an Irishman!  We've noticed there are a lot of Italian restaurants in Thailand - when we asked why an Irishman would open an Italian restaurant, he explained that pasta dishes go over well with just about all nationalities, including the Thais (i.e. - noodles; makes sense :)

Like everywhere else in Thailand,
tons of scooters

Getting ready to set off our Sky Lantern

On the walk along the beach back to the resort, we came across a woman selling Sky lanterns.  Danny negotiated the price from 300 baht down to 100 ($3.00) so we set one off.  It is supposed to bring good luck to release a sky lantern, and many Thais believe they are symbolic of problems and worries floating away.  They are made from oiled rice paper on a bamboo frame, and contain a small fuel cell. When lit, the flame heats the air inside the lantern so it rises into the air. The sky lantern is only airborne for as long as the flame stays lit, after which the lantern sinks back to the ground or, in this case, out in the ocean.  Most of northern Thailand, especially Chiang Mai, celebrates the Yi Peng, the Northern Thai ceremony where the lanterns, called khom loy, are released into the sky.  Up to 10,000 lanterns are released during the festival - would be so awesome to see!  We tried to get a photo of us releasing ours but it was dark, neither of us had our glasses on & so couldn't get the camera settings figured out in time…  Below is a pic from the internet - full moon festival.