Koh Samui

After Bangkok, we spent 4 days in Koh Samui. Koh Samui is located in the gulf of south Thailand. We arrived on a hot and humid day, not unlike every other day in Thailand. Our place of residence over the next few days was fabulous except for the the fact that they lied about how far away from the beach it was and that room service gave Marcus food poisoning. Otherwise beautiful, with the motto "where nothing happens", they didn't lie about that....



First night on Samui we found the beach and a cheap bar and made use of the $2 cocktails! Then Belinda ran off and had her first experience of a Thai massage and left Marcus to have a swim in the tepid waters. The massage was like no other massage she'd ever had. They contort you into all sorts of positions, some I didn't think were possible. We retired to our villa and Belinda was so exhausted from the massage that she pretty much fell asleep then and there, but Marcus' appetite was not satisfied. He ordered a club sandwich from room service. Big mistake. That we discovered at about 3am. Marcus became very friendly with the toilet for the next 12ish hours. And that was the first day we spent on Koh Samui. He survived. New rules were made. No more room service and no more western food in Thailand. Day 2, much more fun, and much less bathroom, we went on a tour in the afternoon on ATV (quad bikes) and elephant trekking to Namuang Falls I. We had a tonne of fun and got rather muddy. We swam in the waterfall along with all the other tourists... We also hired a moped for $6 a day, Belinda ended up driving as Marcus had a go and we were almost cleaned up by oncoming traffic and he took off almost half his toe. We thought it safer to let Belinda drive, as women are better drivers, ask AAMI (insurance company)



We tried to book a kayaking tour of the marine park but it was cancelled and as the planets aligned (with Julia's advice) we went on a Mr Ung's safari tour! It was an excellent day all round. Insane perhaps, life threatening potentially, though heaps and heaps of fun. We saw rocks shaped like genitals, commando trained monkeys (that knock down coconuts), rubber tree plantations (or happy trees as they are referred to as they are used to make condoms), elephant trekking to Namuang falls II, a magic garden on the top of the mountain, a mummified monk (creepy, he was wearing Ray Charles sunglasses), a massive golden Buddha and plenty of bush bashing through the rainforest in an open jeep. We actually sat on top of the jeep for some of it and it was the best fun we've had so far! We had a crazy little Thai guy as our guide and they would just stop the jeep and run out into the forest and find a snake, or a humongous spider or cut down some flowers for the girls. Certainly was different. That night we also discovered Chaweng Beach. And we managed to fit in a little shopping. Well Marcus did, he loved bartering and ended up buying things we didn't really need, just because we could. It was fun. It was a shame that we only just discovered the area and we had to leave the next day. For the remainder we just hung out at Lamai Beach near our accommodation.