Day 3 - Koh Samui, Thailand

Day 3 was our last full day in Koh Samui, so we relaxed for the first half of the day, grabbing lunch in Chewang. We called Trev and Mom from the Wifi connection there and got word that they're having a blast in Jiuzhaigou. Then we decided to head about 25 kilometers out of town towards the elephant trekking.

We got all the way there and realized we only had 320 baht on us (the equivalent of about $10). A full 1/2 hour elephant trek costs twice that for one person. I was about ready to give up, but Ming saved the day by chatting with the manager for a few minutes. Eventually the guy agreed that we could both ride an elephant for 300. Lesson learned: if you want to get a deal in Thailand, show up without much money.

I let Ming get on the elephant first. I said I wanted to take this picture, but really I was just making sure it was safe :-)


Once we were both on, we convinced them to take a picture of us, normally a 200 baht charge, but they gave it to us for free (cause we seemed poor I guess).

Our guide seemed capable. He lead us over a stream and out into a field. The ride was definitely bumpy

Once we were out in the field the guide hopped off and took my camera to try and get a few more shots for us. The elephant was wiley though and kept moving towards the guide. He never got far enough away from the elephant to get a good shot... here's the best he got:

After the elephants, we had planned on watching the sunset at one of the upscale resorts on the western side of the island. Our place is on the Eastern side, and we were already half way there. The resort was nice, but our hopes of seeing the sunset were dashed by a storm that was brewing offshore.

We decided to hop on the bike and get back to base before the rain caught up with us. There were a few stinging sprinkles on the high-speed bike-ride back around the island, but we were making good time... until we realized that we were running low on gas. With 20 baht on us, and with a bottle of gas costing 35 baht, we thought we were doomed. That is, until I saved the day by finding exactly 15 baht in coins stuck deep inside my pockets. That last bottle of gas got us all the way back to our resort, where we got a complementary buffet dinner, singing and dancing included.


The guys above were pretty good, but their thick accents made the English songs more comical than intended.


The dancers were pretty interesting. They were able to contort there hands and feet in what seemed like pretty painful ways. (sidenote from Ming: their fingers were bending backwards from their hands -- like double-jointed plastic Barbie dolls!)

Originally we were hoping to do a Yacht trip the next day, but given that the rain continued all night, the trip was canceled. So it will probably be another day of motorbiking and relaxation tomorrow.

Day 2 - Koh Tao, Thailand

Snorkeling has been one of my favorite get-away activities since 8th grade when Trevor Nicholas and I jetted off to Bermuda and I swam around a private cove with a borrowed mask. The three or four fish I got so excited about back then are nothing compared to the schools Ming and I swam through today at Koh Tao.

We got up early and jumped in a van with 5 or 6 other travelers and we were off to the boat. Koh Samui itself doesn't have the best snorkeling, so typically people take the 1.5 hour boat ride to Koh Tao to get to the good stuff. It was pretty confusing at first because we were dropped off in the midst of throngs of tourists all standing in line for boat tickets. It took us to realize that there's really only one company that goes to Koh Tao causing Ming to mumble something about "monopoly" and "anti-trust" which I ignored.

In any case, they fed us a croissant on the shore, tied a pink ribbon around our wrist (I'm still unsure what that meant) and shoved us on the boat for Koh Tao. There was a TV on board so the ride was endurable... oh and the view wasn't bad. A few music videos and half of the animated move "Bolt" later, we were on Koh Nang Yuan (pic below) where we jumped to another boat for the short hop to a cove of Koh Tao.

The snorkeling was so-so at first, and I had a few frustrating problems with the underwater camera I brought, as evident from the fact that this is the best shot I got with it:


After this shot, it ran out of batteries, and when I went to change them I realized even the seemingly understated "water-resistant" descriptor on the packaging was a bit of a stretch. I made the foolish move of using the only memory card I had, rather than buying a fresh one for it. At first I was getting some "Memory card errors" after drying it off, but it seems to be working now. I'm thinking we got a defective one since dad has the same one and his worked fine.

Fortunately, there was a professional photographer there as well. His camera was pretty impressive. We bought a copy of the shot he got of us out in the cove. Some people got there picture taken with fish in the background, but they were cheating... they brought bread to feed the fish.
After about an hour of decent snorkeling Ming and I finally found a school of fairly large fish of a few different species. We followed them around until it was time to head back to the boat. The boat took us back to Koh Nang Yuan, where we had lunch (with a few stray cats) and rested under an umbrella.


There was actually snorkeling at Koh Nang Yuan as well. While the coral wasn't as impressive the animal life was actually more interesting than Koh Tao. Here there were many different schools of fish that swam surprisingly close to the swimmers hanging around the beach.

Snorkeling out away from the shore a bit Ming found the prize sighting of the day: an octopus. It's probably my coolest snorkeling sighting yet. She waved me over and I watched it for 20 minutes or so. So long that Ming got bored and took a few shots from the shore.


It's too bad the underwater camera wasn't functioning at that point. Truth be told though, most of the time the octopus blended in so well with the coral that I could barely see it! I probably would have stayed longer, but it was time to head back to Koh Samui. After a few snapshots on the docks, we boarded the boat and headed back. All and all, another great day in Thailand.

Day 1 -- Koh Samui, Thailand

Day 1.

First order of business -- breakfast. Pad Thai, spinach lasagna, fresh watermelon, and an omelet bar. I think Thailand may be one of the only countries where I actually LIKE the breakfast. Plus, it doesn't hurt when breakfast is served overlooking the blue-green ocean.

Ian's find of the morning: a mini-frog! I couldn't tell what in the world he was looking at...until I saw the little speck hop. Check out how small it is! It's the upper speck next to the camera's lens cap:

After inquiring at the front desk and renting a motorbike, we are officially off for our first day of adventures. We drove for about 20 minutes and arrive at the "Viewpoint" -- lovely view of the water and the horizon, as well as this cute white gazebo like thing where we enjoy some much-needed rest. The shot below is one of my favorites of the trip thus far -- can't you just feel the relaxation? After all the hustle and bustle (no pun intended! hehe) of the wedding and the reception(s), I was definitely ready for some blue skies.

The true highlight of the day though? The cooking class. Many thanks to Lee Stuart for purchasing us cooking classes through our honeyfund! 3 hours of pounding, smashing, cutting, boiling, frying, and tasting. Emphasis on the tasting. :) The woman in charge of the class (of which there were 10 participants...none of which were from the US -- that is a recurring trend on this trip so far -- no Americans...but I digress) -- the woman was very much a comic-in-training... many mentions were made to ingredients that were "good for your bottom."

Those who (unlike us!) are big into spices and peppers will get a kick out of these colorful ingredients:

The woman actually had us bite off the tip of these to try out the level of spiciness --- cue to the Thai iced tea!! In the end though, everything we made was suprisingly good. This was probably due to the fact that they always had the perfect ingredients and tools laid out for us before-hand. A little bit of mashing turns this...

into this...

Ian actually said at one point: "Wow...I am SUCH a good cook." We did some deep fried fish, some yellow curry with chicken, and a soup with meatballs and tofu.

Long story short, we came away with full stomachs and a book of recipes. Can't wait to try making some of those again back in Boston!

After our huge lunch, we went down to visit the "Grandmother and Grandfather Rocks."
Hopefully we don't offend any Thai people...but we had NO idea what the fuss was about.

Back at the hotel, we arrived in time to take a quick dip in the pool and then head on out to the Manager's Reception -- where we enjoyed a few quick drinks -- Ian's double-fisting the punch! (it was the only way I could convince him to do a little dancing)

There were also some munchies -- including some really cool watermelon carvings!

There were even fireworks at the end!

Best resort ever.

We had to call it a somewhat early night so that we could get up early to catch our snorkeling trip.

Arriving in Thailand

First stop on the honeymoon? Thailand -- land of smiles. We looove Thailand. This is our first trip to Koh Samui, so we weren't really sure what to expect. Our flight from Shanghai to Bangkok was delayed by about 40 minutes...so we were a little apprehensive about making the connection...but everything went extremely smoothly. Crossed fingers that such luck continues for the next 15 flights of this trip!

We arrived in Koh Samui around 10PM and we were greeted at the airport (which is pretty much the smallest airport I've ever seen in my life) by our hotel pick-up. As soon as we checked in, we knew this was going to be a GREAT first leg of the trip. Our room had been decked out with a pair of towel swans covered with rose petals -- top points in my book. :) The room itself was pretty amazing -- all of the walls are full panels of tinted glass, it's kind of like living in a tropical fishbowl!