We got out of Bangkok with Chad's suit in the skillful hands of a Thai tailor with the oldest pug dog for a pet. Little guy mooshed all his eye boogers into my backpack! After we finished with this crazy suit business we had some hours to kill so we did some pavement pounding on Sukumvit Road. A much more city-fied skyscraper type area with Louis Vouton stores and overpriced fashiony things. To escape the blazing heat, that is always worse in the concrete jungle, we ducked into a crazy 6 level mall. Each level had a fashion theme from different countries. I especially liked the Japanese level! No good deals in this establishment however. With a night bus to catch we headed back to Kho San Road for one last little look about. I opted to try out the fish spa that I had heard so much about. 3$ got me 15 minutes of foot cleaning by tiny little sucker fish wiggling between my toes and up my legs. Ya....frickin gross! It took me a minute to get used to the tickling but once I calmed down enough to keep still it was actually quite enjoyable. My skin was soft and I swear the hairs on my legs were shorter too!
We booked a bus/boat ticket to Ko Samui to do some beach sitting and relaxing. The journey was long and hot and horrible. We got picked up at our hotel and had to walk to the main bus stop...hot and sticky business with a pack on. Once we reached our bus we were pleasantly surprised to see brightly painted coach buses...not minibuses! However our joy turned to woe as we boarded and smelled the rank stench of the bus bathroom wafting through the aisles. Every time someone opened the door....wham! It was so gross! I made myself a peppermint gum mustache to wear under my nose to battle the smell. A friend warned us that bus rides would be shitty because of drugged up, drunk or hungover westerners and people with especially stinky dreadlocks. Amazingly this bus ride was well equipped with all mentioned above. Loud mouth Seattle girl wouldn't shut it until way after midnight! We finally reached what we thought was the boat station but was in fact just a place for us to wait for two hours for yet another bus to come take us to the ferry station. We finally reached the ferry and plunked down for a 2 hour crossing....also hot and sticky despite the advertised "air conditioned!" area for passengers.
Ko Samui is a resort island and we were prepared to spend a little more to have a bit of pampering (we are on holiday, this is no backpacker trip!). We opted for a taxi instead of the tuk tuk truck and chose a secluded bungalow instead of the bustling town on the beach. We arrived to the Jungle Club and were so thankful for some peace and quiet and the company of a cute little jack russel named Lilly with a penchant for flip flops. The food was great too! A delicious bananna mango shake to greet me and I plunked my sweaty behind in the pool for the rest of the day! I forgot to apply sunscreen to my lower legs due to sand being stuck to me and now am suffering from red sausage legs that are burnt to a crisp and swollen...curses!
Beach acticities: 1) I brought with me the last book of a series of four and was extremely excited to not have anything to do for the next few days so that I could finally conclude what was going to happen to the Lannisters and the Starks of Westeros. However as I was nearing the end of the last book I couldn't help but notice that there was no way it was going to finish in the 50 pages that were left. So I snuck a peek to the back and was dismayed to find......"to be continued!" WHATTT! This is an outrage! You can't write a book series of four books and then at the end say "oh ya I forgot to put the last book in so you will just have to wait." 2) swimming in the ocean and then getting too scared I will be pulled out to sea so I stay in the shallows and get wacked around by waves and get sand in my suit. 3) sending Chad to find me non-alcoholic beverages and popscicles. 4) saying no thank you to beach vendors trying to sell really crappy souvenirs and "henna" tattoos * I made the mistake of getting one done in Bali 6 years ago and it was actually black hair dye and made my skin break out into a horrible rash and I would still have the scars if I didn't cover it up by a real tattoo.
Anyways. We are on a strict 8:30 bedtime it seems. With me not being able to drink my face off I just can't seem to find a reason to go out and watch everyone else do it. Poor Chad has been by my preggo side the whole time and I feel that he may crack and take off to find a whiskey bucket very soon.
We left Ko Samui after two nights and took the boat to Ko Tao. That is where we are right now. We bypassed the famous full moon party island of Ko Phangan and headed straight for the Thai diving mecca....and so did all the full mooners! The boat was full to bursting of anxious dive students who have finally got over their full moon hangovers after 3 days since the big event. If we would have known we would have went some where else first and let the crowds pass through. But alas we are short on time and so are "stuck" in a very expensive room that was about the only thing left in town and diving with half the backpackers of Thailand population. Fun for partying sake (of which I can't partake) but not so great for crowds. Our room cost us $60 a night but is 5 star quality, so i'm not complaining. If we were on another long trip we could never do this. The first dive shop we went to tried to put us in a concrete box with a fan and a bed in a construction yard full of leering dudes and roosters...we said no way jose and so here we are at Ban's Dive Resort in the classiest room I've ever laid my pack in!
Chad did two dives today and I tagged along on the boat to see if I could get in a bit of snorkeling. He hasn't dove in 9 months so he was a little nervous but luckily he was paired with an English former dive master who helped him remember his acronyms....Bruce WIllis Makes Horrible Films (or something of that sort). He took some video with his fancy dancy new camera I got him for his 30th birthday and we have yet to review it. He saw some eels, angel fish and a grouper that looked like it could eat him. The dive spots we went to were too deep for me to see anything from the surface so I just paddled around the boat and hung out with a salty cat whose home is the Ban Dive Boat. He keeps it mouse and rat free and gets to eat left over tuna sandwiches, what a life! It actually truly sucks being pregnant! I can't scuba dive, I can't jump off the boat and I can't even drink rum from a snorkel! But then the little neno gives me a couple nudges in the ole ribs and it makes it all worth it.
Well I am ready to go for dinner but it seems that hubby has taken a liking to his new English friend Jon and has not returned to the hotel yet. It seems that Chad and English fellows get along quite well because they both seem to have a healthy appetite for beer and curry. Generally speaking that is. So it might be instant noodles for me whilst I enjoy the AC in our room....could this be Chad's whiskey bucket night?
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