On the boat ride to Koh Tao, Davin and I desperately started searching for new people to hang out with as we were getting completely sick of just hanging out with each other all the time. Just kidding, that's not true. But we did meet some people around our age that were travelling too.
There were a couple guys who had just been released from the Israeli army for a month vacation, and two girls from Australia who planned a Thai trip together. We all got along well and had fun chatting on the way there.
Carly and one of the army boys.
Noah and I. You'll never believe it, but as we started talking Noah and I figured out that his first girlfriend/love went to school with my at Ivey. I had to snap this shot with him to show her. Small world.
Welcome to Koh Tao!
The girls we met (Carly and Kristy) had already pre-booked all 5 star hotels on all the islands they were visiting. Davin and I and the boys had not, so we decided to take a taxi together to the popular spots.
Dav and I chose a resort with these authentic Thai huts and the boys stayed at another place next door.
Kristy and Carly by their 5 star pool. Since the girls had the best hotel, we all decided to meet there for some drinks and a swim. It was a gorgeous hotel but a bit eerie because there was no one around. Literally, they had the whole place to themselves.
The guys. See the pool design? It is the one that looks like it goes right over the edge. Such a nice design. There was also a huge pool bar that wasn't being put to use. Such a shame! After the pool we decided to head back to our neck of the woods to check out the beach at night.
Haha. Davin's swollen foot. We couldn't figure out why it was getting so big. Mind you, a little later on in the trip, my foot did the same thing.
I found this cool swing from a beautiful tree that had lanterns hanging all over it and just had to try it out. I was getting great landscape ideas for my future home.
This beach scene was definitely may favourite from all the places we saw. At night, in some places the tide came in so high that it touched the decks of the resorts, so people would sit on their chairs literally right over the water. There was chill music playing everywhere and everyone seemed so down to earth and relaxed.
This was the main hot spot. It was literally hot because all these men put on swinging fire shows each night. A couple times it got pretty scary when the fireball would accidentally fling into the crowd. No one got hurt that I saw.
The next day Dav and I rented a scooter to tour around the island. Well, the island turned out to be puny compared to Koh Samui so it didn't take long to see everything. it was still beautiful though.
Our first stop was a resort at the far north point of the island. This was the entrance - pretty cool. The entire resort was really unique as it was all built into huge boulders. It actually looked exactly like the Swiss Family Roberts tree house - but much more luxurious.
This is a view from one of the platforms. The island you can see in the distance is a popular scuba spot. We were going to try and swim to it but all the speed boats zooming by kinda deterred us.
Instead we decided to walk down to the very edge of the rocks where we could take a swim. You'll never believe what happened then. I took off my skirt and sandals and purse and lay them all down on the rock. There were about 50 crabs bathing on one of the rock edges, but we managed to avoid them as we jumped in the water. Not more than 10 minutes later, Davin and I got out of the water and hoped back on the rock to get our things, but my sandals were gone, and so were the crabs. We looked EVERYWHERE- those silly things must have stolen my shoes. It was pretty funny. I told Dav they should have a sign warning swimmers about the little thieves.
This is a picture of Davin trying to get our little vehicle up the hill. It stalled on us half way up because we were too heavy. This wasn't the first time...
A short pit stop at a beach bar for a cold drink.
The view we had while eating lunch. View = amazing.
Food, not so much.
With the exception of the one main road on Koh Tao, this is pretty much as good as it got for the roadway. it made getting around quite difficult. This is Davin scoping out whether or not the view was worth it for us to risk the ride up together...it wasn't.
Just down the road though we found a very nice resort spot with these big comfy couch chairs. We went for a little swim, had a drink and then a little siesta.
This was the view as the sun was just starting to go down. I think we could have lay there all night.
On our way back to the hotel we ran into Kristy on her scooter. Kristy was great fun but Carly didn't seem to share the same...values, to put it nicely. Their day of snorkeling turned into a few whiny hours and Kristy was looking for something fun to do so we invited her to come hang out with us for the night! We had heard their was a black light party going on that night, so we went up to the peak to check it out.
Kristy on her scooter in front of the party scene that they were still setting up. It was a treacherous ride getting up there and we were luckily to see it when we did - we never ended up going back.
To be honest, with the amazing beach scene on Koh Tao at night, none of us really wanted to be anywhere else.
Fire show for the second night in a row.
Dav, friendly guy and Kristy. They were selling cheap buckets here.
The beach bar. We met a lot of people this night and had a really good time hanging out down on the beach together, going for night swims and talking about our travels.
The next day we left Koh Tao and head back to the Ark Bar on Koh Samui - our main base. At first, we were only going to stay one night so we could take a plane back to Bangkok and see around the city. We had talked to a bunch of locals and they assured us that Bangkok was fine and that we'd be safe and there was nothing to worry about. Later that day when we got back to the hotel and turned on the news the top story was that the riots were escalating, people were dying and buildings were being lit on fire. Huh. Since it was my idea to go to Bangkok in the first place (I reallllly wanted to see it), I told Davin I would go to the Bangkok Airways office the next morning and beg them to change our flight so we could stay in (peaceful) Koh Samui a little longer.
Well, I said I would and I did. It was much easier than I thought it would be. I was in and out in about 3 minutes with a changed flight and we were happy to have a little extra time in the south. Here are a few of the main bits from our final days:
We finally gave in to some of the beach vendors that continued to harass us every 5 minutes. Davin bought me this nice breezy sea dress and he got himself a big beautiful Indian looking throw for his bed.
A "dip and slip" into the water.
Watching the new arrivals deal with the vendors.
Hungry?
Best mangos in the world.
We had past this beach restaurant a few times when we were here last and I really wanted to try it. It is called "Senses" and was rated the best restaurant on the beach in my Thailand guide. It is known for their award winning drinks and seafood.
I forget which drink we chose but it was delicious!
Dav's dish - a squid meat curry.
My dish - shrimp pinapple curry to die for.
Satisfation.
And beautifully shaved carrots to finish.
Later that night I FINALLY decided to get a pair of new flip flops after the crab incident.
Dav had been wanting to get one of the knock-off watches from town. They were definitely good quality and are a perfect imitation of the real thing.
Hanging out at our favourite Ark Bar beach party.
We ordered a little late night snack. Fresh rolls and Pad Thai.
Mmmm.
These guys kept us entertained, literally throwing animals onto people's heads to make some money.
This girl got a monkey on her head.
There was a party going on down the street but Davin and I decided to head for the ice cream stand instead. There were an abundance of "She-males" - men who look and move exactly like women. Most of the time you can't even tell it is a man until they open their mouth. A huge risk for the very drunken male foreigner looking for a pretty lady. It's a bit weird why there were so many. We never did figure out why...
Modelling the dress I got from the tailors on the corner. The price for a dress like this is less than half of what you would pay in Canada. I got a suit too which which they made for me that night - literally it took them less than 24 hours to put together. Davin picked up his suits that night too. I don't have any pictures but they look really nice.
Back shot.
That night we decided to go for our last swim in the resort pool. We realized we hadn't really done a nice photoshoot together yet so we decided to make it happen.
Mean.
Scared.
Romantic.
I don't know.
Sick. Goofs...
The next morning we were sad to be leaving, but we had our good breakfast and were on our way.
"Bye Thailand!"
Dav left the next day back to Canada from Taipei. After we said goodbye at the NCCU gates, I yanked my suitcase back through the rain just in time for my first Consumer Behaviour class. Unfortunately for my professor, Thailand was a hard act to follow.
THANK YOU Dav for an incredibly amazing trip together. XO
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