Koh Samui

Well after a few boring days spent in Bangkok wishing I hadn't gotten so sunburned in Pattaya, I decided it was time to do something else. I bit the bullet and bought a ticket through Air Asia that included a flight, a bus transfer, and finally a ferry to get to Koh Samui. Since the best part of this trip were the sights rather than the experiences, I decided to just post pictures and captions.

Bye bye Bangkok. Look at those clouds!

On the bus from the airport to the pier. Southern Thailand is very different from Central Thailand

 Ferry ride to Samui. This looks ominous.

 Saw a very cloudy sunset on the ferry.

 Storm clouds

 First day on the beach, just my luck it was cloudy all day!

 Chicken with Cashew nuts for lunch, they didn't skimp on the nuts. Yum!

 The sun showed its self a few times during the day.

 Swing Bar and Restaurant at my hotel (no it isn't how it sounds, there are swings at the bar instead of stools, that's all!)

 Fire show! I was stupid enough to allow myself to be a volunteer at one point and was hit in the head with a fireball which definitely singed a few hairs...

Made an Australian friend at the fire show Monday night and he took me sightseeing on the island on his motorbike all day Tuesday. It was a great deal, got a tour and he paid for most of it! ;) This was a little waterfall and statue garden at the top of the mountain.

 Next we visited a depressing tourist attraction, an animal park. This poor gibbon was tethered by her neck :( I was not happy.

 But the garden and views at the animal park were beautiful!

 So cloudy and dreary this day you could barely tell where the water met the sky!

 Next we visited the Namiuang waterfall, which involved some difficult sweat-inducing hiking. Flip flops were a poor shoe choice.

 Dinner at the Swing Bar on my last night on Samui

 Took an early morning walk down to the south end of Lamai beach on my last day.

 Surprised a few crabs who weren't expecting to be bothered by tourists so early in the morning!

Happy time every day! Haha

pretty coral rocks

Of course it was finally beautiful and sunny on the day I had to leave!

 The sun allowed me to get some great pictures on the ferry ride back to the mainland though.

 Couldn't believe how blue the water was!

So, after repeating the events from Sunday in reverse order I finally arrived back in Bangkok for my last night alone. My family arrives tonight for our vacation and I am so happy, but also sad because it means my time in Thailand is coming to an end. We still have two weeks to explore Thailand and I am so excited to be able to share with them everything I've learned here. I suppose the end of this adventure will just be the beginning of the next one.

Pattaya

Chollada picked me up in the morning from the awful Rainforest Guesthouse and we headed to Chatuchak to do some shopping while her sister was still at work. I didn't feel like buying anything but had fun browsing. Chollada and I had lunch and coconut ice cream for dessert. The coconut ice cream is comes with various toppings of your choice (jellies and sticky rice) and is served in a coconut shell, with a cup of coconut water to wash it down. At about 4:30 we had finished our shopping and Ink was out of work, so the three of us were on our way to Pattaya. This is a beach town about an hour and a half southeast of Bangkok. It is in the Chonburi providence which is an industrial area, and while we drove we passed a billboard in English calling it "The Detroit of the East" so I guess I was on my way home!

After settling into our hotel we headed out for some seafood for dinner and then afterward we went to a famous ladyboy cabaret show at Alcazar. The show was great and the ladyboys were beautiful! Mostly. I got my picture taken with not one, but three of them after the show, which unfortunately meant I had to tip them all. It was pretty late after the show to we went back to our room and went to sleep. Sunday morning we got up and went to a floating market for breakfast. Luckily I was with Chollada and Ink because apparently farangs have to pay to get in here, but Thais can bring two guests in free. We walked around the market browsing for a while. I had a deep fried ice cream and we fed baby goats and koi from bottles, which was weird. Next we went to an "illusion art museum" which was basically just a bunch of photo opportunities. This is great for Asian tourists who LOVE taking pictures of themselves, but not the most thrilling thing for me. So mostly I just enjoyed people watching. Next we went had had a snack and a nice little cafe called La Baguette. Then we went to the beach finally and sat down in chairs under umbrellas and had foot/legs massages and pedicures while we dozed off, which was pretty spectacular. You seriously cannot visit Thailand without getting at least one massage. They are so cheap, you would be crazy not to take advantage. After another seafood dinner Chollada and Ink left me  and I relaxed in my room the rest of the night.

Monday was a pretty laid back day. I spent the morning by the pool getting fried despite my efforts to "just get a little tan." Now I know, SPF 50 not 30 no matter what. I am too pale for tropical sun. So I spent the afternoon at the beach under and umbrella reading and relaxing. Considering I was red as a lobster I decided to head back to Bangkok Tuesday and not stay a fourth night in Pattaya. It was a nice trip, though Pattaya is more of a city for partiers and creepy dudes trying to find a Thai lady than outdoorsy nature chicks like me.

 A reminder for those who just can't get enough of the "squat and piss" toilets usually found in Thai public restrooms

 Alcazar

 botched boob job...they were very uneven

 all the ladies after the show

 fried ice cream

 bottle feeding koi...?

 illusion art museum

 My favorite one, it was 3D but you couldn't tell until you got close. It made it look like the buildings were moving.

 lets pretend we are at a real waterfall and take a picture!

 banana chocolate crepe

 more seafood! 

 this was a huge feast for 3 people

 hotel pool