MIKE AND JESS' TRAVEL DIARY

We had another travel day to get to Koh Samui. Unlike Phi Phi and Lanta, The parents have been here before. We started off with an early morning to pack and be ready for the long drive to the airport back in Krabi. “But Lanta is an island and Krabi is the mainland. How will you drive there?,” you may say… By some super annoying (slow) ferries.

 

The drive was 30 minutes to the first ferry. We paid a few bucks and began waiting in a long line of cars. Only one (very slow) ferry is running at a time and only ten cars at most fit on the ferry. We were parked in the line for ten minutes or more until the cars began to move. We drove what felt like 5 feet and were parked again for another 10 minutes. It can take up to a couple hours on busy times just to get over the the very small channel. When finally on the (super slow!!) ferry, we barely felt like we were moving. Did I mention how slow the ferries move?

 

OK, we had to cross two of these, not including the hour long drive between them. I may be exaggerating slightly on how slow they are because I had to use the bathroom every time we got stuck in a line.

 

Once at the airport, we passed through security in about 8 minutes, I think that may be a new record. Our flight is late. We waited two hours for the flight. Finally, they call for boarding and we headed downstairs where they are loading us onto a bus. We wait five minutes for the bus to load. The driver begins to accelerate and we realize our airplane is 75 METERS AWAY. It would have been quicker to crawl on hands and knees to the plane than it was to take the bus there. We seemed to be the only ones getting a kick out of it.

 

A one-hour flight later, and we were finally in Samui. Busier and more visited than Lanta, but not as extreme as Phi Phi. The hotel is beautiful, as they all have been. We got a snack by the pool and it began to rain pretty hard. Once it let up, we decided to jump in the ocean to get tossed around by the waves. Mike was having a blast and I hadn’t seen him have such childish fun in a while. He was letting the large waves crash on him so he got flipped around and dragged up the beach. Every time his head was free from the water, he was giggling like crazy. I tried it once, got flipped upside down and then dragged through the shells on my forearm. Finally able to sit up, open my mouth to breathe and another wave smacks my face and rushes sea water down my throat. I was not as amused by it as Mike. I stuck to floating in the deeper water and left the crashing waves to Mike.

 

There were a few dogs that called the neighboring hotel home. They called the front of our hotel the bathroom. As the tide was inches away from one of them, one dog decides to take a 3 minute long poop. I take that as my cue to run out of the ocean as quick as possible before the tide takes the dog’s present and serves it to me. Mike was not as easily startled by what was happening on sand.

 

A little more goofing around in the pool and we headed back to get ready for the night. We headed out to an area nearby that houses a street full of food carts- a.k.a. our heaven. Lining both sides of the sidewalk are carts selling fried or BBQ meats, grilled corn, pad thai cooked to order, Isaan food, and my favorite-Thai pancakes.   We bought an ungodly amount of food and brought it to a table in front of the beer bars. We filled ourselves with yummy food and cold beer and enjoy our first night in Samui.