Ko Samet!

This past weekend was the Kings 83^rd birthday, so to celebrate the King gave us all a three day weekend!  Father’s Day is also celebrated on the Kings birthday, so school on Friday was filled with fathers day celebrations.  There was a morning assembly filled with games (such as feed your father blind-folded and another game that looked very similar to the famous Lady and the Tramp scene of kissing with spaghetti.. but in Thailand instead of spaghetti it’s a string of something fishy) and many took their children home at lunch, so I only had five kids after lunch.  We spent the rest of the day playing in the classroom, practicing our India dance for culture fair in two weeks, and playing on the playground.  I spent the rest of the day anxious to get home, pack, and get on my way for the three day weekend!  I had plans to meet a group of girls at Ko Samet, and island 3 hours away from Bangkok!!

Friday night, Jess and I had tickets for the 12:30 overnight bus to Bangkok.  At 11:30pm, we made the 20 minute walk from our apartment to the bus station.  Everything went very smoothly, except for the fact that sleeping on the bus was not comfortable whatsoever.  We made it to Bangkok at around 6am and needed to catch our next bus from the bus terminal across town, so we took a cab to the sky train stop (like a subway), and the sky train to the other bus terminal.  Neither of us have had experience in exploring Bangkok yet, so it was a little bit of an adventure but we made it just fine.  We hopped on the 7am bus, snagging the last two seats available.  Exhausted and relived that we were almost to our final destination, I was getting a little restless and frustrated that the last three hour bus was making plenty of stops to pick up people on the road and putting them in the two open seats next to me, way in the back.  I think the bus driver pockets money by picking up people (all Thai people, looking like they are going off to some farm) who don’t officially buy tickets at the bus station and only need like an hour ride to the middle of no where.  I never felt unsafe, just anxious that we kept stopping.. I was ready for Ko Samet!  After getting to Ban Phe, we needed to take a ferry (which was a janky old boat that I honestly thought was going to break down, or tip over on the way) to Ko Samet island, then walk about 20 minutes to get to the beach and our hotel!  12 hours later, 2 busses, 1 taxi, 1 train, and plenty of walking later, we finally arrived!

Me and famous Ko Samet statue

Keep in mind.. this is the LONGEST amount of time in my entire life that I have been away from the ocean.  I have been so completely spoiled by growing up in San Diego living only like 3 miles from the beach, and going to school in Santa Barbara literally living on a house on a cliff hanging over the ocean.  Finally seeing the Gulf of Thailand was amazing and I felt at home.  At this very moment, I promised myself that I would never live this far from the ocean ever again.

At one point, the fire man sat on my back

The rest of the day, the girls and I (8 or us total) just hung out at the beach, in the sand enjoying the sun.   The beach was filled with lots of western tourists, a few Thai vacationers, and various Thai people selling sarongs, fruit, and massage and pedicure services.. you can get a Thai massage and pedicure right on the beach! The food on the island was AMAZING!  That first night, we grabbed some Chang at 7/11 (Thailand version of cheap beer) and brought our own drinks to dinner at a place called Ploy, which had a bunch of tables and pillows set up on the beach to eat at.  It had a live band and promised us an amazing fire show.  They seated the 8 of us girls at a table right in the front, next to the stage and near the bar.  We ordered dinner and sang along with the live band from the Philippines, who sang songs we know from America by Lady Antebellum, Sublime, Eminem, Jason Mraz, everything we could have ever wanted to hear.. and they were great!  All the workers at the restaurant spoke great English, and we found out practically all of them are from South Africa.  After the music was the fire show.. 10 “fire men” to perform trick and acrobats with ropes of fire, they twirled, tossed, threw, spit, and jumped with fire.  The “fire men” then got the crowd involved by setting up fire games for us, like fire jump rope, jump through the hoop of fire, fire limbo, tug of war with fire.. I normally have a HUGE fear or fire, but this was just amazing.  Along with the club like music, it turned into something like an outdoor club atmosphere with fire games.  The girls and I enjoyed Ploy the rest of the night by drinking,  dancing, singing, playing fire games, and playing with neon body paint.   I ended the night with a roady.. a fried pancake with a filling of my choice, nutella and banana. Needless to say, I got a few more of these the rest of the trip.  It was a fun night.

The next morning, the girls and hit the beach fairly early, but not before grabbing breakfast.  We found a little restaurant that had a large variety of American and Thai food, and it was good!  For breakfast, I ordered scrambled eggs and toast, and lunch I got a chicken burger with cheese, and fries.. AMAZING!  The rest of this December day, we sat in the sun enjoying smoothies, massages, drinking out of coconuts, swimming in the Gulf of Thailand.  I love island life. 

That night, the Kings birthday was being celebrated.  We decided to check out a different bar that was said to have a fire show also, called Silversand.  After an hour of being there, we realized that it was a gay bar (just like Wildcat Sunday nights for my UCSB friends!!), and it was a lot of fun!  Great dancing music and lots of fun people!  At midnight, the bartenders handed out candles to sing happy birthday to the king, along with other Thai songs.  They then lit this huge sign that read “long live the king” and everyone stood and cheered for the king.  Obviously I was unable to chant along, but it was a lot of fun.  Happy Birthday H.M. King!

The next day, Monday, was time to trek home.  Again, Jess and I traveled 12 hours back in multiple forms or transportation to make it back to Khon Kaen.  Along the way, we had an hour and a half break between our buses, so we got off at a stop on the sky train that had a huge mall, called the Paragon.  It was all decked out for Christmas and we had heard that in the basement was a stand called “Sunshine Tacos” with Mexican food!  Along with not seeing the ocean, this is the LONGEST time I have ever not had Mexican food, I have it like 4 times a week back home!  We both bought chicken burritos and splurged quite a bit to add cheese, sour cream, and guacamole.. but it was worth it.  A perfect ending to an amazing weekend.

This week is only a three day week.. Constitution day on Friday!  At this moment, I’m loving Thailand. I’m planning island trips every chance I get.