No problem, we headed to Ko Phangans' bigger sibling, Ko Samui. This used to be a backpackers mecca, but now has an airport and is unfortunately changing into a garish "upmarket" destination. The main beaches, Chaweng and Lamai, are packed full of the usual farang market stalls and the international fast food joints. The island still has plenty to offer though...
We spent our first night at a guest house called Matlang, which the lonely planet recommended but we surely wouldn't!. The floor was sinking, the doors didn't fit, so wildlife could get in, and it was generally shabby. It was raining really heavily that night which didn't help matters at all either.
Not only that, we got dropped off in the complete wrong place, and after walking around in the heat fully laden, we ended up having to take taxi-motorbikes. So each bike/scooter had one little Thai rider, one (scared) kiwi, and a 15+kg backpack. Thankfully they drove like nanas,(unlike most Thai people) so we made it in one piece. Princess swore never to do it with a backpack again. She had nothing to hold on to, so was trying to balance herself on the bike plus her huge pack. Not much fun, especially going up and down hills!
For the second night I managed to haggle a really good deal with a new hotel slightly out of town (and slightly close to the airport...). We got an aircon room, cable TV, fridge and all high quality fittings as well as a scooter rented for our daily accommodation budget.
As you might expect, we explored the island on the scooter...
... Looking like dorks! Safety first, even though I couldn't find a helmet that fit very well. on our first day out, we got caught in some rain. Well, by some, I mean a deluge - Thailand knows how to piss down. It just starts out of the blue, dumps for a short while then stops. We had waited out the first downpour under cover, then tried to make a run when it looked like it was breaking. Unfortunately it was just a lull. We got completely drenched! The fact we didn't really know our way around didn't help, making the trip longer then it should have been. Thankfully nothing important got damaged (passports etc.) and stuff dries here quick anyway.
One of our first stops was to Ko Samui Monkey Theater. We waited for the show to start by wandering around the cages and feeding the monkeys bananas. We were both surprised at how gentle the monkeys were when handed food. They would gently take it after being offered - no snatching like we expected.
Then we found this gibbon (Our first gibbon experience), who loved back scratches even more then bananas! He would look at you and holler "whooo whooo", then turn round and thrust his back against the cage.
We quickly realized that he wanted a scratch, and so we humored him, as he was soo cute... He would put his hand out to hold your hand, and coax you into scratching with the other!
The live show consisted of monkeys doing cutesy things, such as playing guitars...
...juggling flaming sticks....
..and sitting on Toolmans head! The (unnamed) camerawoman had a little trouble holding the camera still sorry (and no, she hadn't been drinking!).
Another place we visited, Namuang waterfalls, happened to have a gibbon too. This little guy was so awesome to play with, and he was out in the open! He did have a leash, but we could play with him. If you have a reasonable (broadband) connection, click on the youtube videos below to see how cute he really is.
*YouTube*
Gibbon and Tim
Gibbon and Princess
*End YouTube*
For those who can't see the video, you'll have to make do with the following pics...
He liked to play fight, and play bite - never vicious, just cheeky!
We actually went back to this site 3 days in a row, as he was so awesome. Not every day you get to play with a gibbon.
The Waterfalls at Namuang were pretty incredible too. There was a lower pool which was filled with millions of swimming farangs, and an upper pool. We decided to be all adventurous and head on up to the top. The lovely man pictured above was our guide and helped us up all the tricky bits. We were pleased about that as it did get quite precarious in some parts! When we FINALLY made it up the top it was well and truly time for a swim. The huge mission up there had probably turned most people off, so there were only a few other people in the pool. The water was gorgeous, just what we needed after our climb. It was quite amazing too, there was a cave under the waterfall that you could go and explore. We spent quite awhile up there soaking up the sun before heading back down.
The above picture is of the lower pool, the one we chose not to swim in. Still incredibly beautiful though!
Poor old Toolman had the misfortune of becoming EVEN older whilst on Koh Samui. It was his 28th birthday on August 22nd. We wanted to do some a little special, so headed off to the Go-Karting track so he could have a blat around. And blat around he sure did! The go-kart could go to a speed of up to 100kms. There were not a lot of safety measures in place, it was very much anything goes in terms of age of drivers, clothing they wore etc. This, we have noticed, is quite typical in Thailand. You pretty much do things at your own risk and cross your fingers in the hope that nothing goes wrong!
Well as you can imagine he had an absolute blast! I mean, what guy wouldn't, blatting around in a really fast go-kart! One poor man had a bit of a nasty mishap though and ended up being carted off to hospital with a rather gruesome looking cut on his leg, but Tim survived safe and sound!
One afternoon we attempted a walk up to the famous Overlap Rock. It was a dirty hot day and the track was hard work! It took at least an hour to get up to where we thought the rock was going to be, but then signs indicated it was even further! We decided to give up at this point and stopped for a drink at a restaurant that was very conveniently placed up there. Princess is standing on it's balcony in the picture below.
We got chatting to a man named Rob who was originally from Liverpool but had been working in Australia for a number of years. He loves New Zealand and it was nice talking with him about the places he has visited there. He gave us heaps of helpful tips for surviving Bangkok which was great. Before we knew it it was getting dark and was time for the mission back down the hill. That definitely wasn't as painful as the journey up and didn't take very long at all.
Another interesting sight we visited was that of the Big Buddha. He certainly has a towering presence and it's quite neat being able to see him as you arrive in Koh Samui by boat. Being a tourist mecca there were many souvenier shops scattered around him. One sold amazing metal figurines as you can see above. We were tempted to send a couple back for our families to put in their gardens, but decided they might be a little too hard to transport back to NZ! OK and possibly a little scary too....
Here is the Big Buddha in all his glory. The stairs to reach him were quite slippery, so we had to be rather careful getting up to the top. All was good though, no accidents.
Hin Tai and Hin Yai (or Grandmother and Grandfather Rocks as they are known in English) were about a 20 minute scooter ride from where we were staying. They are interesting as they resemble the male and female genatalia with a remarkable likeness! As we are really immature we took full advantage of all the awesome photographic possibilities such a sight offered.
Here is Tim in all his 'glory'. Such a funny photo, and definitely one of my finer photographer moments!
Koh Samui also boasts and aquarium/tiger farm. Seeing as animals are on our list of awesome things to see while we are away we decided to check it out. We went through the aquarium first which had some interesting fish, but the tanks were rather dirty and it was hard not to feel sorry for the fish. There was also a massive stringray who was being kept in a small enclosure. It was sad as he couldn't really swim properly, stingrays usually 'fly' through the water and this one really didn't have the space to do it. There were lots of pools of turtles also. You could buy food for them for 20 baht and they were flapping around madly, incredibly eager to be fed.
After the aquarium it was time to check out the tigers, a personal favourite of both of ours. We could get up really close to them, but their cages were tiny which was upsetting. We later read a sign though that said they don't stay in those cages all of the time- just when it is time to do a show- and then they are released into a bigger enclosure. It's hard to know if that's the truth or not, but we had to believe that it was as the other option is just too depressing.
There was a bubby tiger who was absolutely gorgeous. His keeper bought him a bottle, and he was following him around the park drinking from it.
The park was also home to Otters, Monkeys, Birds and a variety of other animals. We saw a show involving these animals and the tigers while we were there. It was cute, but as they always are, very touristy.
Right next to the above attraction was a Butterfly Farm. We have seen some amazing butterflies since we have been here in all sorts of amazing colours, so we thought the Butterfly Farm had potential to be awesome. Unfortunately it wasn't. We saw a few Butterflies, but they weren't particularly interesting, so we didn't spend too long there.
One of my favourite memories from Koh Samui is the amazing Thai Massage we had. I had a sore back from carrying my pack (which I'm sure is the same size as me!) so we decided to try out a massage. The massages are very yoga-esque - you are bent every which way and rediscover muscles you had forgotten you possessed! The massuse uses lots of different parts of her body in the massage. Feet, hands, elbows and arms just to name a few! It is incredibly relaxing and we both came out feeling like new people. It was great.
The week at Koh Samui flew by, and before we knew it we had boarded a boat heading back to Koh Phangan. It was time to party!
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