Tropical Paradise

It’s the last day of our Spring Festival break (Chinese New Year) so I have a little time to finally post some more pictures.

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Here is a little slideshow of our time in Koh Samui, Thailand last week. This island is in the Gulf of Thailand, not the Andaman Sea / India Ocean hit last year by the tsunami. It was a fun town with plenty to do besides the beach and water activities. I could definitely go back there for another week. The people were very nice and gracious. I found their smiles infectious, along with their overall desire to constantly have fun. I loved the traditional greeting (instead of a handshake their gesture is the wai, which is basically a little bow with the palms pressed together accompanied by a nod of the head and the Thai hello: sawat-dii). Besides Chinese and Japanese, most toursits seemed to come from the UK and Europe (France, Denmark, and several eatern block coutries had big numbers) although we did run into a few Americans.

We had excellent weather. The resort was great, we had a wonderful couples massage and some great breakfasts. Carolyn thought the beaches themself weren’t quite as nice as some in Mexico or the Carribean, but we still loved it. And since several people have now asked- although the Thai are traditionally modest, their were still the occasional topless Westerner crowds on the beaches… I guess the Fench will be Fench. It is probably looked down upon by the locals, but then so is crossing your feet at the ankle and you still saw plenty of people doing that as well. (I for one tried to avoid the leg crossing - this is because your foot may point at someone which is very disgraceful in Thai culture. But it’s amazing how hard it is to stop a habit like that when you are being overly conscious about it!). I’m sure they think all of us farangs are uncivilized barbarians anyways. :)   Other highlights included:

- A honeymoon package upon our arrival. Somehow they were confused and we didn't have the heart to set them straight.

- A day trip to Koh Tao. About an hour north of our island by speed boat, the trip itself was quite exciting. They don’t have quite so many regulations there in Thailand, so the speedboat was going well over 45 in the water with a load of about 25 passengers. We were airborne several times. The island itself had decent snorkeling but the coral could have been a little brighter. In their defence, we didn’t get to dock on the best side of the island because the waters were a little too rough there that day.

- Kayaking around Chaweng beach.

- A hike up the waterfalls that left both our quads sore for the next 4 days. It was pretty steep (parts requires the use of guide ropes to pull yourself up) and I clearly was a little out of shape. The scenery was amazing.

All in all, a great relaxing time.