Thai-slands are a girl's best friend- Part du

After a longtail to Krabi, a shuttle (which really means bench seats in the bed of a pick-up) to the bus, the bus across to the other coast to Surat Thani, another bus to the pier, the ferry to Koh Samui and finally a taxi to a guesthouse, I was super stoked to be on beautiful Lamai Beach. Just lovely! Having really no idea about exactly what area onthe island was the best to go, I just headed in the direction of my friend Sinead's brother's bar in Lamai. Unfortunately, I never actually got to see Hugh since we kept missing each other each night. But I was in heaven on this stretch of beach. Uncrowded and serene, to date, this is the best beach I've been on. The water was clear and calm, the ocean floor was sand as far as I could reach, and the temperature was perfect. Nice. I think I could've stayed on that beach for at least another week.
I hired a motorbike here on Samui to explore the rest of the island, especially a bit more inland. Then I headed up north towards Big Budda and saw some of the Wats up there. I don't know why, but I'm absolutely fascinated by the monks. I love them. They're so adorable in their orange robes. I tried to get a good shot of their laundry hanging on the line. It's more difficult than you think, actually, to get photos of the monks themselves. I always feel 'bad' for trying but of course I still do. hehe
Big Budda on Samui was my first Wat in Thailand. Little did I know that there are gazillions of them and many, much more intriguing. Once inside the temple, certain praying areas are designated for the monks. Traditionally, every male is supposed to become a monk for a short period of his life. I was admiring the shutters on the windows of the Wat that were so ornately wood carved. I could swear that my dance teacher, Miss Nelda, had me do this move in some acro routine as a kid. Honest!
Wanting to explore a bit more inland, I hired a motorbike not realizing that you need a freaking monster truck to pass on some of these roads. It was actually quite humerous trying to attempt on a scooter. Once a strong burning smell began to eminate from the bike, I think it was best to abort the mission and get on my way. Fun though I'll admit.
After four glorious days on Koh Samui, it was time to move on to Ko Tao. Parting is such sweet sorrow from the beaches that you love. I was only hoping that Tao had equally mesmerizing shores. Once again ferried over to the island, stopping mid-way to drop all of the young, party kids off on Ko Phangan since the full moon party was only days away. Trying to keep hydrated and trying my best not to have umpteen number of plastic bottles. I chose the mega 6 liter bottles. People look at you quite funny when trying to drink out of one.
Arriving in Koh Tao was again, wonderful. There are a sleu of guesthouses along the Sairee beach. Much to my luck, there was a gorgeous black lab belonging to the neighboring beach bar, whom I named George. He seriously spent all day, everyday, playing in the water and befriending tourists on the beach. I LOVED him. He might be the only black lab I've seen in Asia. He was a super friendly dog. He also loved to play, stealing peoples flip-flops or snorklers fins. I don't know if they got a kick out of it, but I thought it was hilarious.
On Koh Tao, I rode a much more appropriate bike for the roads. I don't know what you call it, but not knowing anything about motorbikes, I'd liken it to an over-sized dirt bike with massively treaded tires. What do I know? Nada. But, it was the best choice for manuvering the roads. I drove the entire island and discovered some absolutely stunning beaches on the East side of the island. Water clearer than any swimming pool I've been in. Too bad I didn't have snorkle gear at the time.

On the island are nearly 45 different dive shops. Which is crazy for such a tiny island. Obviously this is why people come here, it's laden with great dive spots. Surprisingly, they are not very competitive in their prices. However, I did come across one shop that had ridiculous deals for fun dives since I'd already done my training in Bali. So the next couple of days I did 4 dives. Most of which were pretty great, and I was a bit nervous since it'd been a month since I'd last dived. I was not sure I'd remember everything. But, alas, it did all come back and I was much more at ease with it then I had been before. Only the last dive had bad visibility which is not so terrible I think.
I had some absolutely lovely shots of me in all of my gear. You'll have to look thru my web album to see them though. In rememberance of all my days in pointe shoes in my youth, I was blessed with two massive blisters on my big toes and another across my achilles. It's incredibly difficult to keep sand out of those areas and the salt water burned me for days. I almost forgot how much pain I used to put myself through.

The last, sad, sad day on the island I went the the postcard-perfect, neighboring island Koh Nangyuan. Surrounding this little cluster of 3 tiny, connected islands, are loads of dive sights and fabulous snorkling in the Japanese Gardens. This is where I suffered a stupidly accquired sunburn on the entire backside of my body from snorkling for too long and not reapplying my sunscreen. I'm an idiot. At least I got rid of those old tan lines on my bum.
It was now time to move on from the island paradise and head into mainland Thailand. Boo. I mean, I was very excited, but very, very sad to leave the sand, sun and water. I headed out the next day to get the ferry to Chumphon. While waiting I snapped a shot of the entry to a shop that tickled me.



Check out more pics at
http://picasaweb.google.com/candimichael/ThailandKohTao#
http://picasaweb.google.com/candimichael/ThailandKohSamui#