After Chiang Mai, we flew to the east coast of Thailand to have some beach time. Koh Samui is a small island with a few main beach towns, and we loved it!! Just a little piece of paradise.
High Points:
1. View. The view from our hotel was gorgeous!! Our hotel was made up of 6 villas, each villa with a terrace and windows facing the beautiful view of the ocean. And then there were the infinity pools with the same amazing view. At night, we could see various fireworks shows from the beaches below.
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| Our poolside villa |
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| Deck with jacuzzi spa |
2. Massages. We got "traditional Thai massages" at our hotel spa. These were very interesting. First, we had to put on "traditional Thai massage outfits", which were enormous red pants that tied up around the back of the waist, and funky boxy collared yellow button up shirts. Mine looked like a funny sumo wrestler outfit, and Colin's shirt looked like it might bust off at any point! We couldn't stop laughing. We wanted a pic but it hadn't occurred to us to bring our camera to the spa. Oh well! In Thai massage, they basically are up on the massage table with you putting you into funky yoga poses and making clapping noises all over your body. It is not always the most relaxing experience. Certain points were in fact painful. But afterwards, we did feel pretty relaxed! It was also just highly entertaining.
3. Beach time. We took a walk to the only tour site in all of Koh Samui - a certain rock formation. Then we just wandered along the beach until plopping down for some drinks and sun. The beaches were great and the water was a good temp - not as cold as CA but not as hot as the bathtubs in the South! We loved it.
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| Coral Cove Beach |
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| Do you see what we saw? They call it "Grandmother and Grandfather". Thai people cracked us up. |
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| Rocks at the end of Lamai Beach |
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| Lamai Beach |
4. Food. Ah, the food. We ate at the same little table for two at the hotel restaurant every day, and it was always delicious. One night we got room service and ate dinner on our deck so we could enjoy the view from the room. Combination of high points #1 and #4 was fabulous. We guessed that someone Western was involved in the establishment because it was the sort of Thai food that did not freak us out. Green curry, red curry - all amazing! Sure enough, when we met the owners we found out that they are San Franciscans who live on the island 6 months out of the year. We became fond of them and they took great care of us - showing us around the island and being awesome hosts.
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| Enjoying lunch at our little table for two. On the first day, the music playing randomly played the same song we danced to for our first dance for the wedding. Such a crazy coincidence, considering we were supposed to spend our honeymoon at this hotel. |
Low points.
1. Colin and I both experienced extremely minor setbacks. For Colin this was in the form of a lobster sunburn. For me, this was in the form of my old black flip flops finally breaking. For both of us (and for other folks at our hotel in the case of Colin), it proved to be a pretty good laugh.
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| Colin hamming it up with the flower and sunburn... our waiters were entertained. |
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| Goodbye black flip flops - hello gas station pink plastic things Colin bought for me while I stayed put! |
2. It rained!!! On our first day there, and part of the second day, it absolutely poured!!! We had heard that there are showers intermittent throughout the day (sounded Hawaii-esque) so we expected that, but even the locals seemed a little baffled by the crazy storm that hit the island.
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| Sad day at Chaweng Beach |
High point out of low point: the rain gave us more time to explore Chaweng Beach, shop and get more massages. Colin enjoyed a foot massage while I got a pedicure. The foot massage also apparently included shoulders, neck and head. Colin was cool with that - an old pro at Thai massage by day 2.
Ending on a bright note:
Really, we couldn't complain too much about the rain in light of shopping and massages. It was a great trip with memories to keep us warm through the rest of the cold, rainy and snowy German winter.
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| A little bit more color on both of us compared to the photos from Bangkok! |
And for the first time in a while, we have no trips planned! Well, other than the fact that we are going home! We can't wait to see our families very soon.
