February 5th, 2023

On February 1, we got up early and caught a taxi to the airport, driven by the most stand-up driver ever. I felt so safe. Our flight to Koh Samui was relatively smooth. It was so exciting to look out the window and see the islands and the aquamarine ocean. We caught a shuttle to our hotel for 400 baht; seems like this place is going to be more expensive. As we drove through the island, it felt like the entire industry of this place was tourism. We checked in, got some laundry done, ran some errands then went to a restaurant called the pink orchid for lunch. We got massaman curry and larb, with pina coladas!! It felt like we were celebrating a new stage of the vacation. We walked to grandmother and grandfather rocks, a lookout over the ocean. Max forgot his sunglasses so we went back to the restaurant, then headed to the beach to swim and read for multiple hours.

When we got back to our hotel, we booked a tour to Ang Thong national park with a weird tour information guy named Eddie who convinced us to do the VIP instead of the economy tour. He somehow had zero concrete information but was so forceful about how boring the eco option was, and how great the VIP option was, and he swore a lot but was oddly likeable?

Max tried to get a haircut, but it was unsuccessful because everything was already closed. I finished my book! And I loved it.

We went to a restaurant on the beach, then Max was still hungry so we went to the night market to get pad thai. Finally, we went to an Aussie bar to watch a South African karaoke star sing and play his guitar through the likes of eminem, shaggy and ed sheeran. It was quite something. On the way home, we went to get delicious street pancakes.

We continued to some viewpoints of different limestone rocks, then stopped at an island with a hike to a beautiful viewpoint. On the way up, we saw monkeys again! We just seem to have incredible luck with timing for monkeys. We were done the hike before most people, and our guide said that we had time to ko for a kayak. Our guides were lying on the beach smoking weed when we came down and they looked genuinely shocked to see us back so early. Kayaking was fun but the paddles were very heavy. A good workout!

We then piled back onto the motorboat to go to lunch on another island. They had really good fried chicken, and we saw horn bills. The guides smoked some more doobies - I think Max is quite jealous of their lifestyle.

Our final stop was an island with an inland sea called the blue lagoon. It was a short hike to a lookout over the lagoon, which was very beautiful. Finally, we hung out on the beach until it was time to head back. Some Americans asked us where we were from, and we said Vancouver and they said “darn! I would have bet any money you were from Colorado”, which we think is a compliment.

We boated home, got dropped at our hotel and had showers. We went out for dinner at the night market, then stopped at a deadly cocktail bar with a funny marble movie theme on the way home and sampled a few interesting cocktails. We also went to an Irish bar and watched a sick Singapore rock band. We got another pancake dessert from a different guy who actually made it better, for cheaper. Max didn’t think it was possible.

We woke up on Feb 3, packed up, checked out and got breakfast at a bakery. Max got baby spider dogs with his omelet which were very odd looking. The taxi to the ferry was 600 baht; they certainly know they have you hamstrung. We got on the ferry and made it to Koh Phangan. Having learned our lesson (we thought), we rented a motorbike and loaded it up southeast Asia style for the ride across the island, which included a steep climb in and out of the mountains. I was on the back navigating with two panniers across my shoulders, and by the end the slightest bump or change of speed hurt my shoulders so much. We definitely had some troubleshooting to do on our set up. We checked into our hotel then went to beach to read and swim, but partway through we got caught in a huge rainstorm. When it cleared back up, we hiked (or rather, bushwhacked, classic Max and Keelin style) to a viewpoint of bottle beach, which was a narrow rock edge super high above the ocean. The view was amazing!! I am glad we made it.

The next day we went for a great breakfast, then took the motorbike out to circumnavigate the island. We went south to see the beach where the full moon party happens (planned for tomorrow! We will just miss it), and hiked up to a viewpoint overlooking the beach. Then we went to a place with a “secret beach” which could only be accessed via a nude beach. The water was so beautiful and clear, but the rocks were very painful to walk on. We stopped for lunch and fruit smoothies by another beach, and then continued on to Koh Ma, a funny little island attached to the mainland by a spit of sand. It’s insanely busy in some areas, presumably because of the approaching full moon. We went to a waterfall and swam in the pool, and then attempted to go up a mountain but the lady said we didn’t have time to hike to the top before dark. Little does she know, we are speed hikers!! Just kidding, we continued home to shower. We went for dinner on the next beach over from our hotel, which was very delicious. We were served pineapple rice in an actual pineapple!!