Ko Samui

We have arrived at the Beach.

Ko Samui is on the east coast of the peninsula, up near the Gulf of Thailand. We will be a few days here, then up to the adjacent island (Ko Pha-Ngan) which is a little quiter... so we my not be able to get internet access. Blogging may be light.

Also, I mean, we are at the beach.

We flew directly to Ko Samui from Chiang Mai, an uneventful flight (ecxept for the Bangkok Airlines Lounge, where we were invited to sip coffee and read newspapers in airconditioned comfort without the presence of the great unwashed), but into a whole different world, it is hotter, more humid, and ready-to-serve the tourists, kind of.

Getting off the plane, we ran into the taxi mafia. We have used an array of travel options here, including taxis, minivans, sawngthaew (a bench in the back of some guy's pickup), bus, train, subway, and tuk-tuk (three-wheeled passenger motorcycle)

And everything is up for negotiation as far as cost. Today we paid 200 baht each to get from the airport to the beach we are staying at (about 20 km) in a van we shared with a family from Norway (they were staying at a resort in the same direction). Once we bought a ticket from the official airport agent, the guy shuffling vans about tried to upsell us to a private taxi. We declined, and the van was long in coming. Once the guy was convinced we were not going for the upgrade, a van magically appeared. We took the Norwegian clan to their resort (after stopping to pick up the driver's girlfriend on the way) but the driver was not happy about having to go the extra 5 km to the city where we wanted to go. Of course, in hindsight, he might have known more about where we wanted to be than we did, but we paid to get to Bad Bang Po, and that wasn't where we were. In the end, he basically dumped us on the main road about 3km from our requested destination. Bit of a jerk that guy.

Luckily a tourist info/cop shop place was nearby, and we found out where we were relative to where we wanted to be, and managed to flag down a sawngthaew to get there. Another 50 baht down.

We found basic accomodation across from the beach for less than $300 baht. And we are now at the beach.

Something occurred to me. Only one of these cats is a siamese, but both of these cats are Siamese.

Something else ubiquitous and cool: pots full of standing water and plants. You would think mosquito breeding grounds outside your cabin door would be a bad idea in a nation with dengue fever an malaria, but then I noticed the little fish. I suspect they are mosquito-larvae eating fish, and the pots are actually part of a moasquito abatement program. Seems smarter than dumping larvacide in every water body...I'm just saying...

Now back to the beach.