I landed in Thailand on Thursday morning and that Friday Anna and I were out heading down to Koh Samet. The beautiful island in the south. So Friday night Annie and I got to Bangkok and we planned on staying for that night. We stayed at this hotel called The Key. The place was gorgeous. Living the life of luxury. Thank god Anna got a discount on the hotel to make it worth it. Pretty much we got food and then went back to our place to sleep. We ate at this mexican restaurant. It was actually pretty good. Surprising for a place all the way in Thailand. We really just wanted to get as much rest as we could for Koh Samet.

We got up nice and early to head to the bus towards Koh Samet. The bus ride was good, but really uneventful. We got to the pier to hop on the ferry to the island. We were staying at a place called the Vonduerin Villa. The was the second stop on the ferry. It took us about a half an hour to get to the first pier for the first beach. We waited as most of the tourists got off at this stop. After about 10 minutes our boat finally set sail to our destination. We started to turn around the point of the island and started to head towards our beach. Anna and I both looked at each other because there was no dock for our boat to tie up to. “How the hell are we going to get to shore? Well we soon found out.” So what happens is that the big ferry boat anchors to a mooring about 50 to 100 feet from shore. Then, a smaller boat comes to the ferry boat to pick up the passengers. We have to pay 10 Baht to get the ride from the ferry to the shore. As soon as we get to shore we are greeted by the Thai police. Koh Samet is a National Park, so there is a fee to get into the park.

The next 4 days were gorgeous. Well actually there was one day where it rained all day, but that was kind of necessary. I would sit in the sun for maybe 45 minutes and I would get burnt. I don’t know if I was not use to the sun or the sun was way more powerful in Thailand, but I sure did get red. Now we were hopping from bar to bar during the day and night eating and drinking and being merry. We never found the perfect place to just sit around and hang out. One night we went to the Baywatch Bar. We ate their first and had some delicious pizza. Anna said it was the best pizza she had so far in Thailand. We started to drink a little bit and went to the bar. This bar was owned by a “farang.” Farang means a foreign person in Thailand. This man who is named Robert has owned the Baywatch Bar for 12 years. He was from Holland. He decided to move from Holland to go to Australia with a stop over in Thailand. He went to Koh Samet for a little while and he never left. He purchased the bar and has been there since. He still has his ticket to Australia hanging up. Anna and I got there finally on Monday night, so the rest of our trip we were at that bar. It was cool and interesting to talk to this man who just picked up and left everything to start a new life. So we enjoyed Robert and his bar tremendously. I know that I would recommend his bar to anyone who goes to Koh Samet and I am pretty sure Anna would agree.

Our trip was really good. It was very relaxing to lay on the beach for four days straight. It was a perfect vacation to start my life in Thailand. We left the island the same way we got to it. We had to take a small boat to our ferry boat. Then the ferry boat brought us to the mainland of Thailand. Now, it was off to Bangkok to catch our bus to Suphanburi. The place where I teach at and live at.