island paradise

Here we are, our last night on the island of Koh Tao... our group left us this afternoon, so it's just Julie and me from here on out! We feel adequately prepared to handle this on our own, and we're excited to keep on going. We're not done yet! We are having the time of our lives, and loving the journey. So we have a week and a half left, and we are going to make the most of it!

The past few days have been blissful and relaxing... I didn't realize how much I missed the beach! The sand... the ocean... the atmosphere... it feels (almost) like home in California. Well... not really anything like home, seeing as the water is bath-water warm and the sand is white and powdery, but still. I love coming home with salt water dried into my hair and finding sand in my clothes. Reminds me of many trips to Zuma Beach growing up...

Well, we've definitely been enjoying our time on the beach since we've been down here! First was the island of Koh Samui... looking back, it wasn't really the beach I was hoping for, but at the time I was just happy to look out and see the water disappear across the horizon and feel the sand between my toes. Julie and I got off the ferry and were ready to pass out on the beach in the sun, so we did just that! We put our stuff down and walked (nearly ran) to the beach and just took a deep breath in and sighed. We made it. We relaxed on the beach with our group until the sun went down in the sky, and then made our way out for dinner. Chompooh took us to another beach on the east side of the island, Hat Chaweng, and we noticed that everyone had squirt guns out and were soaking each other on the sides of the road.... the Songkran festival had (un)officially begun! The Thai New Year is celebrated on April 12/13 here (year = 2552, as calculated from the life of Buddha) and, originally, Thai people would traditionally splash water on each other as a form of cleansing. Through the years, this has translated into a country-wide water fight. Everyone brings out the buckets and hoses and it is a free for all! Seriously. They don't hold back. So... here we were in our little van, peering out through the glass at what we were about to enter... we prepared ourselves (and our valuables) and stepped outside. Within minutes, we were sprayed from one side by a water gun, and then splashed with ice-cold water on the other. We hurried to find a restaurant (safe zones) and enjoyed a delicious seafood dinner. After, a few of us went with Chompooh down the main street to see a "ladyboy" show -- it was so entertaining! And quite impressive... some of them were amazingly believable. They lip synched their way through a variety of pop songs, and had outrageous costumes to match. Then they invited a few guys from the audience to go up and participate... we volunteered James and Joe :) They went backstage for a few minutes, and then the curtains rose... they were in little tops and mini skirts! We were rolling. It was hilarious. They even got into it a bit too. haha. We, of course, commented on their sexy legs for the rest of the evening :)

We woke up the next morning ready to relax and lay out on the sand. We spent the morning on the quiet beach near our hotel, but our group decided to head to Hat Chaweng (the area we had been the night before) to see another side of the island. We made our way to the street to wait for a songthaew (taxi) and found ourselves in the middle of a waterfight/party on the street! It was New Year's Day, and holiday for the locals, so everyone was out on the street in front of their houses or shops (for those that were open) or bumping along in the back of a pickup truck throwing water in every direction. We had, thankfully, purchased some "weapons" the night before, so we were ready to retaliate! We saw families standing in the beds of their vehicles with a 50-gallon barrel of water, heaving buckets at people as they passed, and those on the streets with hoses would gladly fill them up as soon as they were empty. It was a warzone! We immediately jumped in and started firing away... and were quickly drenched. But it was so hot outside, so we didn't care. We enjoyed the party on the street as we waited for our ride to Chaweng beach, and finally found an empty car to drive us the 20-minute ride to the east side. Well... because so many people were on the road, the 20 minutes turned into an hour and 20 minutes... and because we were sitting in a songthaew, which is basically the bed of a truck with benches and a top, we were an easy target. Traffic quickly turned into gridlock (reminding me of the 405) and everyone on the side of the street found it necessary to run to the back of our truck and heave buckets of water at us. And we could do nothing to stop it. Our puny guns did not do much in return, but we still had fun taking aim at passers-by. The ice-cold water was a bit much though... and then we had people coming up into our car to smear baby powder mixtures onto our faces (still haven't learned the reason behind that one). It was all fun and exciting, for the first half of the ride... then we got a little soggy and decided to hop out and walk. We took a little break, and then made our way through the battlezone once more to finally get to the beach. Unfortunately, because our trip took much longer than planned, we reached the beach much later than we had hoped, so we enjoyed an evening swim and some drinks at the beach bar before returning to our guesthouse. All in all, it was great to experience the festival, but by the end of the day I was wet and cold and ready to crash into our little beach bungalow.

Tuesday morning we woke up ready to head to Koh Tao, or "Turtle Island," which is a smaller island near Koh Samui. I must say... this island is my favorite spot so far. The north was a different type of adventure, so I can't really compare, but since I've been here... I've made a few major realizations in my life, and I must say that I'm happier now than I have been in the past couple years. I feel like I can breathe again, and therefore Julie and I got henna tattooes on our wrists that say "BREATHE" in Thai. I love it. The atmosphere here is so laid-back and people are so kind... there are many western tourists here, and it's a major scuba dive destination, but we haven't really been bombarded by western culture or development. Koh Samui, on the other hand, was rapidly transforming into a tourist-driven western-corrupted island, as evidenced by the THREE Starbucks on the main street in Hat Chaweng. So disappointing. The tourists there were also much more... how can I say this... extravagant. 5-star resorts were popping up all along the beach, and drawing in that crowd. So we were quite pleased to find this island catering more to the backpacker crowd. Our guesthouse sits on this narrow little path that connects a bunch of little shops along the beach, and we have enjoyed walking up and down (from 7-11 to 7-11, as there are 2 at either end) just taking time for ourselves. After spending our time constantly traveling from city to city up north, it's nice to just take a moment to stand back and appreciate the environment that we're in. And we've definitely been making the most of that while we've been here :)

Wednesday our group decided to take a snorkeling tour around the island, so we jumped on board. We stopped at various little coves around the island (4 total) and had the opportunity to jump off into the turquoise waters to explore the coral reefs that enclose the island. The fish are quite curious too, so we were greeted by many colorful friends along the way. While we were at our first stop, we were lucky enough to see a shark! It was only 2 feet long, but still... it was exciting. After we made our way around the island, we stopped at a small island chain off the northwest coast, Koh Nangyuan, which is designated a national park. We had 2 hours to spend there, relaxing on the beach or swimming. Julie and I decided to hike up to the look out point at the top of the mountain, as you can see the small strip of white sand that connects the 3 islands together. It was worth the hike... such beautiful views. We then hopped back on our boat and returned to our island. Wednesday night was the last night for our Canadian friends, as they left yesterday, so we all went out to a nice dinner at a beach restaurant to send them off. Julie and I have had Thai food for every meal -- no western food at all! It is our goal to eat Thai food our entire trip. And we're not sick of it yet :)

Yesterday was a bit more relaxed... we spent time at the idyllic beach near our resort for a majority of the day, and then decided to explore the southern tip of the island with some of our group. Chad, from Australia, had rented an ATV, so Julie and I decided to rent a scooter to join him on his journey south. We ended up renting only one, and I didn't feel safe with someone on the back of the scooter, so Chad ended up making a few trips to taxi people down to the beach we found. It wasn't much different from ours, but it was nice to see a different side of the island. We enjoyed our time there until the sun was pretty low in the sky, and decided to head back to our guesthouse to see the sunset. Might I add... the sunsets here are unreal. We make a point to sit on the beach from 6-6:30 each night to watch the sun as it disappears along the horizon amidst a sky of pink and orange and purple. Beautiful. And now that I just glanced at the clock... it's 5:50, so I have to get off soon! Yikes.

Today has been more of a lazy day... we spent time at the beach with our group, just lounging around until they left us to head back up to Bangkok. We can't believe the tour is over! It feels like just yesterday we were gearing up to head to Chiang Mai... and now we're nearing the end. It was quite an adventure, and we enjoyed every minute. Well, almost every minute. Maybe not so much the leeches :) We will miss our group though, we definitely bonded with them the past few nights. Thank goodness for facebook so we can swap pictures and keep in touch! So after separating from them, Julie took our scooters down to a beach at the southern-most tip of the island, Freedom Beach, and enjoyed some time there. We love having the scooters! A bit of freedom to explore. They are so much fun to ride too :) Well, we've gotta get going.. and I have probably given you more than enough detail to read through! haha. So.. tomorrow we leave Koh Tao to make our way west to Krabi... we're so excited! We've got an idea of what we want to do, but we're free to make our own decisions from here on out... and so the next adventure begins....