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Thursday, 8/5 

From this day on I didn't take notes, so I'm writing from my memory (ack!) and in consultation with Amy.

Wake-up call 3:30 am!!

We got up, got ready and went to check out. I was really in need of clean clothes and thought I was going to have to resort to wearing some dirty, stinky clothes. Since Amy is half my size, I knew I couldn't wear any of her clothes, but then we remembered her "one size fits all" wrap pants that she had bought in Chiang Mai. Yeah!! Not the most flattering outfit, but at least something clean for me to wear!!!

We went to the lobby, checked out and then left our suitcases with the bell captain. Since we would be staying on Koh Samui for only one night, we each took one carry-on bag, but they were very heavy carry-ons. Besides our clothes and toiletries, we also had some clothes that we had attempted to wash and had not dried yet. I didn't want to leave them sitting in a plastic bag in our suitcases for two days. Our taxi driver from the day before was there, as promised, and we had him take us to the airport. We checked in easily -- the airport was pretty deserted. Our flight was scheduled for 6:00 am on Bangkok Air. There were a couple of computers with free internet in the waiting area, so I checked my email.

We arrived at Koh Samui around 7 am and took a shuttle bus to the terminal. From there, we took a taxi to Chaweng Beach. Because we wouldn't be able to check into our hotel for several more hours, our plan was to just stay on the beach in the morning and just relax. We found a couple of beach chairs and both fell asleep.         

Amy slept the entire time, but I slept off and on. While awake, I people watched, went to feel the water and watched the little crabs in the sand.

Around 10:00 am (I think), I woke Amy up and decided we should head towards our hotel. We walked on the beach for awhile, but it turned out to be rather unpleasant as we were still tired, had our heavy carry-on bags and walking in the sand isn't easy. We headed to the street to try to find a taxi or songthaw. Finding transportation on Koh Samui was interesting. We simply had to walk or stand along the street and taxis, songthaws and motorcycles would honk or pull over to ask where we were going and/or see whether we wanted a ride. In some respects it was convenient, but when we didn't want a ride and simply wanted to walk and explore, it got to be a bit annoying.

A songthaw picked us up and dropped us off at the bottom of the driveway to our hotel. I asked if the songthaw driver could take us up to the hotel, but he said no, so we proceeded to climb the hill -- and I do mean CLIMB! The driveway was VERY steep and very long. When we were about 3/4 of the way to the top, an employee offered to carry my carry-on bag the rest of the way which I gladly accepted. After we reached the lobby, I tipped him and I went to ask if we could check in early. The front desk employee checked us in and noticed that I was sweaty and out of breath. She asked if we had walked up the hill and then told me that there is a phone at the bottom of the hill to be able to call the hotel and someone would drive down to pick up the guests. Ahhhh!!!!

After we were taken to our room, we immediately checked out our view. Our room was really nice and we had a wonderful view. Besides looking out over the ocean, we also looked down to one of the hotel's pools.
 

Pictures of our room. Can you tell that Amy is still tired?

We put our wet clothes out on the balcony to dry and got ready to go to the pool. (btw, the clothes were completely dry in less than an hour!).

Amy went down to the pool ahead of me so I could take her picture from our balcony (see picture above). When I went down to join her, I found that there were two upper pools in addition to the pool that we could see from our room.
 

Shallow upper pool with a stream leading to a waterfall into lower pool.

Amy by hotel foliage.

Waterfall to lower pool

We swam and lounged in the sun for awhile. Unfortunately, by this time, Amy and I both had our "monthly visitor", so our ability to enjoy the pools and beaches wasn't nearly as fun and pleasant as we had hoped.

Our hotel provided free shuttle service to Chaweng and Lamai beaches, so we got ready to leave for Lamai beach. While waiting for the shuttle, we noticed a sign welcoming guests checking in that day. We thought it was very nice, but also found it very funny as they had me listed as "Mr." Judy Louff.

We took the shuttle and were dropped off at a hotel on Lamai Beach. We had a 1:00 appointment to get massages at Tamarind Springs. Although we had seen the sign to get to Tamarind Springs on our way to the beach, we didn't know how long it would take us to walk there, so we began heading that way. Along the way, we stopped to shop. I bought a sarong and we bought some postcards. We also stopped to buy a soda.

After a fairly long, hot walk, we arrived at Tamarind Springs (www.tamarindsprings.com). We were given a drink and allowed to sit and relax for a moment while they confirmed our reservation and requested treatments - I had the 3.5 hour Sheer Indulgence package and Amy had the 4.5 hour Divine Decadence package. We chose the herbal oil we wanted used for our massage and then were given disposable underwear, a sarong, a locker key and a basket. We were told to take a shower, change into the sarong and leave everything else in our locker. We then went to the steam room and dipping pool. As we approached the area, we thought someone had been smoking marijuana because of the odor, but we later decided that the smell was natural and coming from the steam room. Amy didn't care too much for either the steam room or the dipping pool at first, but she went ahead and continued to go back and forth once I told her that it was good for tightening up her pores. I normally don't care for the hot-cold routine either, but I did enjoy this experience.

After we were done with the steam room/dipping pool, we walked up a hill to an open pagoda where we were able to have water or tea and wait for someone to come and get us. At this point, there was no talking allowed (or at least just whispers). We went in for our massages. I don't know if the ambiance and massage were particularly relaxing or if I was tired from having woken up so early in the morning (or all of the above!), but I kept falling asleep during the massage. I almost feel cheated because I don't really remember much of the experience.

I finished my massage before Amy, so I went back to take a shower and get dressed. When I went into the shower area, there was a small snake on the wall. I decided to just ignore it, but I kept my eye on it while I took my shower. After I was done washing, I pulled the wrap pants out of my basket and found that they were too wrinkled to wear. Luckily, I was able to wear the sarong I had bought earlier. I went back to the steam room/dipping pool area and sat in one of the lounge chairs and read my book while I waited for Amy.

After Amy was done with her massage, she got ready and we left. She didn't really care for her massage and said that it had given her a headache. We walked back down to the main street and got a ride on a songthaw to Big John's Seafood Restaurant. We had hoped to be there in time for a nice sunset, but instead didn't get there until after it was already dark. On top of that, Amy hadn't worn her Sea Bands, so in addition to already having a headache from the massage, she got very car sick in the back of the pick-up truck on the windy road. AND, to make matters worse, once we were seated out by the beach, there were a couple of people at a table nearby smoking. Needless to say, dinner wasn't as enjoyable as we had anticipated. I don't really remember what I ended up ordering, but we didn't get much since Amy felt so sick. I know I ordered morning glory and I think I might have ordered fried rice and a chicken dish.

We had our leftovers (a lot of leftovers) packed to go. The restaurant had asked us if we needed a taxi back to our hotel when we arrived, so we just sat and waited for our taxi to arrive. While we waited, we watched and listened to the entertainment, which was entertaining only because it was so bad. It was a very poor attempt at a Las Vegas type show with strong disco overtones.
 

After waiting quite a long time, we finally got our ride back to our hotel in a shuttle van. We had no problem falling asleep once we got back!

SAMUI BAYVIEW (Koh Samui) 
    104 Moo3, Bophut, Koh Samui
      Suratthani 84320
      66-77-413-320 or 413-540-5, Fax: 66-76-413-321
 

  . . . . 8/6/04