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Friday, 8/6

I had considered going on an all-day Ang Thong National Marine Park tour this day, but we decided against it. We thought we'd take the day a little easier -- unfortunately, it didn't really turn out that way.

I got up first and, because Amy was still sleeping, I went to have breakfast. It was SO nice sitting out outside, eating and reading my book. Heaven! Amy joined me and we finished up. I called the front desk when we got back to our room and asked if we could get a late check-out. They seemed reluctant, but agreed to let us check out later than 12:00. We went ahead and pretty much packed everything, then left to take the shuttle to Lamai Beach again.

After we were dropped off at the shuttle hotel, I asked if we could get towels from the hotel to use on the beach. They gave us guest passes to take out onto the beach and present to the employee for towels. We found a space on the sand and proceeded to relax. Of course, we had to go and feel the water too! While we were laying out, several people walked up and down the beach trying to sell various items. Amy bought a popsicle and I bought a bamboo pipe (musical, not smoking!).

After awhile, we left to go and see the Grandmother and Grandfather Rocks (Hin Yai & Hin Ta). Over time, these rocks have been shaped by wind and water to look like female and male genitalia.

We walked up the street, stopping at the same shop where I’d bought my sarong and looked at more clothes and bought more postcards. We asked how far it was to the rocks and were told about 2 kilometers, which we figured is about 1 mile. We decided that we could walk that distance easily and started walking. We walked and walked and walked and walked. Along the way, we stopped at an outdoor shop that sold all sorts of cheap knick-knacks. I was thrilled when I found hair clips because I’d forgotten mine back at the hotel and having my hair up off my neck made a world of difference in being able to keep cooler. I bought 3 and later bought another 3 in Bangkok because they were so cheap, yet really well made (better than the ones I’d brought from home!).

We asked them at the shop if they knew how much farther the Grandmother and Grandfather rock were. Luckily, I had bought a postcard of the rocks, so I was able to show them the picture when they didn’t understand what we were saying. Funny enough, they told us…about 2 kilometers. So, we started walking again. Along the way, we were stopped and honked at NUMEROUS times by songthaw and motorcycle (mostly motorcycle) drivers. We kept walking until I stuck my head into a shop, showed them my postcard and asked them if they could tell us how much further it was to the rocks. You guessed it….2 kilometers! Again we began to walk, but we were beginning to feel very tired, very frustrated, very hot and very anxious because we were running out of time. I asked a girl on a motorcycle who was stopped on the side of the street if she could tell me how close we were to the rocks. Thank goodness, she just said she didn’t know. We walked a bit further wondering just how far these rocks really were. We saw a Caucasian woman carrying groceries walking across the street towards us, so we asked her if she knew where the rocks were. She couldn’t give us an amount in distance, but she said that we weren't and that she is staying very close to the rocks and walks to the store everyday. She gave us directions, but we just ended up following her since she was obviously walking back home.

We walked down a street that soon turned into a pedestrian road lined mainly with gift/souvenir shops. Amy bought a wind chime and asked to use the shop’s restroom. She came back out right away and told me that she couldn’t use it because it was so dirty. We found out that there were restrooms at a restaurant near the rocks, so she tried going there next. Still, no go (literally). We went ahead and walked out on the rocks. Grandfather Rock was very apparent – standing tall and proud.
 

We took a couple of pictures and looked around a little bit. I had read that Grandmother Rock was a little harder to find, but Amy had to use the restroom so badly that we didn’t really have time to look for it. As it turns out, we were standing on the top of Grandmother Rock and didn’t even know it.

We walked back to the shop area and found a pay restroom. Amy went and said that it was just barely better, but it was better enough that she could use it.

 We were feeling very pressured to return to the hotel so that we could check out, so we took a taxi back to Lamai Beach. That’s when we discovered just how close we really were! The taxi took us back to the shuttle hotel on a small road running parallel to the beach. We, on the other hand, had walked inland to a busier street and then walked back out to the beach. Argh!!!

 We went back to the hotel, checked out and then just looked around more of the hotel. We discovered that there was another pool on the other side of the hotel from our room – 4 pools!! Amy was hungry and we had all our leftovers from Seafood Market and Big John’s Seafood, so I asked the kitchen if they could heat up the food and Amy ate it all.

The pool we could see from our room (bottom) and the two smaller  pools on upper levels.

Beautiful view
 

I had forgotten that I wanted to take a picture of Amy on our balcony so we could see where our room was, so I asked the front desk if they would let us back into the room for a moment. They seemed a little reluctant at first, but then simply unlocked the door and left us alone.

Our room – middle level, far right

I tried to take a picture of the driveway on the way going up to the hotel, but the picture doesn't really give you much of an idea of just how long or steep the driveway is.

So, I took a picture from the top of the driveway looking down towards the street. The small green roof in the center of the picture is where the phone is to call up to the hotel.

In addition to providing free shuttle service to Lamai Beach, the hotel also provided the same to Chaweng Beach. Although the shuttles were to run on the hour, apparently there weren't enough people needing this service to do so. Because we were basically loitering while waiting for the "next" shuttle, we were finally just asked if we wanted a shuttle ride. We told them that we wanted to go to Chaweng Beach and, a short time later, we left.

I had expected to be dropped of at another hotel, similar to our Lamai Beach drop-off. Instead I think we were simply catching a ride with an employee running an errand, so we were dropped off at the side of a street. The street was fairly narrow and VERY  busy -- lot of shops, lot of people, lot of bars & restaurants, lot of traffic. Amy and I began to walk and shop. We saw another vendor selling carved soap flowers (like the ones Amy had bought in Chiang Mai), but this time the vendor was also carving the flowers right there.

We stopped in a sporting goods store to try to find something for Bryan, but were unsuccessful. We also stopped in a book store, getting a respite from the heat and giving our arms and shoulders some relief from carrying our heavy bags. I ended up buying a book for Craig after I found out from an employee that it was brand new, so I was sure that Craig didn't have it yet.

Because Amy and I seemed to be interested in looking at different things and because it was really difficult for me to quickly maneuver through the sidewalk traffic with my large, heavy carry-on bag, I told her that it was alright if we got separated and we would just catch up to each other. My "rule" when shopping at swap meets is that, if we get separated, we just wait and meet at the end of the aisle before proceeding to the next aisle. I assumed that Amy knew this and would apply the same "rule" to shopping along the street (stop and wait at the first intersection before proceeding to the next block). I kept making my way slowly up the street, stopping to rest my shoulder along the way. I came to a small street (almost like an alley) and decided to keep going since I was sure that Amy was ahead of me. I finally came to a major intersection and waited and waited. I finally started back-tracking although I couldn't imagine that I could have bypassed her. I walked all the way back to where we had separated and turned around again. I got to the intersection again and repeated the same actions -- wait and wait, turn around, walk back, turn around, walk back again. By this time, I was getting pretty anxious. I couldn't figure out where she could be and didn't know how I was going to find her. I even debated taking a motorcycle taxi to drive me up and down the street to look for her, but I didn't know how to explain what I wanted to the drivers. When I returned to the intersection the third time, I decided to cross and take a look further down the street. I walked a little further and found Amy sitting along the sidewalk listening to her CD player. She was hidden from my view from the intersection because the street had curved slightly. I was annoyed that she hadn't followed the "rule" (she said she didn't know about the "rule"), but I was also very relieved to find her.

We caught a taxi and were on our way to Wat Phra Yai (Big Buddha). My thought was that we would try to get there sometime around sunset and then find a restaurant on the beach to have dinner before going to the airport for our flight back to Bangkok. The taxi dropped us off and we had to walk quite a way before we got to a small shopping area with the Big Buddha at the end. I don't understand why we had so many drivers on Koh Samui who didn't take us all the way to our destination, but just dropped us off nearby instead. Once we got to Wat Phra Yai, Amy didn't want to take off her shoes and go up, so I went alone.

It was pretty deserted at the top and I walked around the Buddha and looked out at the ocean in solitude. It really was very beautiful and very peaceful.
 

While I was up on the landing, I was able to look down onto the shoreline and saw some areas where I thought we could go and sit and try to watch the sunset. I went back down and got Amy and we found our way around the Big Buddha to the water. One area had some big rocks where I thought we could climb and find a seat, but some other people just beat us to them. So, we went a little further and saw something that looked like part of a dilapidated sea wall. Getting to it was a little unpleasant as we had to side-step our way through trash and broken glass, but it was really nice once we got there. We sat there and talked and watched the sky change (although it didn't change much since it was so cloudy). Having seen numerous pictures of the beautiful sunsets in Thailand, and particularly on Koh Samui, I was really looking forward to seeing them myself and taking my own pictures. Instead, this was the extent of our Koh Samui sunset -- maybe not as spectacular as most and a little bit of a disappointment, but I still think it was nice.
 

When it began to get dark, we went and looked in a few of the shops. A songthaw that had previously dropped off what appeared to be a guide and 3 tourists was there to pick them back up. The driver asked if we needed to go to the airport. Although I had wanted to try to find somewhere for dinner, I was concerned that we might not be able to find another taxi or songthaw as the area was somewhat remote and I had not noticed many restaurants or businesses on our way to the Big Buddha. So, we went ahead and got a ride to the airport -- without dinner and a couple of hours before we needed to be there.

There was a LOT of traffic when we got to the airport -- bumper to bumper, both directions, on a very narrow street. We were dropped off at the side of the street just outside the airport. As we were standing there, debating what to do, a man on a motorcycle attached to a roti set-up asked us to move. We thought he was leaving and Amy wanted to get a roti, but he simply wanted to park where we were standing. As soon as he was done setting up, Amy got a banana chocolate roti.

I wanted to take a picture of the front of his cart to show the different kinds of roti he offered, but I had to stand in the middle of the street, dodge traffic and take quick shots. It took me a couple of tries and this was the best.

Amy enjoying her roti.

While Amy was eating, the traffic died down. We went across to the airport since there was nothing around. It was too early for us to check in, so we just waited. We went and looked in the gift shop, but it soon closed. The food area was already closed and the small bookstore closed about the same time as the gift shop. So, we found a place to sit (steps of the gift shop) and Amy listened to her CDs while I read my book. Occasionally, I would check to see if it was time for us to check in. Our flight was finally able to check in, so we went and got our boarding pass and paid our departure tax (400 Bht).

Then, we waited again. Not only had we arrived early, but the flights were running late. Our flight was supposed to leave at 9:20 p.m. I think it was closer to 11 pm by the time we finally left. We were the last flight out and it looked like there were no flights coming in as the airport basically was closing while we waited. The lights were being turned off and employees were leaving. We finally moved into the waiting area (I think we were the last ones) and they confiscated my little Leatherman Micra tool when they x-rayed my bag. I had forgotten all about it and it had passed through the security check in Bangkok. They told me that they would give it to the pilot and I could reclaim it once I got to Bangkok. The waiting area had free internet service again, but I was barely signing on when they called for boarding, so I didn't get to check my email. We all boarded trams and were shuttled out to the plane. Interestingly, our flight was with Bangkok Air, but we were put on a plane that had Angkor Wat Air printed on the side. Same airline?

When we arrived in Bangkok, we waited at the counter to retrieve my "weapon". While we waited, I asked the employee about how much it should cost to take a taxi to the Asia Hotel. He told me 200 Bht. We had to wait quite a long time, but I finally got my Micra back. We went outside and saw a line at the taxi stand, so we got in the back of the line. We were all waiting, but no taxis were arriving to pick up passengers. There were, however, taxis parked a little further back. After waiting a little while, I walked up to the front of the line to see what a sign said. It was a sign indicating that there is a 50 Bht airport taxi fee. We waited a little longer and then, because we were so tired, we decided to just approach one of the taxis and ask them how much it would cost to take us to our hotel. The taxi driver told us 250 Bht, which we accepted since it probably would have ended up costing us that anyway (200 Bht ride + 50 Bht airport fee) and we were off.

We got to our hotel and easily checked in again because I had prepaid and had my printed confirmation. Because we were going to be in this room for three nights, I had opted for a Deluxe room. I was a little disappointed when I was told our room number as it was only on the 5th floor and I had requested a room on a higher floor, but we were too tired to argue. When we got to our room, it was indeed quite a bit bigger than our previous room at the Asia Hotel, however, I was still more than disappointed. I had requested a non-smoking room and we were given a very smelly smoking room. I went back to the lobby to ask to have our room changed and was told that the hotel was completely booked. I wasn't happy, but there wasn't much I could do. I asked if they could send someone to our room with air freshener. Soon after I got back to our room, the housekeeping employee arrived and sprayed the freshener all around. It helped for a little while, but the smell was soon apparent again. We decided that we would ask them to leave the freshener with us the next time. We were further disappointed when we opened the drapes to see what kind of view we had. We had a lovely view of the fire escape and nothing more. Oh well...may pen ray.

ASIA HOTEL (Bangkok)

  . . . . 8/7/04