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elanamatic: Island Fresh
So I wrote a long wordy detailed update about our journey while in Ko Samui yesterday, only to accidentally delete everything@!#$ I was frustrated for a full ten minutes and then remembered that I am on holiday.
I won't go into all the gory details of Samui as we are already in Ko Tao and have hit upon a zillion mis/adventures since last night's failed post. The short and sweet of it is we stayed at the Long Island Resort and it was a slice of paradise. Beautifully landscaped, very relaxed with nice attention to detail.
While on Samui, we explored Chaweng (pronounced Shawing! - party on Garth.) Think of Key West meets Canal Street with honking jeeps, American fast food chains and a generous handful of Thai transvestites thrown in for extra flavour. We couldn't wait to find a more remote locale.
Last night, the dude (who is sadly covered in an itchy red heat rash) wanted to take me out to a nice restaurant called Starfish and Coffee. We knew it was off the beaten path but we had no idea how to pronounce Bo Phut and completely confused our "taxi" driver - island transit consists of these red pickup truck/jeeps that careen down the winding roads at breakneck speeds while you hold on for dear life in the back. It took us several tries but eventually we ended up at Bo Phut pier. After another 20 minutes spent wandering down a deserted and dimly lit road, we made our way back to the main strip and found the resto. It was worth the chaos as it was a delicious and elegant dining experience.
Today we hit up Ko Tao. It was a fairly long journey: mini van, to covered truck to catamaran - 2.5 hours of pure nausea, complete with gasoline fumes and a shitty VCD of Mr. Bean and a crap film called CrackerJack 2( a sequel!) starring Judge Reinhold. I couldn't
wait to reach land. When we arrived, the dude wanted to walk to find accomodations.. After 10 minutes of aimless wandering in the heat and down a not so beaten palm tree studded path, I convinced him that we should head back to the main drag and find a taxi. Here the taxis are just pickup trucks, and the roads are barely that. There are still a couple of 7 Elevens but no McDo's spotted to date.
Eventually we reached the bungalows we'd heard of on Sairee beach but they were fairly dodge. So we ate some disappointing pizza (worse then the caf at work!) and decided to make our way to the Charm Charee villas which had been recommended by the owner of the Long Island Resort.
One very winding path later, we found ourselves at the Charm Charee. It is magnificent and so are the prices. We were exhausted so we gave in and will be staying there tonight. One benefit is the amazing private cove at the Jan Son bay that we gain access to by staying at the Charm Charee. After a quick dip, we felt much better and decided to head out.. On our way we found an amazing place called Sensei Paradise. It's unbelievable! We will be staying there tomorrow night. With shelter under control we are off in search of food and drink. More soon...
PS. I kinda want to start calling the dude the skipper while we're away cos he's looking very Gilligan Island in his floppy hat but he didn't appreciate that so much ;-)
PPS I really don't miss Toronto at all. I do miss the people though, please keep sending e-mails, they're grrrreat.
