October 19 - Thailand: Chiang Mai to Ko Samui

We woke up early because we needed to leave for the airport at 10:15, and we needed to get to the bookstore and get some take-away lunch because we had a long travel day ahead of us.  So we headed out at 9:00 to see if we could get sandwiches from Jerusalem Falafel - CLOSED!  Then we went to Gecko Used Book Store (where we were the other night) - CLOSED!  It seems as if nothing in this town opens up before 11:00 except the Internet Cafe.  So that's where we ended up until 9:45.  Gecko Books opened up about then, so we went and sold some books and bought some other books.  The man who owns the store (an American from Langley AFB) told us that we didn't need to get to the airport quite as early as we thought we had, so we piddled around for a little while longer in the book store and then went back to the hotel to leave.

We caught a Tuk-Tuk (rickshaw) to the airport for 50 Baht ($1.10), went through the x-ray machines and got in line to check in.  After about 10 minutes in this VERRRRYYYYYY slow-moving line, Jon looked up to see that our 12:00 flight to Bangkok had been pushed back to 2:00.  It was then 11:00.  After another 45 minutes we finally got to the front of the line and checked in.  Because of the flight delay, they had already rescheduled our connecting flight to Ko Samui, and gave us vouchers for lunch at the restaurant upstairs in the little airport.  So we were quite happy.

Ko Samui

In the end, our 2:00 flight didn't leave until 2:20, and our 5:10 flight from Bangkok didn't leave until 5:30.  So we got to Ko Samui at 6:45-ish which was disappointing because we wanted to see it in the daylight.  Ko Samui is an  island off the east coast of Thailand that's definitely touristy but also a borderline paradise.  Let me put it in perspective: the airport terminal had no walls.  It was a number of thatched-roof huts with people working at wooden counters.  I was immediately charmed.

Jon and I had scoped out the places listed in Lonely Planet and had found a few low-budget bungalows to stay out.  But the "airport" had a hotel desk with a few photo albums of various hotels and bungalows, and we decided just to reserve through them because we didn't want to get out to a place and find out it was full or unaffordable.  Then we'd be left without a taxi driver in the dark.  So we flipped through the albums, found a cheap but clean place, and we hopped in a mini van and were off.

New La Paz Villa

The New La Paz Villa is a cute little collection of bungalows on a beach called Hat Mae Nam.  The rooms are clean, although the sheets are pretty old and so are the curtains.  Our bungalow isn't right on the beach (that was 300 Baht more), but who really cares when it's only an extra 20 seconds of walking?  We settled in and then made our way to the beach-side restaurant for dinner.  We couldn't see the beach because it was so dark, but we could definitely hear the waves!  We ordered dinner and beers and felt ourselves relaxing even more.

After dinner, we sat and enjoyed the fresh air and the sound of the waves.  There were maybe 6 other people in the restaurant, and it had mostly cleared out by the time we were done with dinner.  We ended up sitting and chatting with another couple for a while - Eugene and Jammy from Ireland - who were just beginning their year-long trip.  It was a lot of fun talking to them, and I practically drooled over their Sony digital camera, despite my resolution to boycott proprietary technologies.  Seeing their photos of Chiang Mai made me miss my Canon desperately!  We hung out with Eugene and Jammy until about 10:30, when we all decided it had been a long day and was time to turn in.