Koh Samui

Day 92 - 25/08/2010 - 22:02 - Lamai, Koh Samui, Thailand

So today is our 3rd day on Koh Samui and we've had an excellent time thus far. Yesterday was absolute bliss. We got up at 9am, went down for breakfast then after that, headed for the beach. We hired 2 sun loungers at 10:45am and stayed there until 3:30pm for a massive £1 each. We sunbathed, went in the sea and just chilled out. Perfect. Only problem was I fell asleep in the sun and my stomach (on one side) is completely burnt to a crisp. I'm in actual agony and over 24 hours later it does not look to be subsiding at all - I've plastered myself with aftersun at least 5 times in this time but so far it's not done anything :(

Today we went on an Island tour, for around £9 each. We did a fair bit today, a 6 hour tour including visiting 3 temples, a big bhudda statue (which is famous here), a viewpoint of Chaweng beach and the grandmother and grandfather rock, which is at the end of Lamai beach about 1km from our hotel. We actually walked there yesterday after we'd left our sun beds but we could only deduce the grandfather rock, we couldn't see the other one (they look like male and female genitals). There were lots of cracks in the rocks, let put it that way! But we saw it today. Exciting stuff. We also saw a cocunut farm where they use monkeys to harvest the fruit and in return they live with the humans on the farm. The monkeys were completely used to humans, and we both got a picture with one on our shoulders! Awesome stuff. To top it all off we went to a nature park. We didn't see much and the main point of it was to go and see a waterfall. That was pretty unspectacular but we did get to sit on top of a jeep to get there and saw numerous elephants around the park - pretty cool.

We got back at around 5:45pm when it absolutely bucketed it down. We headed out this evening in the pouring rain. The reason - I'm having a suit tailored. I really wanted to get one in Hoi An, but didn't have time so I'm getting one here instead. The guy who is the tailor is Burmese and is a really nice bloke and his cousin (who tries to get customers - the guy I orginally met) is Nepalese which sparked a lot of coversation between us all (the Nepalese man is also called Thomas!) I originally wasn't going to go with it, the price was around £120 - I told him my situation (student, doesn't wear suit often, looking for job still) and it's being made for £80 which personally I think is a pretty fair price for both parties. I went back this evening (hence going out in the rain) and it had already been made for the first fitting - it looks amazing. It's a dark grey suit with thin cream pinstripes. Beautiful. Really looking forward to trying it again tomorrow when hopefully it will be that much closer to completion! The tailor Bishnu, also spoke Nepalese and although I told him I couldn't speak it anymore he was impressed that I knew what cold water was in Nepalese! Haha.

There are many taliors in Lamai alone, and some offer suits at cheaper rates, as like a set price. Obviously this one was negotiated instead but I think I've made the right choice, the suit looks amazing! Tomorrow, sun burn permitting we are going back down to the beach for our final full day. I'm going to wear a t-shirt if it's still burnt, won't be much fun though! I've got my eye on a jetski rental, just need to convice Lils! Although my sunburn is so bad I don't think I'll be able to :(

We've also got our travel to Singapore sorted, completing the last piece of the jigsaw. We're flying for 2 reasons - 1 we wanted the extra day in Penang, we've been reading a lot on it and it really sounds that 2 days is better than 1. Secondly, it's fairly cheap. In the end it wasn't an amazing deal - it was £40 including bags etc - but when the train is £15 and would have taken a whole day (8am-9pm) and the flight takes 1.5 hours (8:30pm-10pm) it makes sense. Time is money and all that. So tomorrow we've got to get our ferry ticket back to the mainland sorted - won't be a problem though. What will be a problem is killing 6, probably 7-8 hours at Surat Thani railway station. There is absolutely nothing there, and from what I've heard the cafes shut at 8pm. Great. Should be interesting and if we're that bored (which we could be lets face it) we can always get a taxi to the town - I guess. Money though. It's our last train journey though as we're flying from Penang-Singapore. Ali and Daryl (Laura's aunt and uncle) are taking us by car to KL via Melaca, an ancient town, which should be great - very kind gesture by them. After that, well... 15 hours between Malaysia and England. My home, that I've not seen for 3 months. I miss it very much but I can just see myself in 3 weeks... wishing I was out here again!