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Move-It, Move-It (Part II)

16 November 2005

When we landed in Thailand-- oh yeah, I needed to explain the problems in HK first!

Our tickets were purchased and confirmed- I had visions of them being mailed (sea freight class of course) to the US for our use. However, the airline wasn't that dumb, and they were waiting for us at the airport. No worries. And, we can pay for that excess baggage there, too! When we got to the airport (a Marie "3-hours for safety and some duty free" early, the check-in desk didn't have the tickets yet. They showed us the boarding passes just to taunt us.

Try Back One Hour

Grabbed some lunch (for history's sake, the same restaurant in the airport that I ate at the last time I left, even think I had the same dish...), and we were able to take care of business.

Now, a quick 3-hour hop, skip, and jump later, we land in Koh Samui "International" airport. Many people (including Marie) remember when it was just a dirt runway. It's growing, but it hasn't lost its charm yet. The runway is actually concrete now, it has navigational aides, and supports daily flights to a couple international destinations, as well as their mainstay of about 20 flights a day to Bangkok.

The airport terminal is open-air, and utilizes moats to separate arriving and departing passengers. The only way through is the immigration counter.

Visa on Arrival: 1,000Baht

This little sign gave us quite a scare. We didn't have any Baht. Since there is no official price for a tourist arrival visa, I wasn't sure what currency would be acceptable for the bribe. Without swimming the moat and making a run for the ATM, we sure weren't going to be able to pay in Baht!

Fortunately, that desk was not staffed that day, and the immigration official simply looked at us smugly and stamped us into the country.

We hired a whole van to take our stuff to our destination. More expensive, but the help was appreciated. Our first choice from the guidebook was Utopia Resort: Large rooms... we didn't have to read the rest. It was low season, so we didn't expect any problems finding a room close to the ocean, maybe even with air-con. There wasn't so much in the way of large rooms, and the only choice that almost met our needs was three times what we wanted to pay. We then had to ask the driver for other options. He took us to Sea Breeze Bungalows, which was the same price, but we got a bigger room.

Cha-Cha

Slowly, slowly for the uninitiated. Actually, we started off strong: we made it to the huge Wal-Mart of Asia, Tesco/Lotus. This is harder than it might seem; it was 8km away on the Chaweang Main Road (the one farthest from the beach), and we were there to buy More Stuff. Sick of being raped by US cell phone companies, we decided that we wanted to get raped by Thai mobile phone operators. Marie got her very own new phone with Thai phone number. Basic phone, but less than $65 with pre-paid service. ($0.10US per minute, a fair enough rate.) With other necessities like shampoo and conditioner (they must have a better selection there! No.), as well as a good extension cord and sun block we were on our way back to Lamai.

Physically-Fit, Physically-Fit!

Actually, our first task on our first morning was to go for a swim in the ocean. We swam for a good half-hour, and vowed to make it a morning and evening ritual. The little jellyfish and other (natural, mind you) things in the water would not scare us off!

Now slowly, slowly!

We kept up the swimming ritual for three days, then the monsoon started. The waves were too strong to swim in. No, that isn't just an excuse! After that, we wanted to just relax and settle in for a while. I quickly did just that; one day later I got a nasty fever and was able to rest for the bulk of three days in bed.

Southeast Asia Dieting

One of the nice things for a big guy like me in this region is the ease of losing weight. Last extended stay here, I lost 40 pounds in just one night! (Well, not exactly.) Suffices to say that you lose your appetite for a little while, no matter how good the food is.

Somewhere around now, we decided that Samui life was too hectic for us. I was quite scared at the prospect of driving a motorcycle on these roads! People are crazy! I think it is mostly Westerners and Concrete Truck Drivers, but you can see how the combination can get nasty. The other factor is the Buddhist way of driving... take things in stride and don't flinch! (Check out Road Rules for more details...)

We were going to give our old home, Koh Tao a try! We knew that the internet access would be slower, but how much slower could it really be? And, you could get unlimited GPRS access anywhere on the island. (Unfortunately, GPRS is only about 10% the speed of a dial-up phone line.) Our salvation might be in satellite internet access.

Samui International Airport. That's it.

View from Sea Breeze's Beach Restaurant