Day 96: Ko Samui

Today Pichai and I went our separate ways, he is headed to Bangkok and my plan is to head to Ko Tao, a smaller, less touristy island north of Koh Pha-ngan. As you can tell from the title of this post, I didn't make it there. Once I got to the harbor to purchase my boat ticket, they had already sold out of the tickets to Ko Tao; now I was faced with a choice: stay here an extra night and go to Ko Tao the following morning, which would require me to then take a ferry back past Koh Pha-ngan to get to the airport on Ko Samui; or just go to the big tourist island of Ko Samui. I chose the latter of the two.

Unfortunately, the ferry didn't depart for another 5 hours and I only had 450 baht in my pocket with no ATM in sight. I popped into an Irish Pub, which was across the street, and booked a good hostel and learned a little about the island. After lunch and a couple drinks I had 100 baht left. With a storm brewing in the air, the ocean provided a choppy 2 hour ferry ride. I am usually prone to sea sickness, as any deep sea fisher who has been with me can tell you that, luckily I held my stomach.

Once I got onshore, I had to find a ride to the other side of the island. Being limited on cash actually saved me money. Everyone was asking for 200 - 300 baht, eventually, one guy gave in and gave me a ride for my last 100 baht. When I arrived at my hostel, there was no one there; I waited and waited and no one showed up. Finally this German guy who was staying there showed up. After waiting long enough, we popped into a local restaurant and had some great food.

Later that night, we got together with some other people in the hostel and went to another Muay Thai boxing match. This one was very different from the last. There was no big stadium, it was a stage with seats surrounding it with bars spread amongst the crowd. Ladies (and lady boys) would come up and take our drink orders. They were loud and annoying. Almost every westerner that was there had a Thai prostitute around his arms, no lie. There was even a father and son in front of us with two of them. Talk about a father son moment. It was pretty disgusting to realize what was around us, but then again, it is Thailand. The male fights were much better than the ones I had seen in Phuket, you could actually feel the pain from each successful kick.

The fight ended late and most of us just took it easy in order to see the island tomorrow.