Well hello Bangkok, you had us once again for a whirlwind day. Familiar territory, it was odd being in a foreign country and recognising streets. Took a couple of goes to get used to the speedy escalators and a beer to get used to the heat of the food that I didn’t realise I’d been missing so much. Though we were longing for the promised relaxing beaches of Koh Samui.
After the minivan sleep of the night before, the train car with beds and curtains for our overnight journey seemed like luxury. Like if Hogwarts express was real and a dormitory and probably much louder as the train wasn’t magic. Correction just much much louder than any train, do the make trains from pots and pans?

That’s until the toilet visit, squat obviously, but I can now say I’ve pee’d on train tracks (TMI?). Just one of those bucket list items you never knew you had until you crossed it off.

Here’s the ferry haze, the heat here is crazy! (It wasn’t actually cloudy). From 14 degrees of northern Laos to 30 humid degrees. Don’t get all “Christchurch is 29 every day this week”, this is different, our struggle is real- yours is not. Enjoy your air-con.

Our first 3 nights are at Hat Lamai beach in these cute as a button rainbow bungalows.

Swim time! The water was far from the refresher we needed, like a like warm bath, and very shallow (waist deep) but it was lovely to finally get a swim in. Wearing your togs because you have no other clothing needs to be practical.

Our necessity for this was also because we’d handed over our washing earlier in the day to the lady down the road, only to be strolling down the street later to be reunited with our clothes. Undies and all road side. So we gave them a wetness test, still damp and kept on with our stroll. Just like walking past the washing line at home, only with a lot more viewers and it’s Koh Samui.

Someone told someone, told Laura, told me that there was too much writing on this blog, well their wish has been granted and as Laura and I, the most unchilled holiday goers you’ll ever meet, are having a chilled out time the rest of this post from Hat Lamai will be mostly random photos of the sights we’ve seen.

Day 1: R&R
Saw in the day in our little bungalow hut and enjoyed a slightly whorey yet delicious breakfast on the beach.

Cup, from cocktail the previous night: 60 Baht
Cornflakes :40 baht/ box
Mangos :120 Baht/kg
Spoons: We acquired them.
Great view and nutritious start to the day, priceless.

We walked a lot this day trying to find paddle boards, they don’t really do them. Where the heck did the two people we saw get them from!? So we just walked, got sunburnt and died from the heat. Then did as all the others and swam, beach walked and got coconut oil massages. They were $12 and amazing, though some couple kept watching us, creepy. But turns out they just wanted one too.

We tried to kill the day but ended up going for dinner at 5pm… Brown Sugar was it’s name, great price and inspiring menu.

Night time adventures as follows:

We were in bed by 9, god are we turning into our grandparents.

Best discovery of the day: deep fried banana heaven.

We went there twice this day and on our return the following day she chucked in 2 extras, gem.

Day2: Over R&R
We can’t do two days of nothing, that’s nuts. We researched the Na Muang waterfalls (1&2) and realised we’d be ridiculously underwhelmed by the ones on the island considering the ones we’ve seen in Cambodia and Laos and the effort to get there. Most people hire scooters but there’s no way we were driving on these roads!
Instead we explored pre thunder storm.

Found some abandoned site on the way to Chaweng (we didn’t make it that far).

If we decide we’re missing home in the next few days…

We then travelled to the other end of the bay to see the famous (because people are immature and have gutter minds – we laughed) Hin Ta and Hin Yai rocks or Grandpa and Grandma rocks.
Check the crowd.

Grandpa:

Grandma, ha why on earth do they need a life buoy?

I recommend this firstly for the food market where they thrust delicious samples at you and it’s a bit of a laugh…

Some Samui construction practices= rickety bamboo ladder and speeding road.

To break up the 4k walk back we stopped off at Lamai Viewpoint and had the added bonus of seeing the valentine stone and Sivatara Waterfall. If those others were comparable we would have been disappointed. No one else was around so we couldn’t get cute couply photos, sorry folks.

All this before 11am, we’re incredibly efficient tourists.
Lunch consisted of the best Phad (Phat) Thai so far, road side and too busy eating so photo post consumption (so you know it existed).

Afternoon adventures hindered by thunderstorm and freak rain.

The storm finally lifted and before we could head out for night time excitement we were ambushed by a kitten. We were too petrified to touch it. It like…didn’t have it’s jabs or anything, gross, ew. But it was adorable and fell in love with my shoes and jumped into my pack before I kindly lifted it out the door, Laura’s coaxing sucked.

Spontaneous fireworks are always a good start to an evening adventure.

For our last night in Hat Lamai we decided to go see some LADIES “sing” and dance on the recommendation of google and BOY was it interesting. One question, what’s more awkward than going to watch ladyboys perform “cabaret”? Being the only ones.

Thank god some other people turned up! And the show began…

Our favourite fabulous man:

These woman? Men? Ladyboys? Had possibly the best legs Laura and I had seen on either a man or woman before, they were incredible. The rest was just a bit awkward, funny, creepy winks awkward.

We gave them a cheeky bra tip (they actually don’t accept them any other way) and got our photo!

I would recommend this to anyone not so game for a Ping pong show, I don’t blame you! It’s an awkward degree of hilarious. All it costs is one reasonably expensive drink of approx. 300 Baht. Cheap as. Though maybe try Chaweng beach for a more streamline performance.

We like Hat Lamai for it’s chilled vibes and relatively cheap food and drinks, great if you want to lie on a beach but I doubt Laura and I could have lasted another day without getting cabin (beach) fever.

Next stop Chaweng, “the Bangkok of Koh Samui”- the guy who we chatted to at lunch one day who said he might go stay at the same place as us and Laura and I got excited we’d made a friend… We didn’t see him again.

We’ll miss our little hut but can’t wait for the change in pace!