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From Nakhon Si Thammarat, I took a bus to Surat Thani and then a boat across to Koh Samui island on December 10, 2004. It was a beautiful trip on the water, I drank Chang and wrote postcards. I was really happy to be getting out of the monsoon season in Southern Thailand and ready for some sun and sand on the islands. The boat docked at Ban Nathon on the west side and from there it was an expensive 400 baht cab ride to Hat Lamai beach on the southeast side of Koh Samui.
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I was to spend the next ten days at the Spa Samui Resort on Hat Lamai beach doing a detoxifying fasting cleanse. I didn't eat a thing for the 7 days of the program, took a handful of vitamin and herbal supplements, drank bentonite clay mixed in fruit juice and suffered three self-administered coffee/vinegar colemas a day. All to clean out 25 years of toxins and junk in my system. It went well, not eating wasn't so bad and I felt great when I was finished. The spa was right on the beach, had a great restaurant (for when I was done), had a beautiful pool, a herbal steamroom and massage services.
The pool and deck at Spa Samui.
My friends Stinky and John.
From left to right: my colema board set-up in my bungalow, my daily herbal/vitamin suppplements, fruit juice, clay and psillium husk powder.
Chopping coconuts at the spa.
Hat Lamai, Koh Samui
Fortunately and unfortunately, my friends from home arrived the day after I finished the cleanse to spend Christmas and New Years with me. We started drinking immediately.
Jaime and Katie waiing with Ronald.
Matt, Jaime and Katie at our bungalow.
Jaime cut her toe and had to get stitches after stepping on a glass at the pool. The only way she could swim was by wrapping her entire foot in a condom and a couple of plastic bags with lots of tape.
Katie, Matt and Jaime at our first meeting. (Notice the Korean Soju and Chinese cigarettes I brought as gifts on the table. I'm such a nice guy.)
Jaime and Katie and Matt doing something.
Me on a sawngthaew.
Taming a full-grown, adult, ferocious tiger at the Samui Zoo and Aquarium.
I know it looks smaller in the picture on the right, but I swear, it's the same tiger.
A spirit house near the beach. Apparently, you build one of these and spirits will inhabit it, instead of your own home. You have to make it a nicer place than your own home though, of course, by filling it wil little dollhouse furniture and making daily offerings of food and incense. The spirit house is so important, its location is decided before the plans for the real house are even drawn-up, it can't be shaded at all by the main house and must be in an 'auspicious' location.
The 'Grandfather Rock' on Hat Lamai. There's also a 'Grandmother Rock' but I couldn't find it. I saw a post card of it later and trust me, it really looks like what it should like like. A man and woman whose children were to be married were drowned in the sea. When their bodies washed up on shore, they turned into these giant rocks, showing their children their true intentions. So Samui islanders believe that they are descended from the offspring of that marriage.
The famous mummified monk of Samui. In the glass case above is the 'self-mummified' corpse of Loung Pordaeng, kept at Wat Khunaram just south of Hat Lamai beach. He correctly predicted the date of his death and told his followers that after death his body would refuse to decompose. He had achieved this through careful and lifelong meditation, and it is considered the pinnacle of Buddhist concentration: mind over matter. He's sitting upright in a meditative pose and his body, still chemically untreated, baffles science and has refused to decompose for more than 20 years. He's sporting a cool pair of shades.
Hat Bo Phut and Hat Bang Rak
Hat Bo Phut is also called 'Fisherman's Beach' and is a small and quiet seaside town that's still fairly untouched the throngs of Samui's of young partiers who still prefer Hat Chaweng and Lamai. There's lots of nice little cafes and shops and it feels very laidback. Hat Bang Rak is also called 'Big Buddha Beach' for the giant golden Buddha that is the first thing most people see when flying onto the island. We arrived on Christmas Eve and spent Christmas there with a secret santa exchange, a little tree and Mike's rendition of 'Silent Night'.
The speedboat pier at Hat Bo Phut.
One of the two mirrored naga serpent handrails on the way up to the Big Budddha.
We had our Christmas dinner at the 'Starfish and Coffee' restaurant on Bo Phut. It was really nice, with tables overlooking the beach, out towards Koh Phangan.
Mike and Matt with our little Christmas Tree brought all the way from Canadian Tire.
Christmas Day lunch and our Secret Santa Exhange.
Matt got a nice pair of these bad-boys from Katie with the stipulation that he must wear them sometime and he was really happy.
Anybody for an 'Ear Toilet'.
Sandy
Two waterfalls on Koh Samui. I think the first one is Na Muang and the second was in the Koh Samui Butterfly Garden.
Koh Phangan
On December 26th, 2004, completely clueless as to the devastation going on on the other side of the country we set out to Koh Phangan for the Full Moon Party that same night.
I swear it was the hottest day of the year and all the boys were left struggling with Jaime and Katie's suitcases, wheeling the gargantuan bags across sand and around Had Rin Beach. Finally, we found a sawngthaew willing to take the girls to their guesthouse (the Bann Thai Orchid Guesthouse and I strongly recommend against staying there). Matt, Mike and I hadn't booked a place and it being the day of the Full Moon Party we got stuck at the Green View Bungalows far, far, far on the other side of the island. They were nice and clean, but a long way away and we spent many hours riding sawngthaews back and forth between the main beach and our beds.
The Herbie Van Bar at Thong Sala, Koh Phangan.
Tom from Canada, championship Muay Thai boxer was fighting a Thai boxer called 'Pornsack'.
Matt: "I just found a piece of floss stuck in my teeth."
Waiting for the boat to Koh Tao.
The Full Moon Party
December 26th, 2004. Still unclear as to what all these people meant when they were telling us about a 'big wave' hitting Phuket, we emailed home to let them know we were all safe, just in case, and started out for the world's largest beach party on Had Rin beach with about 10,000 other people. I bought a disposable camera, so about half the pictures didn't come out very well. Here are the ones that did.
Us and some fellow Canadians we met.
Matt, a Canadian dude and Mike.
Somebody stole my camera, took this picture, and then ran away. I don't know any of these people.
Matt showing us his shake.
Matt and one of his copyright 'hot faces'.
Firedancing.
Mike, Matt, me and Katie.
Just by pure coincidence, I ran into an old friend of mine from school, Chris McCann. It's a small world.
This guy was just sitting on a stool, talking to himself and pulling on his ears for half the night.
Ladies, the world is your toilet.
Mike and Matt...Terry and Deaner.
Hat Khuat (Bottle Beach)
Hat Khuat is a long, white, secluded beach on the northern side of Koh Phangan. It's accessible only by boat. Katie and Jaime left their gargantuan suitcases with a Swedish girl at a restaurant and brought only small backpacks with them, which was an excellent idea, as there was no way we could bring their real bags on the tiny boat. We all took a sawngthaew to the small village of Ban Chalok Lam, found a boat just leaving for Hat Khuat and hopped on. The place was a lot busier than we had expected, and we were lucky to get the last two bungalows available.
Heading to the beach.
Mike, Katie and Jaime on the boat. Jaime's toe was still in stitches and because there was no dock, we had to piggyback her from the boat to the beach.
Bringing food and supplies to Hat Khuat.
The view out the door of our beach bungalow.
That night, after several beers, we were able to persuade Matt to try on his new Speedo. He wasn't very happy and spent most of the time hiding behind the palm trees. We had been talking so loud that everyone in the restaurant nearby could hear and when Matt walked out, they all clapped and cheered. After, we all went skinny-dipping. The ocean was full of phosphorescent creatures and the water around us glowed when we moved. After returning to our hut, Jaime somehow became 'magnetic' and bottlecaps were sticking to her shoulder. It happened almost ten times in a row and we couldn't stop laughing. She really was magnetic, but, unfortunately, in the morning we discovered that she had lost her power.
Look out ladies. It's Matt.
Katie and her makeshift beer mug and 'The Amazing Magnetic Jaime'!!
Koh Tao
The day after the tsunami we cancelled all our New Year's reservations for Hat Karon and Hat Patong on Phuket. Instead, we decided to spend New Year's on Koh Tao. The boat trip from Koh Phangan was long and crappy and when we arrived it seemed that everyone else was doing the exact same thing we were. We ended up at the 'Sunlord' bungalows about ten minutes drive from Sairee Beach (the main beach) and down a steep, bumpy dirt road. They weren't really bungalows at all, more like little shacks on big rocks. They had been thrown together from all kinds of driftwood and garbage and swayed in the wind. The pillows were filthy and looked like they'd been soaked in a grease trap and there was weird brown stains on the mattress. Mike was loving it.
The view out our "bungalow" window. That's Koh Nangyuan in the distance.
Our ramshackle bungalow on the rocks. It was more like a fort that a couple of uncoordinated kids had built.
New Years
On Hat Sairee watching the stars.
FAN-TASTIC!!
And the ball drops...or in this case, explodes into a fiery geyser of lava.
Don't need no "Luggage Gangsters" round these parts.
Colourful, Thai clothing for sale.
Koh Nangyuan
Koh Nangyuan is a set of three islets just off the northwest coast of Koh Tao and accessible only by boat. We rented some snorkelling gear, hired a boat and driver and set off. The beach was beautiful, with turquoise coloured water and tropical fish. Oh yeah, and I almost drowned here but Matt saved me and then all three of us had to help save a bunch more people, but I don't feel like going into details.
This was our friend 'Sandy' until she was destroyed by a pack of wild beach dogs.
HEY YOU GUYS!!!!!
Me losing at Scrabble to Matt.
"Uhh...huh-huh, hey what do you call uh...a guy with no... uh... arms and no legs lying on a stage?"
"Ohh Matt, you're so hot!"
Some Random Pictures
Katie, somewhere on Koh Samui.
Jaime, Matt and me.
Mike with some sort of facial disease that forced him to have to put Tiger Balm in his eye and pretend to be Popeye.
Chumpon, Prachuap Khiri Khan and Hua Hin
Katie and Jaime were getting worried about making it back to Bangkok on time for their flight home as the boat schedule from Koh Tao to the mainland was really sketchy and the boats couldn't go all the time. They headed off a couple of days before us. On Januay 3rd, just the boys now, took the high-speed catamaran back to the mainland at Chumpon and then a 4 hour, standing room only, train to Prachuap Khiri Khan.
There wasn't much to do in Prachuap Khiri Khan. We walked to a mountain called "Sky Mirror Mountain" that was surrounded in monkeys. It was kind of creepy, they were all staring at us in little gangs and if they got too close, I'd have to stoop down and pick up a rock. That usually worked. On the top of the mountain was an abandoned temple. We had to find some sort of ladder that led down into a tunnel in the middle of the mountain. The tunnel was supposed to reflect the sky, but we never found it and it was really hot outside so we gave up and left.
A food stall in Hua Hin.
Fanta, all the colours of the rainbow.
These are handpainted acrylic copies. There's a lot of talented artists in Thailand as these shops can be found almost anywhere tourists go.
The infamous Thailand tuktuk.
Matt, after his sunscreen exploded in his bag on the way to Hua Hin.
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