My First Excursion-Koh Samet Island

Happy early 21^st Birthday Lane! I wish I could be there to celebrate with you!

I’ve been here over a week now. A big group of the exchange students all decided to head off for our first adventure this past weekend. Most of us have classes only on Monday and Tuesday or Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday so a huge group of them set off Thursday morning for Koh Samet while I still had class on Thursday. I wanted to test out International Business Study before I decided to take the course. I could barely sit through the class…Thai students are extremely rude (at least from an American standpoint). No, the professor did not ask them to be quiet, but that much chatter would NEVER happen at Kenan-Flagler. The professor was a visiting professor from the University of South Carolina and is only here for two weeks so he didn’t really put his foot down. However, the students stumbled in late for class, talked the entire three hours, and when we had a 10 minute break, many were out for 30 minutes. Most of the class is female so there are often giggles going around too. I have decided not to take the class because I cannot sit through that for 3 months. The class takes a trip to Tokyo at the end of March, but I’ll plan my own trip that week…I could not go with that group.

Friday morning, Ben (from Canada) and I headed out to Koh Samet to meet up with the rest of the group. We took the Sky Train to the bus station and got round trip tickets for 300 baht each—which is less than $9.00. We caught a ferry over to the island and tried to get up with everybody else, but we weren’t able to because cell phone reception was horrible. Instead, we got the absolute worst room at the White Sand Resort and headed for the beach. When I say worst room—I’m being serious. I mean a king size bed that felt like a wooden board and took up the entire room and a bathroom which didn’t really have a shower except for a shower head and a squat toilet. Oh, and need I mention there was no warm water? I consider this my first experience roughing it in Thailand. But no worries! We didn’t spend too much time there because of course we were on the beach. We caught a few hours of sun on Friday and walked the beach for a little bit taking some nice pictures. That night we had a terrible dinner, but it was a great experience. We ordered shrimp and got 100 times more fried batter than shrimp. Oh and then there were mysterious fried creatures too…not quite sure what those were?? We started getting food for other tables though which smelled of garbage and looked like green goo. The language barrier was extremely frustrating. But along with this terrible meal came great live music and a fire show from 8 boys. They were awesome! Would anybody expect it to be freezing cold on a beach in Thailand? Well, I froze. Our room was an icebox and I just had my single long-sleeved shirt I brought to Thailand. I put on layers and layers of clothes and luckily I brought my little blanket from high school (I don’t remember who gave it to me, but I was thanking them). We definitely were happy we didn’t get A/C in our room. I haven’t been that cold in quite a while!

Saturday, I fried my legs. I must’ve forgotten lotion on the front of my shins and my feet because I’m a lobster. It probably doesn’t help that I’m almost at the equator too. Anyways, I had to sit under umbrellas that afternoon and all day Sunday. Ben and I shared a BBQ chicken from a little lady on the beach. Venders walk around with huge baskets on their shoulders which weigh more than 100 pounds. Some sell fruit and coconuts, others BBQ chicken and papaya salad, others beach wraps, others table cloths, others walk around trying to give you foot massages or henna tattoos. It’s sad to sit there and sunbathe while these venders—some 60 year old women—hobble around with these baskets on their backs. Plus the dogs…there are so many strays on the island because apparently the Buddhist faith doesn’t believe in killing animals for a pointless reason. Some of the dogs had broken legs while others seemed a little deranged.

Saturday afternoon, Ben and I were ATVing around the island. It was so much fun! So much for signing the sheet at school that said we wouldn’t do anything life threatening while abroad! Well, it wasn’t that bad, but it was a little scary at times. First, we went through the town and went to the northwest part of the island. Here was a mixture of resorts mixed in with the locals’ shacks. I wouldn’t say any of these resorts ranked to the top of some I’ve seen, but it was shocking to see these small resorts sitting next to all the poverty. The island (although it’s supposedly clean compared to some), was extremely dirty with loads of litter. Here, we saw houses out in the water where you had to have a boat pulley system to get back to the island. We also explored the northeast part of the island where they have this huge white Buddha which is extremely unexpected as you turn a corner and see it We made a stop here and a monk met us and chatted with us a while. He took pictures of us as we “prayed” to Buddha…I don’t know much about the Buddhist faith so I’m not really sure what we were doing but it was kinda cool. The people have such a strong faith here, it’s pretty remarkable. Anyways, we had flowers and incense and the monk took some pretty cool pictures. He then gave us these tokens for good luck. It looks like there are different monks on each coin. You can put some of them on a necklace too. Afterwards, we started to explore the middle of the island. We headed over to the only resort area on the west coast which is Ao Phrao. There were some really nice places here, but it was a little rockier without as much beach. We then headed south; we stopped a few times at viewpoints to take some cool pictures and see some great sights. We hit the end of the island in great time to see the sunset. It was breathtaking. It seemed like the end of the world because here, you couldn’t see mainland Thailand or any fishing boats. Just you, the sun, the water, and the land…Anyways, we had to get back quickly before the sun went down because the roads on the bottom the island were ridiculous. Huge rocks, even bigger holes, steep hills, and really thin sand made it a little difficult to drive. I had driven earlier so I just let Ben handle it…I’m definitely no ATV expert. I’m so glad we hadn’t rented a motor bike and paid more for the ATV. Two of the guys rented them later and ended up falling off a few times. Anyways, Saturday night was fun with the whole exchange group, and Sunday (today) I just sat under the umbrellas and read Life of Pi and listened to Catherine’s mix for my trip for a few hours before we caught the ferry at 4 and the bus at 6. We got home around 9:15ish and headed back to the Evergreen.

Anyways, after a few scams, a bad burn, an awesome ATV experience, and some rays of sun, I’d say our first weekend excursion was a success!

Photo #1: The mysterious dinner that was delivered to us that belonged to the table next to us...yum?? Photo #2: The food vender who we ordered chicken from...it was pretty good! Photo #3: Obviously me posing on our ATV. Photo #4: The houses out in the water that you have to use a pulley to reach the island (actually this one has a pier). Photo #5: Before leaving Sunday afternoon at the dock. Too bad you can't see my sunburned legs!