Chaweng Beach

Chaweng Beach is the longest strip of sand on ko Samui. I wouldn't say it was the most beautifulest, but its crowd defiantly indicates it's popularity. The north end of the beach is where all the backpackers stay. It's kind of like an American Spring break film where the girls bake topless and the guys play volley ball. We're located on the east coast of the island, and the south end of Chaweng beach.

On our first day on the beach and after a big night out, we decided to relax and get a manicure and perdicure (only costing 200 baht).

We sat up on the bamboo deck surounded by pillows for our comfort. The ladies smiled as they cleaned our dirty feet. I felt kind of bad and tried my hardest to not be just another spoilt tourist. But as i asked them questions, they blushed and laughed, embarresed by their lack of english.

The young lady who polished my nails was only 15. She was beautiful.

Ko Samui

After a 11 hour train ride, a 2 hour bus trip and a very unwelcoming 1.5 hour boat ride we were absolutely stoked to touch land. Tiff spent of the time in the bath room on the boat. I was trying to sleep and was just focusing on keeping my breakfast down and Dan just sat very still... lol.

The local taxi (costing us 60baht each) took as straight to hour Villa hut. I guess the girls were not really expecting anything fancy after our three night stay in Bangkok. But we were all really happy when they took us to our beautiful home for a week.

The bed is huge. The toilet is clean and the shower actually runs. It's about a 5 min walk to Chaweng beach and we are located on the quite end.

Were staying at Sumiu lagoon bay. :)

water markets bangkok

We caught a bus that took as 1.5 hours out of the city. We all fell asleep on the bus - and we all felt a bit seedy after having our first big night out. But as were sat on our little canoe boat, engined by a 60 year old auntie and her paddle stick, we all realised why we decided to get out of bed. All of the aunties and uncles where selling all of their bits and pieces. The tourist where buying their little souvenirs - and where getting completely ripped off. You would see them smile as they rolled up their money and put it in their pockets. We decided to miss the snake show and sat down by the river, eating our home made spring rolls and noodles. It was nice to watch the world go buy. You could tell who had been their, paddling the oars the longest, from the very beginning and those who were there to make money from the tourists. The houses sat on top of bamboo sticks, on top of the water. And the local families would just sit there, eating food or completed their chores.

It reminded me off the Philippines.

freeing the birds

"in this temple if you give freedom to the birds you will have good luck and happiness in your life" - never new i could buy happiness and good luck- but in this temple it only costs 90 bht (5aud) so we decided to give it a try.

We where given a cage with 4 little birds in it.

I guess it would have been cool to have taken them home - but we saw them fly away into the distance behind the large buddah.

Bangkok

We arrived in Bangkok early Monday morning. As soon as Tiff arived from china, we caught a taxi straight to ko san road.

We stayed in a backpackers inn. It had a bed and a toilet. I guess it was all a shock to all of us. The bed was hard. There was a window that faced a concrete wall. And around 3 oclock in the morning you heard the girls and the boys stumble up the stairs. We saw a few temples - but we didnt really get to see much of the city. Ko san road and its surrounding streets where pretty exciting. You would get lost in the alley ways - destracted by the shops and markets, and the smell of exotic foods, that you would end up kms from the hotel.

The main thing that stood out were all of the took tooks. They were usually a rip off - but they were a bit of fun.

insomnia chijmes

We finished off at insomia - chijmes.
They had two filo bands that played through the night.
They had so much energy - it flew through the crowd like electricity.

Victoria Street and Shi Sha at Boat Quay

Danielle arrived in Singapore Friday night. After a 10 hour flight we decided to just spend the rest of the evening taking it easy with ice cream and some movies. Saturday we were pumped.
I took Dan to my favorite shop plaza on scotts road - far east.
Later that night we took the mrt station to bugis and ended up walking down Victoria street, where danielle had her first hawker and tiger beer experience at victoria hawker center (open 24hours). We had three dishes and four beers, only costing us 20.00 all up. The lights where hash and there was a strong harsh smell that continusly linguired in the air.
We took a taxi down to Clark Quay - where night clubs, pubs and restaurants surround the Singapore River. We ended up at Sahara - found in boat quay, were we smoked flavored tobacco - both Cherry and Apple. (Drugs are absolutely banned in Singapore.) We were lucky enough to score free Shisha and free drinks.