Tour of the island
Monday, July 04, 2005
4 July 2005
Well, we were up early again this morning, but yet again we were in the shower before our wakeup call. It’s easy to get up early in this heat! We headed off round the Island, with our first stop being a Buddhist Temple – not sure of the name of this one as it is not on the map yet, having only been finished 6 weeks ago. We decided to get blessed for good luck by a Buddhist Monk – they flick some water on you & say a few words, then ‘Good Luck’. You then get a little white bit of string tied around your wrist which you are not allowed to take off or it will break the good luck. You have to wait till it wears off – We can only imagine how long that will be!!
Then off to ‘Big Buddha’, which is near the top of the island looking west. Overall we spent 6 hours driving around the island, going the long way through towns to show us the stark contrast between the developed buildings & the shanty houses. They’re right next door to each other which is a little weird (but very Thailand) – the shanty houses kind of look like those temporary huts you might erect while building something big. But the hotels that are going up – wow! Apparently the aim is to make Samui into a 5 Star Island! They have got one thing totally right though – there are bylaws stating that no building is to be more than 3 stories tall, which means all these amazing hotels just blend in to the coconut trees and vegetation.
We also went inland a wee bit to Namuang Waterfall, where some of the group rode elephants, while others (including us) went to the waterfall & looked at the stalls. There was a baby elephant there that was just so cute! And we feed it lots of bananas while we waited for the rest of the group.
After this, we went to see the mummified monk – this guy died 30 years ago & it was his wish not to be buried but to be mummified in a meditating position. You can see him through the glass case that he is in – right down to the Ray Ban sunglasses he is now wearing to disguise the fact that his eyes are starting to decompose… (isn’t that vierd!)
As we were finishing up the tour we stopped on the East Coast of the Island to see the view – just beautiful. Then we all went to lunch at Bongoes, a lovely restaurant on the beach.
We have just been to Chaweng about 15 min up the road & bought heaps – I finally got my bikini, Maarty finally got his hat, plus we both got various other things. Maarty bought a few DVDs but wasn’t as lucky with the quality this time – but who cares when we can sit here tomorrow night & watch Herbie, Bat Man & War of the Worlds?
Anyway – we got a little wet tonight… although Samui’s Monsoon Season doesn’t start until October, it still rains fairly regularly. It only rains for a few minutes (up to half an hour) but when it rains, IT REALLY RAINS!!!
Tomorrow we get to see some of the area surrounding the island – we enjoyed ourselves so much we have booked on a hotel organised launch trip. We leave at 7am, & return at 5pm…& in between we get to have lunch on a beautiful island, go snorkelling (with sunburn being an additional bonus I’m sure!), trek a little then have a western BBQ on the beach. Totally looking forward to seeing the launch – everything this hotel does is top notch so assume this will be the same!
This hotel is so cool – when we got home (they do two services per day), that with the evening service that they had put out slippers and robes, was really nice…. Feels very luxurious!!
Big Buddha
At the Waterfall
Serpant
In Front of Temple
Temple
We were Blessed - We now have to wear these till they fall off...
posted by Maarty @ 8:30 pm,
