Thailand: Koh Samui and Bangkok (with Review)

After touring our asses off through Japan, China and Cambodia, we were ready for some relaxing beach time and we found it on the island of Koh Samui in Thailand.  For three days we took no pictures whatsoever and instead soaked up some sun on Lamai Beach.  Sadly, this resulted in some pretty horrible sunburns for both of us.  At the time, we were more concerned about the mosquitoes than we were about the sun, and while we probably should have known better and worn sun screen, we figured our travels up to this point had tanned us well enough to resist the sun’s rays.  We were mistaken. 

Regardless, we enjoyed our time in the Thai isles and we couldn’t get enough of the food.  Seafood, thai noodles, everything (other than maybe the breakfasts… which aren’t good anywhere in Asia apparently) was simply delicious. 

Our hotel, the Lamai Wanta Hotel, was right on the beach and the rooms were nice with good internet.  The hotel was a block from a main street covered in shopping, restaurants (indoor and outdoor), bars, and massage and nail places. (They even have the fish that are supposed to nibble all the dry skin off your feet.  They actually have this in Camdodia, too, but we did not try it out.)  We came to this street of activity everynight.  The bars here were good fun and great people watching. Kate saw a prostitute or two being taken out to dinner by her client, while Chris was a approached by a few "lady-boys" (transvestites) on the way to the bathroom.  That's not something you see everyday!

Since we were only in Koh Saumi for 3 days and we were only interested in chillin' on the beach, we didn't explore any other beachs on the island or any of the other islands.  While we enjoyed our time on  Lamai Beach; it's not one of the most beautiful beaches in the world.  It reminded us a lot of Mexican beaches. We found Hawaii (and anticipated that Greece) were levels above.  However, we've heard great things about other islands and beaches in Thailand so if you're interested in going to Thailand at all - you simply must check out a beach or two. 

After a few days, it was time to make our way to Bangkok.  Sadly, Kate was feeling a little under-the-weather, so Chris took the time in Bangkok to do a bike-and-boat tour of the city.  The tour went through some otherwise obscure areas of Bangkok including a fish market, the “auto-parts district” (which probably wasn’t the name of the place, but is the best way to explain it as there were literally piles of engines, axels, transmissions and other auto parts lying around) and other neighborhoods. Since the tour was by bike and covered a lot of territory in a short period of time, most of what we saw was not really explained.  Because of this, most of the pictures won’t have any explanation.  Chris has no idea what they are.

The first stop on the tour:  China Town.  Yes, even Thailand has a China Town.  Here, the Buddhist temple was the main attraction.

Then on to the first cross-river boat ride:

Then a big house of some kind:

Then we made a stop at a large Buddhist temple complex and saw the largest seated golden Buddha in Thailand.

On the way out there was a giant bell and someone asked if it could be rung.  The tour guide said that, not only could it be rung, it was considered good luck for whoever rang it and everyone was encouraged to do so.  No one in the tour wanted to actually do it, but Chris simply couldn’t pass up the opportunity to ring a giant bell… especially if it brings good luck.

Next we got on a giant long boat and cruised down the river for a while:

This is where things got interesting.  As it turns out, Thailand, like Louisiana or Florida, has large aquatic lizards that lurk in their waterways.  In Thailand, however, these lizards aren’t alligators, they are kimono dragons.  That’s right, bite you and get gangrene the same day, six foot long kimono dragons. 

This was the first one I could get a picture of:

About 30 seconds later, we passed this scene:

And about a minute later we saw this guy swimming toward the children:

It doesn’t matter where you grew up and how “rough” your childhood was, if you didn’t have to fend off kimono dragons while having an afternoon swim with your buddies, you are not tough.  Thai children are tough, and apparently their parents are neglectful.

After boating for quite a while down the river, we were let off in the muggy jungle outside of Bangkok.  The group had to bicycle back to the city along a narrow concrete passageway that snaked through the swampland.

Upon returning to the city, we were given a bag of what looked like cheese puffs, but were told that it was not for us… it was for feeding the giant (and abundant) freshwater catfish that live in the river.

Finally, we took another long boat up the river back to our original starting point, passing many of the notable landmarks of Bangkok (though Chris can’t actually tell you what they are).

Someone on the tour (not the guide) mentioned that this building is made entirely out of porcelin.  I haven't confirmed that, but it could be true.

With some river spray from the boat.

It's hard to review Bangkok since we were only there for a day and Kate didn't really see any of the city.  It's another city we'll have to make a trip back to if we find ourselves in Southeast Asia in the future. We can say it was much more developed then we were expecting and it's easy to get around.  We were cautious and asked our cab and tuk tuk drivers how much our trips would be before we got in and found that fares were often negotiable.  We did this in a few cities just to be sure we were comfortable with the price up front as not all the cabs had meters.  In Bangkok, we stayed in a hostel.  Clean, safe, fun and had washers & dryers so we did a load of laundry our first night! It was the Lub D Hostel - Siam Square Bangkok.  We highly recommend staying there.