Last Wednesday, before we left for Koh Samui, the BBA students at Thammasat planned a "Black & White" party for the whole school. It was crazy! Open bar, all night long. Needless to say, there were some drunk thai kids. It was pretty funny! It was at the club called JET in the Thong Lor District. The club was completely packed. It was impossible to make it anywhere within the club. But the best part was the Thai band that played. We're not sure if they're Thammasat students or not, but the Thai's were loving it. It was fun for us to dance around and pretend like we knew what we were singing. It's always a good time partying with the Thais.
The chicks at Black & White Night
Needless to say, some R&R was in need before we left for Koh Samui. Thursday, I woke up, got some much needed McDonald's, packed and we were on our way for our journey to the Southern Gulf of Thailand. Wednesday after class we had gone to Khoa San road to reserve tickets for our trip down south. For 450 B, we reserved a "VIP Bus w/ Express Ferry." We were loving the bargain we got - little did we know the "bargain" consisted of almost 18 hours of traveling.
So we were schedule to leave at 6 p.m. from Bangkok. We all packed up our stuff and headed to Khoa San road. And, of course, the bus was on thai time. So, check your watches, 7:15 we got on the bus. Yes, already an hour into our journey and we're only on the other side of the river. Now here's where the true VIP experience comes in. Our "prime" seats were located right above the toilet of the bus - which was "malfunctioning." And apparently to accommodate the "scent" coming from the toilet, they cranked up the A/C on the bus. Seriously, I had to go to the beach to thaw out after this bus ride. It was so cold on the bus that there was condensation forming on the windows. And then, our feature presentation for the night: Mark Wahlberg. I don't know if the thai's really like Mark Wahlberg or if they think foreigners do, but they showed three of his movies. Fortunately though, I passed out for the entire bus ride. I wasn't even awake for the rest stop.
So I wake up in Surat Thani, our first stop for the trip. Now this is where the title of this post comes in and where one of our friends, Jimbo, starts to have the worst trip ever. While waiting in Surat Thani for our ferry to Koh Samui, he looked in his backpack to get his food and realized that he was missing the 10,000 baht (about $300). He realized that because his backpack was the last one underneath the bus, he'd been robbed by the bus workers and his money was long gone. And, to make things worse, he didn't bring his ATM card because he had packed enough cash for the weekend. So Bank of Meris comes to the rescue and lends him 10,000 baht.
Running tally:
10,000 baht - Stolen from the bus
10,000 baht - Transaction with the Bank of Meris
Total = 20,000 baht (about $600 - and we're not even to Koh Samui yet...)
Then we get on the ferry, which was probably the best part of the traveling. It was about a two hour ferry ride to Koh Samui. And poor Meris doesn't do well with watercrafts - so she had her ginger in one hand and dramamine in the other and was trying to do her best for the whole trip.
When we arrive in Koh Samui, we hop in a tuk-tuk and we think that we are on our way to our hotel. But we were wrong. We made it about two blocks and our tuk-tuk gets pulled over by the police. We then learn that our driver didn't have a drivers license and he couldn't drive us any further. So we had to get our stuff off the tuk-tuk and walk back to the pier and try and catch another tuk-tuk.
This time, we were smart enough to ask if they had a drivers license.
And I decided to take the wing-man seat and hang on from the back. It was pretty sweet because I got a really good view of the whole island and I saw a lot of stuff that you
couldn't see out of a tuk-tuk. However, I didn't realize that it was going to be an hour long ride so I got a little fried from the sun, already. I think most of us are still trying to get used to the sun at the beaches. The sun is so hot here. Unlike anywhere else.
Eventually we made it to our "condotel." Yes, word of the day: CONDOTEL. And even after staying at a "condotel" for a weekend, I still don't quite know what a "condotel" is.
Think I can say "condotel" one more time: condotel. Sorry, I just really liked that word. Oh, and the best part of the "condotel" is that you could rent in a "mini-stay," convenient for those ladies that charge by the hour. Oh, only in Thailand. Checking in to hotels here in thailand has become a bit of a wishing game - but this time we were lucky. Fortunate for us, this place had flushing toilets, A/C and hot water. It was like the four seasons for us.
After we checked in, we headed straight to the beach. We were staying near Chaweng beach so we just went there. Chaweng was beautiful. The beach was full of young people and you could find anything on the beach - from massages to jet skis to any sort of food. And about the food on the island, it was actually fairly hard to find thai food. Most of the food on the island was western. We even indulged ourselves with Pizza Hut - and I must say, that was probably the best Pizza Hut ever.
After we relaxed on the beach, Marney and I decided to head out for the night. We end up meeting these two girls, Martha and Alex (and Martha's father - who looked like he'd been b
eat with the wrong end of the thailand stick... a little haggard), from London. They were very cool. Alex had just arrived in Thailand for the next year and Martha and her father had been traveling for the past year. They'd been on Koh Samui for the past five months. So they knew what to do. When we were sitting having drinks, I excused myself to go to the toilet. While I was in the restroom, a Thai woman came up and put a warm towel on the back of my neck and started giving me a thai massage - neck, shoulders, back, head - she even cracked my neck and back. All while I was peeing! Only in Thailand....
Since it was Martha's last night in Koh Samui for a while, she wanted to go out with a bang. And by a bang - I mean a lady boy show.
It was hilarious! The show was free, but you had to buy a drink (fine with us!). The show lasted about an hour and they did basically pop songs. This fat one was our favorite! haha... Marney and I knew that we had to bring the rest of the group back the next night so they could witness Christy's Cabaret. After the ladyboy show, we headed to Soi Green Mango to go to Green Mango. Yes, this club is so massive and so popular it has a whole street named after it. After hitting up Green Mango, Marney and I decided to part ways with our Brits and hit the sack.
The next morning, we woke up at 8am, had breakfast at Khoa San bakery (which served western breakfast aka bacon toast etc - none of which you can usually find in Thailand) and headed off to Ao Thong beach. We had read in Lonely Planet that this beach was more secluded and less crowded than Chaweng. And it was. It was definitely much more of a family environment too. It was beautiful! We got to the beach around 10am and stayed til around 3pm when it started to rain just a little bit. But it was ok because we were tired anyways. We headed back to our CONDOTEL (haha- love that word) and most of us took a little naps to rest up for ladyboy round 2. When we woke up, we went to Pizza Hut then headed out for the night. The rest of the group loved the ladyboy show. Everyone had so much fun. and the show was different. Apparently, Christy's
is famous for having a different show every day of the year.
Marney and I with some of the ladyboys
I guess we'll never know if that's true or not. Now, after the ladyboy show is when Jimbo's trip goes from bad to worse....
Jimbo was on the hunt for the ladies at the Green Mango so he lost the rest of the group. And we were tired, so we went home. But Jimbo had to walk home by himself. And with a few too many Tiger Beers in him, he was walking in the street. While wandering the streets, a taxi came close to hitting him. To avoid being hit by the taxi, Jimbo jumped on the hood of the taxi. This was not cool with the driver - who proceeded to throw the taxi in park, jump out of the taxi and start Muay Thai'ing Jimbo. When Jimbo tried to run away, the taxi driver grabbed him by the back of the neck and stole the rest of his money. Now, after this happened, Jimbo was pretty shaken up and thought he needed to go to the hospital. So he got a taxi to the hospital and stayed there til we woke up in the morning. When Meris woke up in the morning, her and Charity went to meet Jimbo at Samui International Hospital (which they say is like a country club - it had a pool and everything). Luckily though, the x-rays came back ok and Jimbo is back safely in Bangkok. He was unable to ride the bus back, however, so he had to fly back to Bangkok from Koh Samui. But now without adding to his debt:
Running tally:
10,000 baht - stolen from the bus
10,000 baht - Transaction from the Bank of Meris
14,000 baht - Medical Bills at Samui International Hospital
10,000 baht - Plane ticket from Koh Samui from Bangkok
Grand total = 44,000 baht (roughly $1,400)
Trip to Koh Samui = not so priceless
The View of Koh Samui
The rest of us packed up and left Koh Samui at noon. We made the never ending journey back to Bangkok and arrived back at our condo around 5:30 am Monday morning - ready to head back to Thammasat for classes.
This week is Chinese New Year. Fernando, my old roommate, is studying in Hong Kong this semester. Since this is like THE holiday for Hong Kong, they get the whole week off so he is coming to visit me and Meris in Bangkok for the week. (Meris and him are both in Delta Sigma Pi - the other business fraternity.) So this week should be fun. It'll be another weekend in Bangkok - which always proves to be a good time. And it'll be our first time showing someone around our new hometown.
(world) peace
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