After a week at Than Sadet it was time to say goodbye. I was out of money and there are no cash machines or places to use your credit card anywhere even reasonably close by. Besides, our bungalow was rented out, so we had no choice but to leave. We could have taken the truck ride back into town, but I didn't really feel like getting all covered in dust and being bumped around for an hour, so fortunately I found a different way to go.

Every morning at 9:30am a boat pulled up onto the beach. The boat ran from Haad Salad in the north to Than Sadet, then on to another couple of beaches before stopping at Hat Rin (the main town on Koh Phangan) and then crossing over to Mae Nam on Koh Samui. This seemed like a much better option, especially since it worked out that the boat would actually end up being cheaper than the truck.

At first we were going to stop of at Hat Rin for a day or two to figure out our travel plans, but then I got the great idea to take the bus all the way over to Koh Samui. The reason I liked Hat Rin was that I had been there before so was familiar with it and would have an easy time finding a place to stay. Since I had never set foot on Koh Samui in my life, it was bound to be a bit of a hassle finding a bungalow and figuring out what was going on. Of course most people have guide books or at least general plans on what they want to do, but I don't roll that way. The thing was, I talked to a lady working at Mai Pen Rai and she said that the boat to Koh Samui stops at Mae Nam which is a nice, quiet beach. She also said that there are tons of places to stay there, and with this advice, we decided to travel all the way through to Koh Samui.

When I say that we decided this, what I mean to say is that I more or less decided and Jisun just agreed to go. She never mentioned the fact that she didn't like to ride on small boats, and unfortunately she didn't get to enjoy the pleasant two hour trip. She didn't vomit or anything like some other people I know (I'm talking about you, refried bean eating Slimbo), but she definitely didn't enjoy herself. To be fair, the boat was small, and the sea was pretty rough that day, so it could have happened to anyone. Fortunately we made it without incident and landed on the beach of Mae Nam at around 11:30am.



We got off the boat and looked around, immediately realizing that we had no idea where we were or where we were going. We walked around for a short while, but all the places we saw were asking for over 100$ a night, and that just isn't how I roll. We finally ended up back where we started, hot, tired and frustrated. Fortunately there was a random guy there who knew a nice place nearby, so all was not lost. It turns out that if we had just walked in the other direction, there was a cheap bungalow very nearby. Isn't that how it always works, though?

It also turns out that Mae Nam is more of an upscale area, so there is very little by way of budget accomodation in the area. If I had known that in advance, I would have tried to figure out another plan, but whatever, it was in the past. So, to wrap it up, this was how we found the wonderful Seedaeng bungalows at Mae Nam beach on Koh Samui. We walked up and asked for a bungalow, finding out that there was only one available, and that was the one right on the water. We also learned that it was 800 baht per night, but since we looked honest, we could have it for 700. Not a bad price, good location, and friendly people. What else can you ask for?

Oh, there is one more thing you can ask for, and that is peace and quiet. We were advised by the lady at Mai Pen Rai that Mae Nam is a quiet area and would be a great place to chill out. Well, she was right 364 days out of the year. The problem is that we arrived on February 14, 2010, which happened to be Chinese New Year. You might know that Thai people don't celebrate the Chinese New Year, and they don't. However, Mae Nam happens to be the place on Koh Samui that all the ethnic Chinese live, and ethnic Chinese do, in fact, celebrate Chinese New Year. They celebrate it loudly and all night, in fact. I can say with some certainty that they take their New Year celebration very seriously. It wasn't a quiet night.



The upshot from being directly next door to the celebration is that it afforded us some quality cheap eats. The way it worked was every shop in town set up a booth with food in it, and all you had to do was pay 100 baht (3$US) to get a stamp, and then you were allowed to eat whatever it was you wanted. Not a bad deal at all, if I do say so myself. Jisun and I had noodle soup, dimsum, chocolate muffins, and pork (from a roasted pig, no less) among other things.

The downside was that the music was played loudly until six am, and people were lighting fireworks and firecrackers all night and well into the following day. It wasn't conducive to sleeping, but fortunately it only lasted on night and then became quiet again.

I promised to talk about what I did in Than Sadet, but then I realized that I didn't do anything. When I first was heading out there, I reserved a bungalow for three nights. I figured that was long enough to get a feel for the place without it being so long that I would become crazy if it wasn't nice. It turned out that Than Sadet was exactly the type of place I wanted to be.

Unfortunately, a lot of other people also decided the same thing, so it looked like we were going to have to leave after just three days. However, due to a new bungalow being built and some good fortune, we ended up being able to stay for a week. Even this wasn't long enough, but it was definitely a good start to our vacation.

So, what did we do in Than Sadet that took an entire week? Absolutely nothing. We would wake up in the morning, have breakfast, go for a swim, hang out, eat lunch, go for a swim, hang out, eat dinner, go for a swim...you get the idea. It was pretty much exactly what a vacation should be, pure relaxation. My biggest difficulties were deciding what I wanted to eat and trying to perfect my ratio of swimming time to hammock time. I never quite got it perfected, but there is always next year.

Actually, during this week, I taught Jisun how to swim. She had no experience in the water before, much less the ocean, but she was a good sport and trusted me. Even though I have never taught someone to swim before, she managed to pick it up somehow, and is doing ok. Granted she only had a couple weeks to practice, but she can get around pretty well. Other than that, though, we did just about nothing. So, to make up for the fact that I have nothing to tell here, I will just post a couple more pictures of our island paradise.

Here is my lovely girlfriend and I just hanging out, which is how we spent a good portion of our time. Getting my ebook reader just before this trip was perfect timing, because I spent a good portion of my waking hours just sitting around and reading.



Next we have a candid shot of Jisun going for her first swim. Learning to swim in the ocean is a bit scary, but it all worked out nicely.



And finally, what I know everyone has been waiting for, pictures of our favorite beefcake, namely me. And yes, I am wearing the perfect swim trunks that say 'Vacation!' on them.



What is that? One isn't enough? Oh yeah, here is another action shot!



Wooooo!

I had been wanting to go out to Than Sadet for years now, but never had made it there before. As I previously mentioned, it is a hassle to get to. Besides, I always had this nagging fear that I would get out there and hate it, but be unable to leave because of its remoteness. However, after reading so many great things online I finally decided to take the plunge.

Than Sadet, it turns out, is even better than I could have possibly imagined. I ended up staying at Mai Pen Rai bungalows for the simple fact that they have the best website, and I didn't know any better. Now, don't get the wrong idea, Mai Pen Rai is awesome, but I would have stayed at a different place if I had known better. The benefits with Mai Pen Rai are that the bungalows are really nice and close to the water. We actually stayed on the rocks, which gave us a short walk, but it was quiet and really nice. Also, Mai Pen Rai has a really nice and helpful staff, which is amazing. They gave me some medicine when Jisun wasn't feeling well, and also managed to bring a birthday cake in (don't forget, Than Sadet is REMOTE!) at the last minute for her birthday. While it was the most terrible cake I have ever tasted, it was the thought that counts, and the thought was nice.



The downside to Mai Pen Rai is that they are slightly more expensive. When I say that, I don't mean that Mai Pen Rai is expensive in any way, just that it is more expensive than some other options. The bungalows on the rocks at Mai Pen Rai are 650 baht in the winter time, which translates to about exactly 20$US. There are other places, such as Plaa's bungalows, which are cheaper than that. To be fair, Plaa's bungalows are further up the hill, so it is a bit more of a walk. But also, Plaa is a better cook than the people at Mai Pen Rai, and the restaurant is also a bit cheaper. To be honest, both of them are good, and Silver Cliff Resort is also a good option. There are a couple other resorts out there, but I didn't have enough of a look at them to be certain either way.

To understand about Than Sadet, you have to realize where it is. The beach is inside a national park, which means that it isn't built up at all. In fact it is so remote that all electricity comes from a generator, and that means you don't have power late at night and during most of the day. Of course none of that is important, because the whole idea behind a place like Than Sadet is to relax.

Basically all we would do all day was swim, eat, and chill out. Let me break down some eating options for you today. Out of five restaurants on Than Sadet, we really liked three of them. In order of elevation (not of preference, mind you), I'll tell you about them.

Silver Cliff restaurant was all the way at the top of the hill, well actually cliff, as the name implies. It was a brief two minute walk up nearly vertical stairs to get there, but the view was amazing. The restaurant is actually built out the side of the cliff, so if you look down while eating, you can see through the slats on the floor to the ground, which is about fifty feet below you. Not exactly for the faint of heart, but the food was good and inexpensive and the view was fantastic. Plus, I liked the feeling my stomach would have when the wooden floor would bend under my weight, it was kind of exhilarating! Unfortunately I never remembered to bring my camera when we ate there. However, I do have some pictures for the next place.



The second restaurant was Plaa's, which was also at the top of the hill, but just a bit lower than Silver Cliff. To be honest, Plaa had my favorite restaurant. The food was excellent and inexpensive, and the service was really friendly. It is a family run place, with Plaa working in the kitchen and her daughter usually serving. There was also a toothless guy working there, who would smile like he had the nicest set of choppers ever, which was quite endearing. Also, the first time we ate there, Plaa came out of the kitchen with a camera and asked if she could take our picture, which I thought was really nice. On top of it all, it is on top of the hill, so has a view that is equal to Silver Cliff. Speaking of the view, here are a few shots to give you an idea.





The third restaurant that we liked was the Mai Pen Rai restaurant. This place was right on the beach, which was nice. It has a sand floor and you can just watch the waves crashing while you eat. The benefits of this place were that it was right on the beach so we could go swimming immediately afterwards, also, the staff was very friendly and the food was good. However, it seemed to me to be slightly more expensive than the other places, but this was offset by the fact that we were staying at their bungalows, so ran a week long tab. Here is a POV shot that was more or less what I constantly saw while at the Mai Pen Rai restaurant.



That should give you a bit of an idea of what the eating at Than Sadet is like, and tomorrow I'll get into describing the art of just hanging out. Until then, be cool!

As most of you know, I took off three weeks ago for Bangkok. I didn't really have a set plan, but everything turned out great, anyway. I arrived in Bangkok on Saturday evening and had no place to stay, so I took the bus from the airport to the eternal hellhole called Khaosan Road. If you haven't been there, imagine a place packed with wasted white people wandering around and acting like total jerks. Dudes rolling around in an urban environment with no shirt on and people who look like they haven't showered in weeks. Trash piled up everywhere, and touts offering everything from massages to drugs to cheap tickets to Laos.

Not a place that I enjoy being, but it is a good place to find a cheap room easily and plan out the next part of the trip. Jisun and I got off the airplane at around 4:00pm then had to wait forever to get our luggage and again to get the bus. After a long flight, that can be pretty demoralizing, but finally we managed to get to Khaosan Road around 8:00pm. We walked down soi Rambutri (not the part parallel to Khaoson, the part across the street, behind the temple). Fortunately for us, nearly every guesthouse had a sign that said 'full' displayed, and those that didn't had a person behind the desk who personally told us they had no rooms. Finally we found a place with a fan and a shared bathroom for 350 baht (10.50$ or so), but at least it was clean, and the best point was that it was available.

Of course I don't remember the name of the place (Bella Bella?), but it was right next to a bunch of foot massage places, and here is a picture to show you the luxury.



We were only staying one night, so it wasn't a big deal. At least it was fairly quiet, fairly clean, and fairly cheap. The next day we had nothing special to do until our night time bus left for the south, so we a lot of time to waste. I gave Jisun the options of looking at some historical or cultural stuff and shopping, so she chose shopping. We did a lot of window shopping all over the city before heading back to Khaosan for a foot massage and a torturous bust ride.

We might have missed the cultural things in Bangkok, but we did ride a tuk tuk and get a foot massage, so I guess Jisun got some bit of a Bangkok experience.




After that, it was time to set off on the torturous bus ride down to Chumporn and then the ferry over to Koh Phangan. It was totally horrendous, but we did manage to make it. I made it to the dock in high spirits, as you can see below.



Unfortunately our journey wasn't anywhere near complete at that point. We got dropped off at Thong Sala Pier on Koh Phangan at around 10:30am, but still had to make our way to the isolated beach of Than Sadet. At this point we had two options. There was a truck that left from Thong Sala at 1:00pm which cost 150 baht per person (300 baht/9$ total), or we could pay about 1,000 baht (30$) to hire a truck to take us out there immediately. Even though we were both totally worn out, I am cheap as dirt, so we decided to wait until 1:00.

We miserably sat around for two and a half hours until the taxi was finally ready to go out there. It finally took us away, and then it was an hour long wild ride down bumpy dirt roads and unused tracks in the jungle. My spirits started to rise, and I started to feel really good about the whole thing. When we finally got to the beach at 2:00pm, we were immediately told that the room we reserved wasn't available, so we were given a bungalow on the rocks at no extra charge. This was considered an upgrade, and at this point I was so tired that they could have told me I was upgraded to a tent next to the outhouse and I wouldn't have minded.

The one downside to the bungalow on the rocks is that it seemed to be about five kilometers away, so I had to carry my heavy bags across the beach, over these rocks, through a cave (no kidding), and across all kinds of rickety bridges and uneven steps until we finally arrived at our bungalow. Naturally, by this point I was beyond caring about anything, but when I saw the place that we were staying at, my spirits immediately lifted and I knew that I had made a good choice in coming here.

I don't have any direct pictures of my bungalow, due to the fact that it is tucked back in between all these rocks and trees, but I can show you a picture of part of the pathway to get there. Take a look, and tell me that it doesn't look perfect.



In the background is the beach, and you can see part of the path we needed to walk to get to and from our bungalow. You can see the steps going up over that large boulder, but they weren't really used to get across. To the right and below the steps you can see a small hole between the two boulders. It was about four feet high, but that was the way to get to the beach. Very cool.