A Brief Excursion to Thailand: Day 3

Day 3 in Thailand on the islands of Ko Samui and Ko Phangan. What can I say? The water is blue, the weather is hot, the pace (at least here on the islands) is slow and easy and I've now ridden an elephant. After a 4 hour delay in The Kingdom of Bahrain, during which I thought I was going board the plane three different times and also during which I burned through 3 different phone cards while on hold with Expedia changing my BKK to USM flight, I landed, called Emily (who told me of a new ferry that left late enough to get to Ko Phangan the same day) and found the pier in time to drink a beer with an young Israeli who was also just arriving and heading to Ko Phangan. The boat took off from the pier while the sun was setting and...well shit...again...what can I say? I am a person who gets to go on vacation in Thailand. Feels a little absurd, really.

After haggling over a taxi to the Coco Garden Bungalows I found my sister waiting on the porch, promptly ate a decent meal by the ocean, drank too much duty-free rum while laying in a hammock and bullshitting with sis, woke up with a hangover, almost got sick riding in the back of the pickup on the way to the elephant safari, but managed to pull it together and enjoy fantastic weather and the wacky experience of sitting in a chair strapped to the back of a big freaking elephant (side note on elephants: they have weird skin that's sparsely hairy and when you put your hand on them they fel impossibly tough and solid, almost like a machine or something. You can't feel the heat of their blood or the muscles moving, just this amazing unstoppable force or immovable object or something like that).

Anyway, that was awhile ago. We're now on Ko Samui and have a sweet bungalow and a rented motor scooter on which we've been cautiously flying around the island. We had the best meal I've had so far on the trip today: curries, muscles, shrimp puffs, seafood soup. Unbelievably tasty. Tonight we're going to a restaurant which has been hyped as the best restaurant in all of Southeast Asia by some folks who claim to know. We're not convinced, but are very much looking forward to judging for ourselves. Bangkok is next on the agenda, and while not without it's charms I'm sure, it will likely not be as idyllic as this.