Moving On - Tomorrow

We are not 100% sure yet, but we will most likely be packing our bags shortly and heading out to our next island, Phuket. We want to try a new place and will be paying for the hotel there anyway because of cancellation fees, so peace out, I'll blog again in a day or two.

So we didn’t end up leaving Ko Samui as planned. I’ll backtrack to give the full update on things. Friday night we ordered pizza from a local delivery place here. It was actually very good, just not too filling as the “large” was the size of mediums back in the states and somehow we ended up with thin crust. Saturday was spent largely sitting around Bophut, with the highlights of my haircut, visiting another waterfall, and eating at a wonderful restaurant in Nathon. After we had gotten back to the room it began to rain and blow pretty hard. We had a delightful storm to watch from our balcony as lightning and all the elements did their part. In the mêlée my swim trunks which were drying on the railing flew away. At the time I didn’t realize this, but the next day when packing I could not find them anywhere so I went downstairs to look. Some neighbor in the room below ours had conveniently moved them up on his porch and laid them out all nice looking. I stole them back and went on my merry way.
This morning I stayed in bed until noon, watching the last 4 episodes of Office season 2, reading the Book of Mormon, and listening to country music. It was just so nice to sit in our air conditioned room, look out our big windows and stair at the sunny bay with sailboats, palm trees, and such. This place really was amazing for us. So when I finally roused myself around noon I headed over to the internet place to check on emails and our changed hotel plans for Phuket. We decided it was time to move on and packed up our things, paid our hotel bill, and drove off to Nathan to catch the pier to Donsak. Sadly, when we pulled up there were a few hundred cars in front of us and they said we wouldn’t make it until the 6pm ferry, over 3 hours later. This would mean sitting in the heat for 3+ hours, and then getting to the mainland right about sundown, meaning four hours of driving across Thailand in the dark. Not my idea of fun!!! So I persuaded Mackenzie she could enjoy another day here and we bought a ticket for the 7am ferry tomorrow and headed back to our island paradise.
Instead of going straight back to the hotel and looking like fools, we visited the Naumang Waterfall we had been to on our Jungle Tour. It was as nice as the first time, with the water that perfectly cool refreshing temperature that invigorates, but doesn’t chill you. This time we got to stay for almost an hour before deciding to hit our new favorite restaurant on the way back to our hotel. The food was the same as last time, which was great for me, but not so much for Mackenzie. While she liked her curry chicken last time, it was too strong for her and she decided to try the green curry. The new stuff was a bomb in her opinion, but I ate the same curry chicken she had last time and loved it. The first few weeks of the trip we were totally lame about trying ethnic foods. Since we have been here in Ko Samui we have been much better. There is only one McDonald’s on the island (never been to) and we like Thai food much better than Chinese. Almost ½ our meals have been Thai, and we have liked almost every one. Some meals I have eaten way too much it has been so good.
We finally arrived back at the same hotel, and got our same room (currently moved to the room next door as the power is out in our room) around 6:30pm. I immediately went to the beach to get a massage. For the past couple of days I have been meaning to do this, but between my forgetfulness and Mackenzie not sharing my enthusiasm (suffers from “touch-o-phobia”) haven’t got the job done yet. BIGGEST REGRET SO FAR OF THE TRIP!!! For $7US I got an hour Thai massage that was delightful. They didn’t work my back for too long which was great because they spent most of the hour on my legs, feet, hands, arms, and neck/shoulders. I timed it perfectly so I got there just as sunset was starting. I was fifty feet from the ocean listening to the waves roll gently in, fifty feet from the hotel bar with some soft relaxing music playing, getting a great massage looking out over a beautiful sunset on the bay. I should have been doing this the last four nights here!!! What a way to end the day.
Finally, I am typing my blog a little after 8pm, will visit the internet café and post it, return home and pack/clean, and then head to bed by 10pm as we plan on waking up about 5:30am. We hope to be in Phuket by 1pm, and have less than 24 hours there until our flights to HK. Today we didn’t have a Church to go to so we decided to make Wednesday the Sabbath for us this week. We can serve in the Temple in the morning and attend our meetings in Hong Kong’s Victory II Branch in the afternoon before catching our flight. They have Church 7 days a week for weary travelers like ourselves and maids who don’t get to pick their days off, and work on Sundays. OK, so maybe it isn’t meant for us, but it fits perfectly in our present circumstances.