Day Two Koh Samui

On the second and final day of our stay in Koh Samui, most of the group took an overpriced tour to ride elephants and go snorkeling. I honestly just felt like relaxing and I knew I'd be snorkeling later on so I skipped the tour in favor of being lazy on a beach. Sometime in the afternoon, having bonded with the guide from the first half of the tour, our guide offered to take us with him and his brother around the island on our own little tour. We encountered many things that I'm sure the other group members are sad they missed.

Gorgeous Views -

Grandmother and Grandfather rock (I'll let you guess which one is which):

and Lunch:

That night we went out to Chaweng Beach again. The previous night the group had spotted a very promising structure across the river called "Camp Beer". We didn't make it over the first night, but this was our last chance to explore this wonder, so the group made the trek over. I thought the area we walked around the night before was "seedy" because of the stripper bars and the scantily clad women (or man boys) promoting their bars. Oh no, that was nothing. We found the real underbelly of the Thai night life on the Camp Beer side. That whole street was lined with half naked women (or men) calling for us to join them. Camp Beer turned out to be a massive tribute to Bob Marley. Luckily (for me anyway), it was still very early when we got there so it wasn't packed with a bunch of stoned hippies and old men. I don't know why but apparently ever island culture no matter where you are in the world just turns into a giant Bob Marley tribute with his music, dreads, and drug of choice. the kindergarten teacher, a British couple, and I decided to walk back which was a little spooky now that it was later in the evening and just us. We made it alive. We decided to just head back when I experienced the most frightening cab ride of my life. The cab driver readily accepted the price we offered which is unheard of. Then I notice we do a weird loop through the entire Chaweng beach area and then start heading down a narrow back road which keeps getting darker and more remote as we drive. About 10 minutes in I start to panic and inform the cab driver that we are with a tour group and they will notice if we are gone. He doesn't seem to understand me. I just kept repeating "This isn't the way we came!" "This isn't the way we came!" and the driver just kept on going. Suddenly, right when I was considering jumping out of the cab and running through the woods, we pop out of the jungle right next to our hotel. Apparently he knows a shortcut. After that ride I was ready to move on to the next island.