It was another early morning for us all, as we woke up to make sure our bags were packed and to check out of our villa. We had to catch the 9am ferry, which takes two hours to get back to Koh Samui. We opted to leave a bit earlier and grab some breakfast at a french owned restaurant near the pier. I played it safe and ordered a croissant and some fruit, while the boys went for a traditional full english breakfast, and Ali ordered a pain au chocolate. The breakfast the boys expected and what they got were quite different…we decided that another theme for this trip is that nothing is what you expect it to be…
We boarded the ferry to Koh Samui, chatted for a bit, and then most of us fell asleep again. Because when you dive nitrogen remains in your system (don’t worry, your body naturally processes it out), you aren’t able to fly for a while after you have been scuba diving. Normally 12-18 hours is safe, depending on the amount of diving you have done, but we opted for 24 hours just to be sure. So we arrived in Koh Samui at about 11am and our flight to Phuket wasn’t until 5:30.
When we were passing through Koh Samui previously, the boys had noticed a brochure for soccer golf, and we had promised them that we would do it to kill time when we were back on Samui. What stood out to them and convinced them that it would be a good activity, was that on the brochure they promised “lol fun”…written just like that. It’s become one of our new sayings from this trip, I’m sure it will live on far past our soccer golf day.
We haggled with a taxi driver and eventually made it to Samui “Football” Golf. There are 18 holes (like real golf) and every hole has it’s own challenges, more along the lines of mini golf. Ali and I were off to an okay start…the boys on the other hand…let’s just say over par. It was super hot and humid, and it didn’t take us long to all be sweaty and gross…as this trip has progressed we have all pretty much given in to the fact that we are sweaty and gross most of the time.
The boys started to up their games and look like they have actually played soccer before. I think the best hole for me was one where the boys decided to go around a split tree that was in the way, and the awesome soccer player that I am…I just went straight through it. That’s how it’s done boys!!
In the end, Matt won, Jacob and I tied, and Ali took last. It was actually a really fun way to kill time and I would totally do it again. As we still have quite a bit of time to kill, we decided to get our third massages of the trip. We all decided to play it safe with a simple foot massage, which apparently involves massaging not just your feet, but your upper legs, shoulders, and head…maybe I remember my anatomy incorrectly, but I was a little confused.
We finished our foot massages and decide to head to the airport early, check in, and get some food there. After haggling down another taxi (I am constantly shocked at how everyone tries to rip you off), we arrived at the airport. For lunch we opted for…you guessed it, pizza. It’s also unsafe to drink the water here in Thailand
We then headed to our gate to wait to board our plane. The Koh Samui airport is quite small, so we were shuttled directly to our plane where we boarded up stairs directly onto the plane. Now, I’m not a squeamish flyer, but when you are on a tiny propeller plane…well, I’m just not a huge fan.
The flight from Koh Samui to Phuket is only about 45 minutes and our plane was less that halfway full. The airline that we flew was a bit odd, they played some really weird music with birds chirping in the background, during both takeoff and landing. They also served a full meal and drinks for the short 45 minutes. We honestly took off, loved out, were given our meals, and then about 5 minutes later we were told to prepare for landing. It was crazy, why serve a meal on that short of a flight?!
It was also kinda sad that Matt rightly pointed out that the chicken served in our airplane meal was the first white chicken meat we had seen, and also potentially the highest qucxlity chicken we have eaten our entire trip…another reason we are all opting away from Thai food.
We landed in Phuket and hopped into another overpriced taxi for the hour long drive to our hotel. This was the most terrifying taxi ride of our trip thus far. I kid you not, I had to turn around and talk to everyone in the back seat because our driver was insane. Apparently lane are just suggestions, tailgating a something you definitely do, and if there is someone riding on a motorbike, it would appear that it’s their responsibility to get out of the way…terrifying.
We checked into our hotel, cracked the air conditioning, freshened up, and decided to have dinner at one of the resorts two restaurants. Italian again, but this time we decided on pasta, instead of pizza. Ali and I both ordered the Penne Arrabbiata, which was quite possibly the hottest dinner I have had this trip, due to the massive green AND red chilies they have hidden in the pasta sauce.
We downed a few Coke Lights and headed for bed. Tomorrow is the first day that we actually don’t have any plans for, and I am looking forward to it!
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