"Cause We're the 3 Best Friends that Anybody Could Have!"

Hi! Ok so I'm really behind on blogging...about to write about happened 3 weeks ago so here it goes...

December 1st-3rd: Ko Samet (para-para-paradise)

Alright so on Saturday the 1st, Bridget, Eric, I and our school coordinator, Wattana, went to Wattana's friend's English camp to help out. The camp was located right outside of Bangkok. I don't feel like writing about it because so much other fun stuff went on this weekend so you can read about it in Bridget's blog english camp. (sidenote: Bridget updates her blog a lot more frequently than I do and sometimes I make appearances in it so feel free to read her blog as well...you're welcome Bridget)

We finished with English Camp around 3 or 4...I don't remember the exact time. Our coordinator, Wattana dropped us off at the bus stop so we could begin our journey to Ko Samet! This place is so beautiful, even my instagram pictures won't do it justice. Our bus ride was a couple hours and dropped us off near a dock where the ferrys and speed boats travel to the island of Ko Samet. We got there too late to take a cheap ride on the ferry but at that point we just wanted to get there and be able to wake up on the beach. So we forked over some extra cash and took a speed boat there. The speed boat was a short ride but it was dark by the time we got there. We made the boat take us to the cheapest beach because we is poor teachas. So we checked into this cheap hostel and by that time were ready to explore the beach and in desperate need of a drink. At night there were so many different bars along the beach. We hopped around a few of them and even encountered some fire twirlers...

par-teeeey

WTF?

Bridget is like so excited...

After walking around and exploring some of the beaches, we got really tired and hit the hay. I have to say I was not prepared for what the next day would bring...

So we woke early the next morning and had breakfast on the beach. The tide was so high, the waves would come up to where we were sitting. After breakfast, we went and put on our bathing suits and laid out/took a few dips in the water for an hour or so. I can't remember the last time I laid out in the sun, it felt so nice. I mean lounging in a chair, having the waves come to meet your feet, drinking out of coconut...in my opinion it doesn't get much better than that.

We wanted to explore some of the island that day and see a couple of the other beaches to pick out a new hostel to stay in for the night. Bridget had read that a few of the beaches in the southern part of the island were really nice but also affordable. I thought okay, great we'll hike a little bit move from beach to beach and settle on one. Welp...it ended up being a legit jungle trekking experience. We moved from beach to beach each one looking more beautiful than the one before so what did we do?? We kept hiking duh! Now this would be fine except for the fact that a lot of the trails(if you want to call them that) that led to each beach were both forest covered and contained really steep rocks so we had to climb to get from each beach aaaand we were wearing sandals aaaand I had my (heavy) backpack on aaaaaaand it was hot aaaaaand I was starving at this point because we hadn’t had lunch aaaaaaaand now I'm gonna stop saying aaaaaaand. I was getting pretty tired to say the least. I honestly did not think we were ever going to find a beach to settle on. I felt like Katniss in Hunger Games, I was tired, hungry, injured (I scrapped my foot), this close to making a bow and arrow and hunting for some food. I believe I told Eric (who kept leading us further and further on this jungle trek) that if we didn't find a beach soon, I was gonna go Hannibal Lecter on his ass and eat him first.  We stopped a few times to swim in the different beach coves. The views of the island were unlike anything I've ever seen. I kept looking at Eric and Bridget and we were all like "Is this real life?" 

On one of the trails we found puppies to play with! 

Found this amazing swing in the water and had a "photo swinging montage"

I just like to instagram everything ok! Gah!

So we finally got to this awesome beach and it was like picking out a wedding dress...we just knew it was our beach. We looked at the overwhelmingly beautiful view, looked at each other and said "THIS IS IT" Michael Jackson style (R.I.P. MJ).  So we started to head to this beautiful paradise of a beach only to be stopped by a security guard right before. He said that the following beach was a private resort and that we couldn't set foot on there. Now at this point in my head, I was screaming: “NOOOOOO! GOD IS SO CRUEL!” and I’m pretty sure Bridget and Eric were thinking the same thing. I mean this was after 3+ hours of hiking from beach to beach which was fun but at this point all we wanted to do was find shelter and food. Did I mention I was hungry? Because I was! The security guard led us to the outside of the resort where we found that there was nothing but hills on hills on hills for us walk on to the next beach. Oh did I mention that there were a lot of hills we had to trek up? Because there were! 

This is a lovely picture of me (courtesy of Bridget) 
walking up the steepest hill I've ever encountered...
p.s. my shorts are wet from my bathing suit geez

Me = 

The next beach was fortunately not private but unfortunately out of our price range. We were lucky enough to find a truck that took us back to one of the beaches we traveled through earlier. We found a hotel hostel that we could afford and I could FINALLY PUT MY PACK DOWN! Seriously I was not prepared for the trekking excursion so next time when I'm packing for a trip I'll need to remember the phrase: "Less is more...". The beach we settled on, Ao Thian, was really pretty and it was nice that we were staying on a Sunday night because a)We ended up getting a discount on the room and b) Barely any tourists were there. We went to this restaurant where each tables were huts on a the pier. We literally sat for hours and just hung out, ate, and had a few drinks. Then, we went swimming later that night and had fun with Bridget's waterproof camera. Later we went back to our room, changed, and ended up at the hotel beach bar just chilling, talking, and played a few rounds of poker. The beds at the hotel were amazing or at least that's how it felt because I was exhausted! 

The next morning after waking up from a glooooorious sleep, we had an all American breakfast overlooking the beach. We went swimming for a hour or so before it was time to head back to the main beach to get picked up to go home. 

Breakfast...:)

Can I just say that I am extremely lucky that Bridget and Eric are super chill and never make me feel like a third wheel. 
Because otherwise this would happen...

All in all this was a pretty awesome weekend! I had so much fun and came back to Suphanburi fully relaxed, rejuvenated and ready to start the next week. So when I was in the middle of teaching a really bad class and the kids would not shut up...I would just close my eyes, take a deep breath and picture the beautiful views I had the pleasure of witnessing this past weekend and pretend I was back there. Feet in the sand, hand holding a coconut, scanning the scene for a picture to put on instagram...:)

"Life is a beach and I'm just playing in the sand"

p.s. Christmas here was interesting...more thoughts on it in my next blog which probably won't be until after new years