Koh Samui - Part 2

Night Market, Fish Food, Cooking Class, Mummified Monk, Miracles of Nature, Beaches, and a whole lot of nothing

Sunrise view from our porch. (Just to make sure the blog post pic is eye catching)

Jan 7: Night Market
After a strenuous day of lounging about the pool, we finally broke free of our hotel and had a wander down thru the old part of Lamai town. Lamai has two parallel main roads, one for addressing food and entertaining needs, and the other to pass by this town as fast as possible. We went to the former. Our main goal was to check out the famed Lamai Night Market that draws crowds from all over the island.

Can't have rainbows without a little rain. Like most tropical islands, Koh Samui is always on the brink of a sudden downpour.

The main road is like a strand of DNA, with four elements repeating itself for 1km: Restaurant/Bar, Massage Parlor, Elephant Pant Shop, Convenience Store (note 7-11 is as ubiquitous here as Starbucks in San Francisco). Down the spine is a narrow road made more so by the hundreds of mopeds whizzing by and parked on the side, with the occasional car lumbering by. It has a dank sort of yesterday's fish smell from the puddles that never really have a chance to dry out. Zane said it is like Tanzania mixed with Penang. It's a 20-somethings paradise.

We finally reached the night market and said... "Huh, is that it? Maybe it's further along?" Nope that's it. It was frankly a bit underwhelming with one row about 30yds long of tables selling miscellaneous chotskies and knock off Prada and Gucci bags. It didn't take us long to have a look then head to dinner. Being in Southeast Asia is like running a Thai food marathon. One must pace themselves or run the risk of Phad Thai and Curry overdose. So tonight was Italian! Wasn't half bad.

After dinner was the highlight of the evening. On our way down, we passed a handful of those fishtanks with benches next to them. This curious fish feeding foot treatment was something we couldn't pass up. We plunked down a meager sum for a five minute dip, which for me, was just about right. Zane wasn't up for the challenge, so the rest of us went together. What an odd sensation. Speaking for myself, it tickles like CRAZY, with occasional nips of pain that made my foot spasm. When it's over, your feet tingle for a while. Once is enough for me, but Nicole definitely wants to do it again. (Post Script... We went back the following day so Zane could have a go along with the rest of the clan, except me)

During our walk home, we spotted an alluring side road lined with festive Christmas lights. "Hey kids, let's have a go down this way." About halfway down, and too far to turn back, Nicole and I realized where we had wandered. The night was still young, so the evidence was subtle, but slowly emerging. On one side of the road was bar after bar with a handful of ladies teasing their hair, and the other side were non-descript windowless buildings with solitary doors. Zane asked, "What can you buy here?"... "Umm, things you don't want to take home, son"

Jan 8: Cooking Class
Determined to maintain our study goals, we spent the morning in the common room doing homework. Wasn't the coolest temperature study environment.

After lunch at Baobab on the beach, our group split, Autumn and Nicole to a Thai cooking class, and me with the boys to hang at the beach. I'll let Nicole speak to the cooking class shortly....

Not sure if the menus needed to be quite that big.

Lamai Beach is quite pretty from a distance and has the textbook look of palms overhanging off-white sand. But as for a beach where kids can play, not so much. It has a rough and abrupt shore break (reminiscent of Ka'Anapali Beach in Maui), fine for taller people to bob up and down, but not fun for our boys. So... It was back to the pool!

Nicole's Cooking Adventure...
So far, this cooking class has been the best thing in South East Asia. As many of you know I'm not a shopper, I'm bored sitting by the pool all day and bugs are not my favorite creatures.... So this part of the world is stretching my limits. I do however LOVE Asian food, Thai in particular (thank you Becky). My wonderful husband knows all of this about me and signed Autumn and me up for a cooking class to cheer me up... And it worked! 

Our teacher, Um [oom], picked us up at our hotel and took us to her home which overlooks the ocean (and some interesting rock formations). Her family lives up on stilts and her "kitchen" is below. We gathered with 6 other people and had to vote on what we would prepare. Lucky for me, it was all of my favorites. Over the next 3 hours we prepared and ate 5 courses including spring rolls, Tom kah gai soup, Penang Curry, pad Thai and bananas in coconut milk (ok so one thing wasn't my favorite). Um taught us all about traditional Thai ingredients, how best to slice it all up and then heat them just right. Autumn felt very confident when making the spring rolls. As it turns out, it's just like making a burrito, something we do every week! 

My favorite dish was the Pad Thai both in prep and to eat. Autumn's favorite prep was the spring rolls but she enjoyed eating it all (except the bananas in coconut milk). Both of us feel we can replicate this at home thanks to the Bay area's supply of fresh multicultural ingredients. And it gives me a great excuse to get to the Berkeley bowl!! 

At the end of our class we received a recipe book with even more wonderful dishes and we can't wait to test them out on our family and friends. 

Jan 9: Wandering Around in the Car
We rented a car and thus far have put about 5km on the odometer (not counting the 20km from the airport). Today was a day to explore beyond a 1km radius from our pool. We had no particular plan beyond our first stop at the mummified monk, and when we mentioned this to the kindly woman that owned the resort on our way out, she smiled and softly said, "without a destination, you find good things." It's no mystery how this place came to be.

The gracious and loving owner of the hotel. She exudes peace and serenity. (with Pleepleus of course)

Our first stop, a mummified monk sitting in the classic meditation pose in a glass box. The kids couldn't get over the fact that the deceased is wearing sunglasses (to cover what would likely be unsightly). We were told that he died in this sitting position because he was so immersed in his meditations. But upon reading the plaque, we were slightly disappointed to find out that his family had placed him in this position to honor his dying wishes. Now it kind of feels creepy.

This plaque must have been created before auto correct was invented. 

Several signs had indicated some waterfalls were not far up the hill. So off we went. Towards the top, we were distracted by a couple of dinosaurs at the opening of a mountain overlook and pulled in for a gander. Not sure I understand the dinosaur theme, but there they were (along with giraffes and mexican burros) atop a hill overlooking the Koh Samui hills down to the ocean. Couple pics and we were off again.

We reached a fork in the road and our Google navigation had indicated we had reached our waterfall destination. All we saw were tantalizing signs that said, "MIRACLE OF NATURE! 3km that way," with a photo of a Thai lady in a pond under a waterfall. Truth be told, it wasn't terribly impressive, but how could we pass up a genuine "MIRACLE OF NATURE!" when it was only 3km away. As we pondered whether it was worth the effort, three truckloads of tourists motored past, which clearly meant this was a destination not to be missed.

It was a miracle that our rental car was a 4x4 because almost immediately, the pavement gave way to dirt, which gave way to mud, which gave way to vertical ascents and drops on narrow concrete strips. But for the fact we were still following the other tourists, my conscious was screaming to turn around. We stopped momentarily to fetch a water bottle that fell out of one of the tourist trucks with the intent of returning it when we got to the end. That was the last we ever saw of the tourists....

The urge to turn around was thwarted every 100yds by an endless series of signs indicating the "MIRACLE OF NATURE" is getting closer, so now the anticipation was growing to a fever pitch. After a plunge down a super steep section of road that was hardly vehicle worthy, we made it to the end. There was a little Thai lady in a small shack with some drinks and snacks for sale. We looked around, and saw no other tourists, or trucks, or anything. Had they all fallen off a cliff?

We walk up to the lady and she points to a sign (English was clearly not her native tongue)... "Tickets: 150B per person". Mind you, that's only $5, but put in context of everything else in Thailand, it's highway robbery. Talk about being a captive audience. We begrudgingly forked over this small fortune mostly because we came this far and we ain't leaving until we see this darn "MIRACLE". After a reasonably treacherous ten minute walk along a make shift path with nylon rope for handrails, we finally arrived at the "MIRACLE OF NATURE." Perhaps their definition of a miracle does not align with ours, but this waterfall was less miraculous than the Lafayette Creek after a decent rain (which, come to think of it, is pretty cool).

Hallelujah! It's a MIRACLE!

As we drove out of there, I couldn't help but think how brilliant it was for Mr. Tartain (the owner of the land and the namesake of the waterfall) to devise the perfect scheme for turning his less than average waterfall into a cash cow: Create a tantalizing slogan; Set up signs so frequently that you can't help but keep going; Ensure the road is so painful you're relived to make it to the end, but dreading getting back out; Charge insane prices and offer a free soda with the ticket. It's a MIRACLE.

We were determined to visit a beach on the other side of the island and chose the #6 best beach, Lipa Noi Beach. (The Lamai Beach is apparently #2). Good golly was that a disappointment. Strangest 15ft wide beach against a concrete wall I've ever seen. Moving on, we found ourselves at a proper tropical beach called Taling Nam, complete with bent over palms, white sand, lapping blue waters, and long propeller fishing boats. Had we had to do Koh Samui over again, this might have been where we would have stayed. But here's the thing, we've seen some pretty spectacular beaches over the past six months, and for Koh Samui being a beachy kind of place, it's been a little disappointing.

This can't possibly be the sixth best beach on Koh Samui...

For some reason, it was oddly hot on this beach. 

Now this was a proper beach

Could have stayed here for quite a while, but for the heat and lack of swimwear.

On our way back we stopped briefly at an interesting warrior statue.

Statue looking big and imposing

Statue surfing our car

Jan 10: Whole Lotta Nothing
Our final full day in Koh Samui intended to be even more mellow than the rest. The only thing on the agenda was to drive to Bo Phut to a famous crepe shop called Ninja Crepes. (For some reason, crepes with Nutella is a big thing here).

I can't really say much for the day except that when we got to the restaurant, an uninviting sign said it was closed permanently. Thanks Google for giving us forewarning of that. Oh well, gave us an opportunity to explore the old fisherman's wharf nearby. And by explore, I mean accidentally driving down the middle of it's narrow road, and feeling like an idiot the whole way. Imagine accidentally driving down the middle of Pier 39, but with all the shops nearly at arm's length. Come to think of it, the shop owners should consider turning that road in to a permanent drive through system where the shoppers can just point to what they want and shop from the comfort of their air conditioned car.

Lunch view in BoPhut. BoPhut would have been another decent option for a mellow beach vacation. Note, Chaweng, the most common tourist spot, is way too busy, dirty, and all around oogie. 

Tonight we pack for our next destination, Chiang Mai in the northern mountains of Thailand.  Koh Samui was the last of our tropical beach stops on this journey, and nobody seems too bothered by that. We're just not a sit around a beach and soak up the rays kind of family.

Just felt like wrapping up this post with a cute pic of a tractor just outside our hotel.