When we arrived on Koh Samui all looked well, we took a short taxi ride to our resort - World Resort' on Bophut Beach and it was beautiful. Again it was right on the beach with a lovely pool and our room was good.
The first day we spent relaxing (again ha ha) and I decided that I couldn't leave Thailand without one of their famous massages. All over Thailand there are little beach huts and roadside shops offering massages and this seems to be a typical way for Thai women to earn a wage. Our resort had a lovely massage bed with curtains round it around the pool area so I decided to go there and for 300 Baht (about a fiver) it seemed like a good deal. I was a bit sunburnt so went for the head massage option. For the next hour a Thai lady tugged at strands of my hair and then massaged the bit of scalp where she had tugged from. Although nice, this wasn't what I had expected. Then just as I thought it was over and I could go back to sunbathing, she lifted me up and started pulling on my arms and pressing on different parts of my back and tugging at my fingers. I was counting down the minutes of the hour ha ha. But good for the experience I guess.
Our resort was a taxi ride away from the backpacker haunt of Chaweng so we decided to rent mopeds. I got mine for 300 baht for 24hrs from our hotel reception and Steven wanted to get a bigger bike so he rode the moped with me clinging on the back to nearby Chaweng to a bigger rental shop. Steven paid 1600 baht for a huge motorbike and after about 10 mins of looking at the moped and sitting on and off it, I decded I just couldn't get on these crazy roads. Samui is crazy... granted it's not quite Bangkok but it's up there in the road accident stats i'm sure. So Steven left his bike and rode mine back to our hotel while I got a taxi - what a wimp! After a few hours round the pool, Steven returned from his tour of Samui by motorbike and we decided to give it another go, after all I did have the moped for 24 hours. The roads are a bit quieter in the afternoon and so I headed out following Steven and within five minutes I was fine and loving it. After a few miles we decded to head back and just as I was getting the hang of it, I tried to pull the brakes to where Steven had stopped but they wouldn't work. I didn't realise they don't work on gravel. So there I was...heading towards Steven's bike with my brakes not working and the bike still at some speed, skidding towards him. I jumped off the bike, chin first and ended up in a heap on the floor. And there I stayed crying away for five minutes feeling sorry for myself with a jaw I couldn't move and a chin like Desperate Dan ha ha. And the bike had some marks to the paintwork and general scuffs...but luckily they didn't notice or I would have been in for a nice big bill!
A day after the moped incident, we decided to take it easy for a day or so and do a bit of laundry. Seems safe enough? Well my next accident came crossing the road to the laundry shop, as soon as there was a gap we walked across the road...or Steven did. I was in a heap (once again) on the roadside with my leg down a hole that had seemed to have come from nowhere! Embarassed again I darted back in to the hotel and sat on the step and cried again ha ha. My leg had scratches all down it, was bleeding and was hurting like hell! I had fell down a grate in the road which run along the side of the curbs in Koh Samui and one was missing.
One of the main attractions in Thailand are the elephant safari rides. We booked a half day tour for about a fiver which included quad biking, elephant riding and waterfalls. Needless to say I went about 1 mile p/h on the quads, but we had fun. when we were waiting to go on the elephants we both noticed this skinny little man who wasn't sitting on the main chair seat on the elephant back - he was sat behind the elephants ears, stroking it' trunk while his wife was sat on the chair clinging to his top petrified. A few minutes later we heard shouting from the Thai men who run the tour and the skinny man was on the floor (a rocky stream) with the elephants head on top of him. He was then carried away with cuts and scratches all over him crying in pain. Now I have to say that I am very proud of myself for even going on the elephant after seeing that, I didn't fancy being underneath an elephant and with my track record in Koh Samui it was completely possible ha ha. we had a good tour and evn took a fe shots inside the elephants mouth (well the guide did). The only thing that made me slightly nervous was that the guides carried pick axes while on the elephants with us?!?!?
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