So Buddha is very kind and decided that his people should celebrate the start of Lent on Monday and Tuesday, and because there is no such thing as separation of church and state here, we got July 30th and 31st off from school! In honor of this momentous occasion, we took Friday off (my first real grown-up job vacation day!) and headed to the beach. The rainy season ruled out Phuket and any other beaches in the West of Thailand, so we decided to head to Ko Samet, an island not far from Bangkok.
Getting to Ko Samet was no small feat. We left Nan at 7.45 pm Thursday night on the overnight bus to Bangkok, which took about 9-10 hours. Thanks to having a single seat and the blanket, pillow, and air conditioning they provided, I got a pretty good night’s sleep. Then from the Bangkok bus station, we hopped on a bus to Rayong, which took about 3 ½ hours. Then we took a songthaew (think converted pick up truck with 2 bench seats along the sides and a roof) to Ban Phe, which took about half an hour. When we got to Ban Phe, we realized we had just missed the ferry, so we chartered a speed boat to take us to Ko Samet, which took about 10 minutes. And at at our island paradise, where we were instantly overcharged by the songthaew drivers and forced to pay a national park fee for being foreigners.
Unlike most other places in Thailand, Ko Samet has bungalows rather than guesthouses. So we had a whole little bungalow with a private bathroom about 100 meters from the beach for only 600 baht a night for the 3 of us (34 baht = 1 dollar). It was a wonderful weekend filled with American food, lots of reading, cable TV, and a very special night where we found a bar that sold microwave popcorn. The beach where we were staying had white sand, was as warm as bathwater, and was pretty much paradise on Earth.
On our return trip, we spent a night in Bangkok to break up the traveling. Bangkok is awesome. They have a sky train and more American food and movies in English. I ate Subway and Starbucks and ice cream that was basically Cold Stone and saw Harry Potter 5. The movie theater was similar to home except when we had to stand up before the movie started for the king’s song and a little video montage of his life.
I’ve found a better place to post pictures, so if you want to check out pictures of my vacation, click here. If the view of the beach doesn’t make you all want to come visit me, I don’t know what will.
blogger isn't letting me post this link, so sorry but you will have to copy and paste this to see it.
http://princeton.facebook.com/album.php?
aid=2044134&l=60904&id=1102188
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