koh samet: round three

i love that island. i don't even care that we do the same exact things on koh samet every time. it's always exactly what i want: a beachy thai island with sprawling white sand, warm waters, delicious food that's not rice or noodles, and dancing opportunities. we should probably explore thailand more but sometimes, when we just want that cliché thaisland vacation, samet is it.

we hired a van to take nine of us (abby, maddy, ally, kristin, rob, tyler, christie, lauren, and me) down to samet on thursday after school. we got to the coastal ban phe around 8:30 pm and were on a speedboat by 9 pm. lauren and i hoped up on one of those raised benches that i'm pretty sure is for fishing and we all held on for dear life. a storm was rolling in which made the waters even more choppy than usual. honestly, i'd go to samet just for this speedboat ride. it feels so rocky you might fall off and die, but that's just part of the thrilling greatness.

after some shenanigans, we checked into tok's little huts on the eastern side of the island. we pretty much immediately went to jep's for some singhas and eats (mmmmm nachos) then crashed. hello, vacation.

everyone in america, i know you're getting pumped for the warm weather--the summer music's coming out, you're finishing school, it's getting hot (theoretically...rumor has it it's been cold lately?). but over here in thailand, we're gearing up for buckets of rain cuz it's monsoon season baby. on friday we could see some dark clouds rolling in and HELL YEAH here comes a storm. the thai people were like, "WATCH OUT you white people, here comes the rain!" so we ducked into tok's lobby area (which has no walls) and enjoyed drinks and food from the safety of the semi-indoors.

but that's no fun, so when it started pouring cats and dogs, we ditched the "stay dry" idea and went into the ocean. in the rain. in thailand. the waves were actually pretty fierce and maddy and i were both surprised that we got kind of handled by the ocean, which i was happily surprised by. it was one of those cliché moments that'll go down in history, and when all of us get together for thailand reunions we'll reminisce on it.

anyway, friday day progressed into friday night, as it usually does. some games and some buckets happened, then some dancing at naga happened, and then my purse was mysteriously gone, along with everything inside--wallet, phone, camera, room key, two decks of cards, dice, my disneyland resort personalized room key, my ucsb bball game ticket from when we played north carolina, about 1000 baht...*sigh* sadface. but mai pen rai. i lose my wallet (slash it gets stolen) like every year, so this is like old hat for me. luckily i'd already taken out my passport, work permit, and most of my money. i called the credit card companies the next day and replaced my phone. i loved that camera, but i spose fate says it's time for me to buy a new one.

but i do feel emptier without my dice. on saturday night someone asked if i had cards and i had to do a little prayer for their passing.

we met a bunch of new ciee people just starting to teach in thailand and also saw about a thousand people from our october orientation. it was weird and great.

it's sorta weird to write about this weekend because i feel like it was so...regular. there was nothing hilarious or extraordinarily beautiful or unusual or particularly notable that i can tell you about. it's bizarre that i'm at a point in my life where i go to an island and think nothing of it. things in thailand in general are getting so...normal for me. i feel so settled in.

it's pretty comforting.