Paradise Found?

Life is so hard sometimes. This is not one of those times.















I am enjoying my time here so much that I am giving serious consideration to returning here for a week after we visit Angkor Wat. My two friends who were supposed to be here today still have not arrived, which leads me to believe they are having issues getting visas to get into Vietnam. If that is the case I'm back on Koh Samui and getting my PADI cert.

I found Bangkok to be stiflingly hot and dirty. There are some very interesting areas to visit like Wat Po, the Grand Palace and the canals that line the river but I almost felt like I was in a very hot version of New York. The moments I remember best are when I'd climbed up the stairs to the SkyTrain and caught an actual breeze while waiting for the train.

Koh Samui also has some pollution issues, especially sewage, but all told the beaches are clean, the water is sparklingly green and just cool enough to be refreshing.

Yesterday we went on a day long snorkeling and fishing expidition. I caught what was either a monstrous fish or a rock. It sure felt like a fish, because I felt the nibble then the tug on the line but since it eventually broke the hook we will never know for sure.

We are staying on Chaweng beach on the eastern side of the island which has soft, smooth sand. The boat trip left from the southern coast and the beach consisted more of shells and coral than of sand.

The snorkeling was pretty good as we were surrounded by hundreds of small and medium sizes fishes as we dove off of a reef. We did not see anything in the way of larger fish like barracudas or sharks, however, which was a little disappointing.

That ended about 3pm and we made our way back to the hotel for a nap before heading out that night for dinner and some muay thai boxing.

A short update on my luggage. We had a friend at Delta check the lost bags at JFK and it is not there. Hopefully it is in Bangkok. The phone number that the China Airlines rep gave me has just been ringing and ringing, so I'm probably going to have to visit the terminal in person when I flight out of Samui on the 31st. Hopefully my bag will be there for me.