April 17, 2009
Ko Samui, a resort island of Thailand, was a different story from Singapore. We had good transportation and a truly enjoyable day. Right on the pier where the tender docked we found a driver who agreed to take us on a four hour all around the island for $60. He was nice young man we thought to be in his 20s, but turned out to be 35. We saw photos of his young children who were adorable. First stop was the “Big Buddha,” a huge golden Buddha visible for miles around on an island promontory. We climbed many steps some of which were still wet from rain before we arrived. Like the Christ statue in Rio, the Big Buddha overwhelmed us with its size. You must remove shoes and cover knees in front of a Buddha, never pointing your toes at the statue. So I wore long pants and Ronnie had a sarong to cover her knees. However, many people were there with short shorts, so restrictions were not well enforced. We looked at the pretty view from the statue platform and saw a few side devotional areas.
Next was a place called Chaweng, a beach town with a beautiful wide sandy beach. Many tourists were basking in the sun and taking a dip in the warm water. Probably the most impressive thing we saw was a large group of people having messages under a covered pavilion right in front of the beach. How about a half hour message for $10? I wished we had more time! From there we went to a look out with a beautiful view of the bay below. We saw a man selling home made coconut ice cream, and since we had no Thai money, our drive paid for our ice cream (a cup for about 50 cents US), which was refreshing and delicious. On to the mummified body of a Buddhist holy man next to a beautiful temple. He died in the lotus position while meditating and his body shows minimal signs of deterioration over the 30 years or so since. We then tried to find the Coral Buddha, naturally carved out of coral by water, but our guide did not know and even after asking around we were unable to locate it.
Oh, well on we went to a beautiful waterfall called Namaung. I actually climbed down the rocks to get close, where there were people literally sitting in the waterfall with the water falling all over them. On the way back to the taxi we saw the elephants, and I took some photos. People were riding on them, and neither one of us really had a desire to do so. But Ronnie encouraged me to try it. We asked about the price and they told us $10, so I decided to go ahead. Up I went to a platform where the elephant came by with a driver riding on its neck. I got into a padded seat big enough for 2 people and hung on for dear life. Ronnie was on the platform frantically trying to take photos of me on the elephant. First the elephant walked through a forest over fallen trees and then back to the river where the elephant plunged right into a shallow area. Then, much to my horror the driver got off and I was left on the elephant by myself! He asked for my camera, then told me to get off the chair and sit in his spot on the neck of the animal. He was snapping pictures like crazy with my camera when I obediently got on the neck. At which point the elephant reared back its trunk toward me and seemed to take a good sniff. I guess it was like a dog smelling your hand, but this was a big trunk and I felt more like it was sniffing out its next meal! Indeed the elephant did not seem all that happy with me on his neck. How did I know? I’ve never been on a bucking bronco, but I now know something about what it must be like. The elephant was going up and down enough that I was concerned, and the driver had to tap (whack?) it with his stick a couple of times to get the thing to behave. As with the Komodo dragons, I failed to see what the little stick would do if the animal was determined to take off on its own.
Even worse, the driver then proceeded to have the elephant bow down, lift up, open its mouth and a few other maneuvers (I guess for more photo ops). At this point I was ready to get off, and thankfully the driver finally got back on and we headed back to the mount/dismount platform. Before we got there the drive asked for a tip for himself “and one for the elephant.” I saw the logic in his maneuver, since my getting back to the platform was dependent on his steering the elephant in the right direction. He basically wanted the equivalent of $3 for himself and the same for the elephant. I just gave him $3 thinking that would satisfy and the elephant would not know the difference, but no, the driver kept at it insisting that the elephant was insulted at not getting a tip. I certainly did not want to insult the elephant (as I know the driver was counting on) and I was eager enough to get off that I coughed up another $3. Yes, he had my number, along with how many other tourists he had scammed. So my $10 ride ended up costing $16. Oh well, I can now say I have ridden on elephant, and believe me, once was enough. And I have the pictures to show for it!
Of course, having ridden the elephant, we couldn’t resist the cute little $10 wooden elephant made from a coconut shell. Yes, we’ve given up worrying about where all the stuff will go. I guess we’ll be doing some serious shipping before we get on the plane to go home. We got back to the port in a little less than 4 hours, and we happily gave our taxi driver a good tip. We walked around the port town a bit, and ran right into a hair salon. We went in to ask about the price of a cut, and a beautiful lady appeared from the back saying about $5 for each of us, but she was in the middle of a shampoo and it would be a few minutes. We sat down to wait, and then when it appeared that it was going to take more than a few minutes, told the lady we would go for a walk and come back. I guess worried about losing a sale, she left the guy in the back (who was lying on a table with his head over a sink) in the middle of his shampoo and cut my hair. Then she cut Ronnie’s as well. Both good cuts. Poor guy on the table, though. We never heard a peep out of him, so I guess he had a lot of patience. As we looked around the town some more, the prices in the shops seemed quite reasonable, but we didn’t see anything appealing (yippee!) so we went back to the ship.
Ko Samui, a resort island of Thailand, was a different story from Singapore. We had good transportation and a truly enjoyable day. Right on the pier where the tender docked we found a driver who agreed to take us on a four hour all around the island for $60. He was nice young man we thought to be in his 20s, but turned out to be 35. We saw photos of his young children who were adorable. First stop was the “Big Buddha,” a huge golden Buddha visible for miles around on an island promontory. We climbed many steps some of which were still wet from rain before we arrived. Like the Christ statue in Rio, the Big Buddha overwhelmed us with its size. You must remove shoes and cover knees in front of a Buddha, never pointing your toes at the statue. So I wore long pants and Ronnie had a sarong to cover her knees. However, many people were there with short shorts, so restrictions were not well enforced. We looked at the pretty view from the statue platform and saw a few side devotional areas.
Next was a place called Chaweng, a beach town with a beautiful wide sandy beach. Many tourists were basking in the sun and taking a dip in the warm water. Probably the most impressive thing we saw was a large group of people having messages under a covered pavilion right in front of the beach. How about a half hour message for $10? I wished we had more time! From there we went to a look out with a beautiful view of the bay below. We saw a man selling home made coconut ice cream, and since we had no Thai money, our drive paid for our ice cream (a cup for about 50 cents US), which was refreshing and delicious. On to the mummified body of a Buddhist holy man next to a beautiful temple. He died in the lotus position while meditating and his body shows minimal signs of deterioration over the 30 years or so since. We then tried to find the Coral Buddha, naturally carved out of coral by water, but our guide did not know and even after asking around we were unable to locate it.
Oh, well on we went to a beautiful waterfall called Namaung. I actually climbed down the rocks to get close, where there were people literally sitting in the waterfall with the water falling all over them. On the way back to the taxi we saw the elephants, and I took some photos. People were riding on them, and neither one of us really had a desire to do so. But Ronnie encouraged me to try it. We asked about the price and they told us $10, so I decided to go ahead. Up I went to a platform where the elephant came by with a driver riding on its neck. I got into a padded seat big enough for 2 people and hung on for dear life. Ronnie was on the platform frantically trying to take photos of me on the elephant. First the elephant walked through a forest over fallen trees and then back to the river where the elephant plunged right into a shallow area. Then, much to my horror the driver got off and I was left on the elephant by myself! He asked for my camera, then told me to get off the chair and sit in his spot on the neck of the animal. He was snapping pictures like crazy with my camera when I obediently got on the neck. At which point the elephant reared back its trunk toward me and seemed to take a good sniff. I guess it was like a dog smelling your hand, but this was a big trunk and I felt more like it was sniffing out its next meal! Indeed the elephant did not seem all that happy with me on his neck. How did I know? I’ve never been on a bucking bronco, but I now know something about what it must be like. The elephant was going up and down enough that I was concerned, and the driver had to tap (whack?) it with his stick a couple of times to get the thing to behave. As with the Komodo dragons, I failed to see what the little stick would do if the animal was determined to take off on its own.
Even worse, the driver then proceeded to have the elephant bow down, lift up, open its mouth and a few other maneuvers (I guess for more photo ops). At this point I was ready to get off, and thankfully the driver finally got back on and we headed back to the mount/dismount platform. Before we got there the drive asked for a tip for himself “and one for the elephant.” I saw the logic in his maneuver, since my getting back to the platform was dependent on his steering the elephant in the right direction. He basically wanted the equivalent of $3 for himself and the same for the elephant. I just gave him $3 thinking that would satisfy and the elephant would not know the difference, but no, the driver kept at it insisting that the elephant was insulted at not getting a tip. I certainly did not want to insult the elephant (as I know the driver was counting on) and I was eager enough to get off that I coughed up another $3. Yes, he had my number, along with how many other tourists he had scammed. So my $10 ride ended up costing $16. Oh well, I can now say I have ridden on elephant, and believe me, once was enough. And I have the pictures to show for it!
Of course, having ridden the elephant, we couldn’t resist the cute little $10 wooden elephant made from a coconut shell. Yes, we’ve given up worrying about where all the stuff will go. I guess we’ll be doing some serious shipping before we get on the plane to go home. We got back to the port in a little less than 4 hours, and we happily gave our taxi driver a good tip. We walked around the port town a bit, and ran right into a hair salon. We went in to ask about the price of a cut, and a beautiful lady appeared from the back saying about $5 for each of us, but she was in the middle of a shampoo and it would be a few minutes. We sat down to wait, and then when it appeared that it was going to take more than a few minutes, told the lady we would go for a walk and come back. I guess worried about losing a sale, she left the guy in the back (who was lying on a table with his head over a sink) in the middle of his shampoo and cut my hair. Then she cut Ronnie’s as well. Both good cuts. Poor guy on the table, though. We never heard a peep out of him, so I guess he had a lot of patience. As we looked around the town some more, the prices in the shops seemed quite reasonable, but we didn’t see anything appealing (yippee!) so we went back to the ship.
Great updates! Thailand sounds amazing and I love the picture on the elephant even if it cost $16 :-)
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