Golf and I decided to return from Ko Samet on Saturday instead of Sunday because when we arrived to the island about about 4:30 Wednesday, I saw it had completely changed from when I was there in May 2003 and that's just a little over a year ago! Golf hadn't been there in 20 years, so for him it had changed 100%. This little island suddenly became another Pattaya, in other words, it's WAAAY overdeveloped, crowded, noisy and just plain ugly. We went further to another beach that was quieter and less developed, the same beach I stayed last time, and we got a bungalow for the equivalent of $10 per night. Unfortunately at night there is nothing to do but go drinking and watch movies they offer at the restaurants. Well, I can't drink, and we've seen just about all the movies they were showing so we turned in early.
Well, some teenagers across the woods and nearby street were fighting. The girl was shrieking like a banshee (or I should say like the women on the Thai soaps) and it was just because she was upset--she was not being stabbed or raped. Thais are SOOO different from westerners. This happened the next night too, and Golf even heard some others from another bungalow scream at her to shut the hell up (in Thai). I think by then the police got involved because the next night they were quiet. I still felt bad for the girl though, that something happened to her to cause her to be so upset. She should have just freakin' left the first day!
The following two days were spent lazing on the beach, under the umbrella, sunning my legs (got a little color on them) people watching, and reading our books. This is my last time to be at a Thai beach for many years to come because I don't want to come again later in my pregnancy. I already felt quite fat! Fortunately, our beach was pretty quiet, no jet skis and only occasional speed boats and the sand was a beautiful white. When Golf gets the photo gallery ready, I will post a link.
We left on Saturday morning, knowing it was a 3 day weekend -- I don't even know what holiday today is, but on that Saturday as we were leaving the island, literally thousands of Thais were arriving. Boatload after boatload. As we were having lunch and waiting for our bus to take us back to Bangkok, Golf heard them say on the loud speaker that all the accomodation on the popular side of the island (where we stayed) was booked and any remaining people coming would have to seek accomodation on the other side of the island. I haven't been to the other side of the island, so I don't know what options were left. Perhaps extremely expensive resort-style bungalows. Anyway, Ko Chang was much better, but we just didn't want to make an 8 hour bus journey. It was a decent last hurrah-before-baby getaway.
Oh, one last thing: I just updated my pregnancy journal. :)
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