Journal: Koh Samui 2013

So I actually haven’t posted for ages, but you know, life has gotten in the way… blah blah blah. The typical life excuses that people manipulate to justify to themselves why they haven’t been blogging, even when they made themselves a promise. Anyways, I’m attempting to rectify the situation by blogging about it now (Goddamn I have more than 1 month to catch up on, and let’s just say it may have been the most eventful one month of my life). Better late than never right? (:

As on can evidently see, this post is going to be about Koh Samui.

Here’s a picture I took with my fisheye and I think XPro Film just to keep you interested while I wabble on for a bit about the trip. Okay? Okay. I’m glad you liked that photo. Basically, this Koh Samui trip was my grad trip. It took a looong looooong time to convince my parents to let me go. You’re probably wondering why right? I mean who would not want to let their kid go enjoy their graduation in a place like this? Silly them. Let me make a list for you (and for the future me)

1. My mum thought I would go engage in “group sex” and “drugs”. Her words, not mine. I promise
2. They didn’t think it was safe
3. They’re ‘asian’ like that. Yes, I know it’s stereotypical to use that as a reason, but if you have ‘stereotypical asian parents’ and you’re reading this, I can imagine you nodding your head in agreement going ahhhh yes. If you’re not… feel free to drop me a message and ask!
4. They didn’t like the male gender would be present too, although I argued having males around makes it safer
5. Why Koh Samui and not somewhere cheaper like Sanya or Malaysia?
6. You’re still too young to do this

Anyways, I managed to convince them to let me go by making a sick as presentation about all the details and information (My dad’s a very pragmatic guy like that) and my friends helped to convince them as well. So so so glad I was allowed to go. Very easily one of the best trips of a life time. I don’t think I’m ever going to be able to go to somewhere like that again with a friends as amazing as them. I’m so thankful.

We left on the night on the 31st, taking the 9:30 flight to Bangkok (we had to transfer to KS from BKK). We landed in BKK at 1+ in the morning, except our flight from BKK to KS was at 6 in the morning so……. 5 hour layover! Yay! 5 hour layovers are always so enjoyable, especially when you have no where to sleep. We found a burger restaurant and ate for a bit, until the restaurant closed so we just found some empty space near the check in and attempted to sleep/play cards/play DOTS on the Iphone and just tried to fill time until we could check in. On a side note, please go download DOTS. It’s incredibly addicting though (but at least I warned you).

Here, let me upload another photo to keep you/myself from being bored. I only want to upload my fisheye’s though (and maybe a few polaroids) because I don’t necessarily want to upload my digital photos as some of them are a slight personal and I don’t want anyone to be offended by having their face on here since I haven’t really asked for their permission. ALSO I have too many digital photos and I ceeebs picking through them 😛 The number maybe in the thousands if you include everyone’s pictures. Yea yea, I know I’m lazy. I have no shame

Anyways, the trip was a perfect blend of relaxing + some activities + drinking for them (I don’t drink-ish) + going out till wee hours in the morning + eating + making lunches and dinners + free breakfasts.

GROCERY SHOPPING. I feel a paragraph is needed to dedicate my love for grocery shopping. I absolutely adore grocery shopping, and I don’t even know why. I think it stems from my love for food and fascination with cooking/baking, and it’s so much fun making your own food. Grocery shopping in Koh Samui was too much fun. Fruits there are so ridiculously cheap I felt like I was in seven heaven. 10 mangos for 160BHT. Yes, 160BHT. That’s about 30RMB/6SGD for 10 mangos, thai mangos may I add. Where on earth are you going to find prices like that and mangos that sweet? Breakfast was provided to us by the villa (I’ll talk more on that later) which mainly consisted of cereal and eggs and toast and bacon and a whole large platter of fruit, so you know, we had a balanced diet and whole. Freshly cut mangos every morning for breakfast is a page out of a fairytale. They even made us mango smoothies one day! For lunch we generally just had simple things like pasta/wraps/grilled sandwiches and for dinner we’d either go somewhere cheap and good to eat out like in hawker centers or buy some seafood and come home to grill it. Maybe I will have to post some digital pictures to explain all this.

Our villa was absolutely incredible. You know how you hear about times where something is so beautiful it takes your breath away? I know it’s cliched, but that’s what happened to me. The villa was slightly ostentatious in size, but who can complain. Perfect villa for a perfect holiday. Curious right? Here are some photos!

Wait, let me explain something first. There were 18 of us who went on this trip – Me/Eric/Celin/Flo/Avila/Lauren/Denis/Strickland were in 1 villa, and Maggi/Omar/Kangan/Rachel/Emma/Saj/Hursh/Olivier/Nisa/Caitlyn were in the other villa. The villas were one of top of the other so it was really easy to just shout across, although it was a bitch to walk between villas because there was no direct paths between the villas so you had to walk a big STEEEP bend on the main road. That’s why the villas might look similar, but different (reminds me of my IGCSE art exam theme). One villa was called Gran View and the other was called Grand Vista. They’re basically exactly the same, but one is mainly decorated in white and the other is mainly decorated in red. Another key difference is that in our villa (red villa), the kitchen is on the same floor as the pool, and the rooms are on the second floor but in the other villa, the rooms are on the same floor as the pool and the kitchen is on the second floor. Basically a reverse of the other villa. I need to stop talking, I’m terribly sorry.

This is our pool! Because it’s mandatory in a classy villa to have decorations in the pool you know, just because. You see the ledge? Thank goodness for the ledge. This pool was a few cm deeper than the other pool so I couldn’t really stand in it, even when I was tiptoeing. I know I’m short and everything but really? Not short people friendly at all. So I pretty much just sat on the ledge to tan/chill/read/any pool activity

It was so ridiculously difficult finding a villa for 18 people that satisfied everyone. I mean the location had to be decent, the price had to be not too expensive, enough space and what not so when we found these two villas we were beyond estactic. The picture above is my/our group’s villa! Perfect way to spend the day reading on the deck chairs in the sun while sipping on mango smoothies or in their case, any form of alcohol. Did I mention our fridge was jam packed with beer and other alcohol? Literally. All the guys would buy would be beer/bacon/beer/bacon/beer/bacon/beer/bacon/beer/bacon/beer/bacon. Except I don’t like neither so goddamn they took up my fruit space in the fridge.

I had a love/hate relationship with our villa. I loved it because it was on the top of Bohput hills, and we were pretty much the only people there. There was this other family but other than them, it was just helpers. It meant we could play our music as loudly as possible (within reason of course) and we didn’t have strangers looking over the fence to stalk our privacy (that’s what facebook is for). There were also speakers by the bar next to the pool so that made everything just that weee bit more fun. Since we’re on the top of the hill, the view was just absolutely incredible. you pretty much get to look over the whole of Koh Samui, which is even more magical when you’re watching the sunrise/sunset.

But with that being said, sometimes I hated it. It was impossible to walk up/down the hill because it was too steep and too far up (I mean it is possible but really? Walking up and down the hill when it’s steep? Exercise? Uh no thank you) so the guys decided  to rent motorbikes which made everything so much easier. It meant we could easily go to the supermarket at the bottom of the hill (the guys loved this since it mean they would never be short of alcohol) without paying the ridiculous 600BHT fee for the truck. It also gave us a sense of freedom in doing whatever we wanted without annoying the helpers. It was also semi far from the ‘club’ area, so it would take us a while to get there at night, or going to the beach. It did discourage us going to the beach a little because it was that tad bit further, but riding behind the motorbike is just too much find. Mind you, I only rode behind since my hand-eye-feet co-ordination skills are as good as goldfish and I would have most definitely crashed and possible died so behind it is. The rush of wind blowing through your hair…. Splendid.

The ledge at the side of the pool made it a perfect tanning spot, and a perfect lie down to read a book. I have a feeling I’ve said perfect too many times, but I’m really lazy to open up the Thesaurus.

In our villa, there were these two massage beds on the second floor that were in direct sunlight in the afternoon, so my best friend (Celin) and I decided to pull them out and tan while reading. There was a lot of tanning involved during the trip, and suffice to say I tanned quite a bit. I may have even slightly burned my shoulders/nose. Just maybe

I just wish I was back to waking up to the view every morning. When you’re standing at the top of the mountain in one of the most magnificent villas ever, it tends to feel surreal. You feel as if you’re living another life, where your previous life just magically vanishes and ceases to exist. You live in the moment, completely free from the constrains of society. You momentarily forget about all the shit that’s going on, seperating yourself from the bullshit rules society attempts to impose on individuals.

Multiple exposures are my absolute favourite

Just look at this. Just look at it. Just look at it. Need I say more? Someone please take me back here

Just a few more photos of my/our villa. Breathtakingly beautiful isn’t it? Okay let me find pictures of the other villa and link it here. Like I said, it’s pretty much the same villa. Except it was semi annoying because some people in each villa kept going OMG OUR VILLA IS BETTER or OMG WE HAVE SO MUCH MORE FUN. Seriously, does it even matter? Problems of travelling with too big of a group. Omg another problem that really annoyed me was the lack of group photos. Do you know how hard it is to try and get more than 4-5 people in a photo? If you don’t, let me tell you it’s ridiculously hard. Plus after you take the photo, everyone needs to be happy with it. “Ewww my eyes are closed” or “hehehe wasn’t looking” or “OMG MY HAIR WASNT READY”. Granted I fall into those excuses too but uuuugh I just wish we had more group photos, that’s all.

Yea yea, I know the film makes it look a little bit more contrasted than it actually is, but I promise the colours I saw in real life were pretty much like this. No kind of film or digital could ever do the scene justice. Trust me, I’ve tried

Just looking at these pictures is making me nostalgic. Although to be fair, who wouldn’t be nostalgic about this. Any mention of infinity pool just reminds me of our infinity pool. Nothing can ever trump this I think, but I guess I probably speak too soon.

There were a lot of ‘fights’ about who was on the floatie; I completely understand why the floatie was worth fighting for though. Who wouldn’t want to lie in a pool under the warm sun and take a nap?

There was also this other group from Dulwich that went to Koh Samui (Amy/Stella/Nathan/Tom/Tram/Will/Mario/Melnyk), and they stayed in this villa that’s owned by the same management company as ours. It was a lot smaller than ours, but it was still beautiful (except they didn’t have an infinity pool, but I really don’t want to seem like a spoilt rich kid who always has the infinity pool).

They were opposite to the other villa, except their pool was right next to the main road so it was slightly awkward sometimes when we drove by and could see them in their pool with their music blasting.

One on o the first few days, we went to this place called Fisherman’s Village which was literally right below our mountain/hill. It’s this street-ish place that’s right by the beach that’s full of touristy shops that sells the stereotypical I ❤ Koh Samui tank tops and other things, as well as a whole bunch of touristy restaurants right by the beach. The restaurants were all too pricey so being the cheap money savers we were, we found this cheap Indian/Thai place and had a scrumptious meal there. We mainly just walked around the place, shopped a little, and spent some time by the beach playing frisbee. Just a heads up, I’m notoriously bad at frisbee. People clap when I catch the frisbee; I’m not lying.

The number of tatto parlors I saw was actually incredible. I guess they want to give the drunken toursits enough options when they choose a tattoo in that spur of the drunken moment and probably regret it the next morning.

I love how the streets of Koh Samui were a mix of modern and old, in a sense that the rustic charm was still there yet it was bustling with modern elements to it. I know for certain I’d rather walk in streets like this, rather than some ‘mainstream’ street of other cities where each building and shop look the same. There’s something about having the old charm to the buildings that give them this alluring essence.

Mojito stores all around! Score for me. Mojitos are one of the few alcoholic drinks I actually drink/like so no complains there. Probably because they’re fruity and they generally aren’t very strong and yeaaa I like me ‘girl’ drinks. Also, they were ridiculously cheap. 60BHT for a mango mojito? Count me in, in a heartbeat. That’s 12RMB, or 2.4SGD… (That’s all the currency conversions I know, but I think it’s around 2USD or less)

Say an upside down hi to my best friend Kangan! I asked her if I could put this picture up and she agreed so I’m not infringing on anyone’s privacy or anything. Also I told her the url of this blog… there goes only strangers knowing about this.

Even though the shopping was aiiight (did anyone say multiple beach tanks and harem pants and hobo bags?) and the food was delicous (Indian and Thai on the table? The restaurant sure knows how to attract customers), the beach was actually pretty terrible. The sand was the stoney-sand kind,so it physically hurt when you walked on it. There was only this mini strip near the water that was the soft powdery sand so ehhh for Koh Samui beaches. But I guess they always say it doesn’t matter where you are, as long as you’re with the people you love.

So this other beach is called Chaweng Beach. In Koh Samui, Chaweng is where all the night clubs/bars/ladyboy shows/strip clubs are, so it’s no surprised that around that area there are also an abundant of restaurants and street side stalls and shopping. The shopping there is really similar to the concept of the fake market at the Science Tech in Shanghai, I even saw a few stalls that sold the typical Hollister/American Eagle/Abercrombie look-a-likes. Hehehe of course we did shopping, how could we not. It was mainly just bikinis for 250BHT each, beach/muscle tanks for 150-200BHT each, harem pants for 250BHT and a whole bunch of other thailand-y things.

As pretty as these deck chairs are, I’m not going to pay money to lie on them. Perfectly content with lying on a towel on the beach. But you know, if I had the money to spare, why not? Deck chair just means less sand over awkward parts of your body.

Of course we played frisbee again! But this time we had this mini American Football ball so we played that too. It was really awkward when we played piggy in the middle and this random stranger asked me to throw to him and I did. Except I missed. Awkward. Told you I was terrible at sports.

We also get henna’s done at the beach! It was pretty sick. All over the beach they have people walking around selling things like bracelets, bikinis, ice cream, drinks, cover ups and a whole bunch of other stereotypical tourist things. Took forever to wait for it to dry though, but I guess it’s all worth it. Hehehe all of us wrote Samui on our henna’s as a tribute to Koh Samui 2013.

One of the nights before we went to beach, we were out at the Chaweng clubbing/bar street just you know, having a good nights fun. Anyways, this guy randomly comes up to us and starts handing us these VIP bracelets going we just opened a club on Chaweng beach! Come tomorrow for a free buffet lunch and to use the pool and what not! So we’re like okay you look dodgy but you know, we can go check it out. When we went there… boy was it awkward, but we were never one to turn down free food so we joined in just for the free food. It was more of an adult club like place? You know the kind in movies where people aren’t actually swimming in the pool. Instead they’re sitting around/on the edge of the pool, sipping on their drinks, while others are lying on their deck chairs chatting people up and drinking more alcohol… Catch my drift? Yea it was that kind of place. Not really fit for teenagers/young adults like us but ehh free pad thai and frid rice and sausages and potatos? Count me in, no matter how awkward it is when people  there start eying you up and judging you. The things I do for free food.

On the second last day we went to the beach called Cheong Mon Beach. It was waaaay less touristy than Chaweng, which I greatly enjoyed. It just meant less tourists along the way, which made it quieter, more peace and serene. I was never really one for the OMG SO MANY PEOPLE ON THE BEACH THERES NO SPACE BUT SO MANY PEOPLE TO TALK TO. Don’t get me wrong, I love making new friends and talking to people, but I like my personal space too. It really depends on what I’m in the moood for.

As you can see from the pictures above, the sea here was a lot clearer than the one at Chaweng. In all honesty, I was a little dissapointed by the beaches. When you google Koh Samui, you are welcomed by a plethora of perfect beaches – the ones where the water is see through and crispy blue, the sand is delicately soft and palm trees are swaying in the background. But the beaches we went to were only average, and the water wasn’t exactly crystal clear. I really shouldn’t be complaining though.

And so, here’s a last picture to conclude everything. Here’s to the trip of a lifetime, one that I don’t think I will ever be able to forget, nor do I ever want to forget this trip. Thank you to everyone who made this trip as special as it was. I love you guys! x

This post is getting too long and I’m tired (told you I was lazy) so I’m going to add on to this in a bit.

Also, remember the best friend I was talking about above, Celin? She made a Koh Samui video! It pretty much sums up the whole entire trip in a 12 minute clip. Hahaha I’m well aware it’s a long video but good lord we had way too many pictures/videos to put in there

Here’s to an amazing week!

Jin x

Question of the day: Did you have a grad trip? Where did you go! Where did you want to go?