February 8-Ko Samet: Blissed out

Sunday morning, Suze, Ali and I caught an 8:00am bus to Ko Samet. "Ko" is Thai for island.

While I have been jealous of Amanda and Lisa's extended stay at the elephant sanctuary; it's insane to me that they will have experienced Thailand, but not the beaches!

*Tangent* Recently I read the book "Eat Pray Love". In the book the author lives in an ashram in India. I've never so much as heard the word "ashram" before. However, as of last week, it's now my plan to live in an ashram when my year in Korea is finished.

*How this is relevant* On the bus to Ko Samet, I sat next to Peter, a 24 year old Brit, who had just came from living in an ashram in India. That's cosmic forces enforcing my decision if I ever saw them.

So Peter and I got to talking, then he started talking to Veronica, a fellow Canadian. The five of us got off the boat in Ko Samet and have been inseperable ever since. Which is a good thing because...

When we arrived at the island at 2pm on Sunday it was full. As in; no room at the inn. This confused us, because while we knew Ko Samet to be a popular destination for Thai tourists on weekends, we were sure they'd be going home on Sunday. We didn't count on Monday being a holiday.

Suze and I ate lunch from 2-4, while Peter, Veronica, and Ali searched for accomodation. When they came back empty-handed, Suze and I took up the torch. At nightfall we decided that tenting was our only option.

Reluctantly, we rented two tents on the beach. Ali, Suze and Veronica were right in the think of things, while Peter and I were set back with a cluster of other tents. The girls went for a swim, while Peter and I checked out our tent.

Peter got into our tent, landed on a rock, shouted, "I have a plan" and took off. Alone with the mosquitos, I joined Alex (a Brit with a drunken-induced fractured foot) a loud Israli man, an even louder Swiss man, and Mooun-jpa (sp??) a self-proclaimed world-famous Thai artist, around a campfire. Quickly Mooun-jpa handed me his glass of whiskey, until Alex pointed out the abundance of clean glasses.

Mooun-ja asked me where I was from. Upon my reply, he slowly gazed at each one of us in turn, Canadian, English, Israeli, Swiss, and Thai, and then solemnly pronounced, "we are the world".

Just when things were about to get heavy, Peter returned and shouted "I have a room!" in this same tone he would have used to annouce a winning lotto ticket. Although the campfire was lovely, I gulped my whiskey, and grabbed my suitcase, ready to trek across the island for the 8th millionth time that day.

Peter had actually worked a miracle, and got the five of us a large room with two massive beds. Ali, Suze and I shared one bed, with Veronica and Peter on the other. I've never trusted two people so quickly in my life!