Ko Samui

We arrived in Ko Samui on April 1st in the evening. Getting to the island we took a ginormous ferry. It held lots of trucks and coach size buses with several levels of seating and a huge top deck to hang out on. We found a bungalow near the beach and did some reading until the rain stopped. We have had virtually no rain the whole trip, but the island seems to get short tropical rain storms in the afternoon. That night while walking around we stumbled upon a market that is only around on Sunday nights. They had TONS of food and souvenirs. They even had a small show bringing people on stage to do tricks with a snake.
The next morning we woke to a small tropical storm which lasted well into the early afternoon. We decided to take on the rain and go get a moped to explore the island, luckily the rain stopped on our way to rent a motor bike and the sun came out. We headed to the north of the island to see the big buddah. The buddah sat on top of a huge hill near the beach which could be seen for miles. On the way back we saw a temple entrance on a road and decided to o check it out. There were several huge statues all located on different piers on a small lake. It's incredible the money and time that areut into these temples. After visiting the temples we went to Chewang, the most popular beach on the island. We spent the eveing roaming the streets of Chewang and doing a bit of shopping.
The following morning we decided to go to a monkey show on the other side of the island. When we got there we saw the price was triple what we had read it was so we quickly vetoed that idea. We spent the rest of the day enjoying the beach in the very hot sun. That night we were aimlessly walking around the town and we ventured down a small road off the main road that we thought led to the beach. To our surprise there was a whole "downtown" like area we did not know existed. The street was filled with small bars and shops and our favorite, a little food market full of different food carts. We enjoyed the fun atmosphere here and walked around taking it all in.
Yippie the next day was a beautiful sunny day. I can definitely get use to this beach scene, we will be doing this for the next month. We spent the entire day at the beach. That night we headed back to the small downtown area and got some dinner. After walking around for a bit we decided to stop and have a drink. There was an area with about 13 small tiki hut buildings surrounding a boxing ring. Each tiki hut was a different bar and each one had a pole in the middle with each one having different girls dancing on them. Some wearing skimpy clothes, some dressed for church, some wearing casual clothes, and of course some lady boys. Lady boys are Asian men dressed as women or transgender men that have become women. South Thailand is known for its large population of Lady boys. They are incredibly beautiful and it can be very hard to distinguish them apart. They call them selves Lady boys as do the locals. There was no boxing ring in the match that night, but apparently it is quite popular when that is happening. We grabbed a drink at one of the tiki huts and took in the surroundings, by far some of the best people watching I have ever gotten the pleasure to enjoy. The bartenders have games under the bar they bring out to play, like four square and jenga. We spent the night at the bar playing jenga with one of the girls and we think her mom who also worked at the bar. It was fun and very interesting!
Now we are on our way to Koh Phangan, a small island near Ko Samui, to enjoy the famous full moon party. We have heard VERY interesting stories about these parties so I can only imagine what's in store for us. Thanks for reading! Cheers!