Best Decision Ever!

Yesterday was a pretty non-eventful, but necessary, day. We got back "home" to our cozy little hostel in Bangkok after a looong, tedious night on the bus. We had left our big bags there so needed to stop back in to go through everything and carve out some time to mail packages back home. Not until I had it all together and in a big pile did I realize just how much I had accumulated. Yikes. Way too many awesome things in Thailand to pass up, apparently. So what started out as great, inexpensive finds skyrocketed in cost once I factored in the postage to send them home. It was a shocking sum of money, one that punched me in the gut when I heard it... but I'm sure it will all be worth it when I get home and see those things there... and to not have to carry any of them around anymore!

The rest of the afternoon/evening we spent doing laundry, on a mission to find a gift for a friend (mission failed) and having dinner. For whatever reason, we were both craving American food. Very unusual as I make it a point to not eat American food while traveling and very rarely miss it. But it hit us both at the same time so we gave in... we shouldn't have. Not sure why I ever expect American food to be the same in another country. I should have learned my lesson from the "hamburger" I ate the other day. Ick.


Either way, that was as exciting as yesterday got. But once we shed ourselves of all of our extra stuff, we were ready to take off again... to the beach! Two of our peeps from Chiang Mai, Dani and Duncan, made their way down to Bangkok and met up with us there this morning. It was funny to have a 'mini-reunion' after less than two days apart, talking and catching up as if we hadn't seen each other in ages. We were all more than ready to get out of the city so we caught the bus down south and then got a ferry over to the island of Ko Samet. I was so excited to get to the beach in Thailand! Especially considering that just a few days ago we were resigned to the fact of not being able to go... suddenly all the hassle of changing our airline tickets was SOO worth it.

We checked in, dropped our bags, changed into our bathing suits and headed straight out to the water. The sand is some of the whitest I've ever seen, as well as being the softest and the water is green and warm. Aaaah. Dinner was at a place on the beach (of course) where the tables are actually ON the beach and you sit with your feet in the powdery sand beneath you. Again, aaaah. We cheered Julie's Guest House (where we met) and we cheered beach life. Not too shabby, I must say.

We sat there for a long while soaking it all in before heading farther down the beach and stumbling on a rather hopping place. There was fire limbo and there was dancing. Let's suffice it to say it turned into a rather late, and most memorable, evening. Fun, fun times. Beach life is the life for me. Aaaah.