Just the beach weekend I needed
Trip Start
Jun 06, 2009
1
21
33
Trip End
May 04, 2010
Ko Samet, Rayong, Thailand
Sunday, October 25, 2009
The first thing we did after getting there, of course after getting a guesthouse and changing into our swimsuits was find a nice table at the beach, order a drink and just sit and relax. That sitting a relaxing got a little carried away though and we ended up just laying there for about 3 hours until we decided we should get up and go explore the nightlife of the island a bit.
While in 7-11 we were watching 4 guys in front of us buying Chang beer in cans, I felt it was necessary to let them know that they should not buy it in the can because it is the same price for the beer in a bottle and the beer in cans taste weird because they sit in the sun so long so there is always a taste of metal. They thanked me and grabbed the bottled beer and even stepped it up and got the bigger size, or for here it is really the normal size. They serve beer in two different sized bottles, the size you can buy in the USA and a bigger size that is about 2 to 2.5 of those beers in one bottle. Everyone drinks the bigger bottles because it is more for a cheaper price, in fact whenever I drink a normal size beer now it feels like I am holding a child sized beer.
So after talking to them for awhile we found out that they were from all parts of the world, two from England, one from South Africa and the other from Ireland or something and they were all teachers in Bangkok. We gave them shit for working and living in Bangkok and not knowing that can beer taste bad, but they invited us to have dinner with them which we accepted and then ended up meeting the rest of their group. Turns out there was a group of 7 or 8 of them who all worked at the same school in what everyone calls the "American Area" of Bangkok. We ended up hanging out the whole night with their group and having a great night all together. We got an amazing seafood dinner, watched a fire dancing show, had cocktails at this great "Little Bar" for happy hour and then went dancing back on Silver Sand beach.
The next day was what I had been wanting to do since I have been in Thailand, but it had never happened yet. We literally lounged around on the beach ALL day. Got up had breakfast, went swimming out to this floating dock or barge and just laid out there for hours talking and just soaking up the sun. Afterwards exploring different beaches around the area, and going and getting a beer and people watching all the old bald guys with their tiny young Thai girlfriends, oh and then getting massages on the beach. It was so terribly relaxing and I was so shocked that it had taken me that long to just relax on the beach. It was definitely not my first trip to the beach but it was the first time I was just able to enjoy it.
The night was finished by another amazing seafood dinner and dessert while watching the fire show and this night actually paying attention. It was during the fire show where we met another teacher who works in Bangkok and it was then that we realized that Koh Samet is the weekend getaway for people who live in Bangkok. It is only three hours away from the city center, and a bus from Bangkok leaves every 30 min to Koh Samet. It was also him who told us that it was Gay weekend at Silver Sand. Then things started to make sense, like the large groups of men at breakfast this morning, the large amount the men wearing smaller speedos than my bikini bottoms, the large amounts of men telling me not to be scared of them because they were gay last night. Oh and it turned out that last night was only a warm up for tonight.
A warm up was pretty dead on. So heading back over to Silver Sand the same bar that we were dancing at last night was transformed into an ocean of half naked, sweaty, really in-shape gay men. The bar was packed and spilling onto the beach, whereas the night before it was only about half full. Men were dancing on tables, taking shots off each other, oh and my favorite part was whenever you are waiting for the bathroom there is always a mens and women room, the mens room never has a line and the women's is always about 4 women deep. Well for the first time in my life I saw a line for the mens room about 20 guys long and the women's restroom you could just walk right into. In fact the mens line was so long some of them would jump into the ladies room.
The night turned out to be really fun anyway. We hung out on the beach and met or first tourist on the Island, a couple from Paris. I learned from them that the French do not hate Americans, it turns out they hate everyone because they know they are so much better than them, oh and that they are the worst in Europe at English because they are so proud. They were really nice and I had a great time talking to them.
The next day we just found a boat that was going to go snorkeling for half the day. It was fun they just took us to different spots on the island to go snorkeling and hang out. We didn't really care about the snorkeling, because we knew that Koh Samet did not have good snorkeling, but we more just wanted to hang out on a boat. Afterwards we immediately jumped on the ferry to go to Pattaya for a night out before heading back to Bangkok.
