Day 38 - Travel to Phuket

Eager to move on, we woke up early (for us) at 8:30am and checked out of the Zoe Crap French Resort.  Ty helped me drag the bags to the main road and I hopped onto a tuk tuk to Cyana Beach Resort while Ty scooted over with our rented motorbike.   We met up with L & L, had some lovely tasting omelets and then I got some pool time with Lora, which was great because our shower didn't exactly work at the Zoe French resort.

View of the beach close to the Thongsala pier

Together we caught the noon ferry boat - they got off on Koh Samui and we continued onto Surat Thani.  At Surat Thani we caught a 6 hour bus to Phuket and after two minibus transfers and a lot of waiting, snoozing and watching the Sopranos we arrived into Phuket at 9:30pm.

We were hopeful when we checked into the Patong Voyage and were surprised to find it was clean, had AC, a shower that worked wonderfully and even a patio!  After cleaning up a bit we hit the town for some dinner and then walked over to Bangla Road, the Phuket version of Khao San Road.  We listened to a local band play some great Adele covers, saw a street magician and were in bed by 1:30am.

So many motorbikes...for rent??

Crazy Bangla Road

Adele cover band

Biggest gal-bar I have ever been to

Sex-pat 

Day 33 and 34 - Koh Samui

During these days it was still raining...so we didn't do the Football/Soccer Mini-golf we were so eager to do...instead we waited until nightfall and ventured into Chaweng or down the road to a local place for drinks and pool with L & L and another couple we met through them

Day 32 - Travel to Koh Samui

Recovering from a bad bit of food poisoning we took the ferry back to Koh Samui and cabbed it to the lovely Deva Samui Resort, which has multiple pools, a wonderful beach with sun beds, kayaks, a fitness center and a great movie/book lend-out!  Unfortunately there was no sun for us to enjoy but we did meet up with our friends L & L!

Our lovely spot on Koh Samui

Walkway to the rooms from the lobby

One of the three pools with sunbeds...still raining!

We walked Chaweng Beach, the main strip of restaurants and bars and ate a great dinner, then convinced ourselves we should take in a Cabaret Show!  Free entrance but with a 1 drink minimum (drinks were a little pricey, approx $5 USD each) we took in the 9:30pm show!

Scary shark ready to be eaten

Barracuda

Fruits de Mer

Diana Ross Tribute

Maroon Five

Adam Levine and Christina Aguilera (?)

Lady Gaga

Mariah Carey?

Gangnam Style Finale

After our cabaret experience we grabbed a drink at the same place as last time - this time we even got chalk from the bartender and decorated the wall!

Day 27 - Fun times in Koh Samui with friends!

I was actually fairly excited to leave Phi Phi because we had already seen both sides of the island, snorkeled, done the nightlife and wore ourselves out at the Natacha Hotel (about $15 USD/night - bare bones!).

We retraced our steps and rode a ferry to Krabi, took a Greyhound bus to Surat Thani and were waiting at the Koh Samui dock when we bumped into the couple we had met on Phi Phi at the Natural Resort!  I was really happy that they were going to Samui too and we made plans to meet for dinner and a little adventure out on the town.  We were taking a page from another couples' books and had not booked any accommodations as we were only in Samui for one night, then ferrying over to Koh Tao the next day, whereas our friends were staying at a pricey resort.

We split a cab with L & L, our new travel buddies, and after wandering a bit found the Backpackers Hostel, which had only been open for a few months.   It was absolutely meant to be; we were walking down the street with our bags and randomly struck up a conversation with a traveler who had been staying there for 2 weeks.  We booked ourselves two beds in the 10 bed dorm and got ready for a night out!
In high spirits we got after it...we had dinner at a fairly nice restaurant, then drinks at Solo Bar, a bit of a walk to Ice bar (-7 celsius temperature), then grabbed some buckets (no Red-bull!) at a small place across the street from the Green Mango club.  Once the Green Mango got busy (around midnight) we wandered over and danced, danced, danced.  We all took a turn on the small scaffolding/stage that was there - Ty even did a front flip off of the stage and... nearly landed it.  

Solo bar - spendy

Green Mango - empty at 9, packed at 12

Cheap-bucket buddies

Interesting scenery in front of this cabaret (sexpat central)

Ice bar finery

                      

                                                             Crazy skilled Magician

All ice!

Before making our somewhat drunken way home we came across Burger King (which I hadn't had in ages) and had a snack there.  L & L grabbed a cab and took off for their resort and Ty and I used my HTC phones GPS to find our way back to the Backpackers hostel at about 2:30am...yikes!