After waving goodbye to our beloved pup-pup, we settled into our little bungalow on the island of Koh Samui. We would stay here just short of two weeks. Again the accommodation was quite cheap, but certainly not the nicest place we’ve stayed. The beach access was good, but honestly this beach was not all that clean. I was sort of surprised at the sheer number of Russian tourists (as well as how much they can smoke), but geographically I guess it makes sense as a vacation destination.
A lot of our days consisted of sleeping in, chilling on the beach, going to the gym, me drinking tea, and maybe some late afternoon into evening exploration. Sounds like paradise right? It was certainly nice at times, but our location on Koh Samui wasn’t exactly ideal because there wasn’t too much around us. Unfortunately, we were unable to get a scooter for better access around the island as it was peak tourist season. One rental agency we inquired at recommended against even trying to get a scooter because of very low availability and general fear for our lives. “Did you know Bangkok has the busiest hospital in the world? Please don’t get a scooter. I do this for a living, but please don’t get a scooter during the busiest time of the year.” Yes sir!
We definitely had some good cheap food, but a fair share of duds as well. I think I tried to recreate an American breakfast sandwich about 4-5 times with about a 50% success rate. I forgot my own advice about not ordering your favorite foods abroad.
In my mind, there were two major highlights of our time on Koh Samui: New Year’s Eve and a cool cooking class at an organic farm. For New Year's Eve we wound up going to the famous “full moon party” on Koh Phangan. There was not a full moon that night, but as you can imagine, they made an exception. The scale of it was pretty impressive. We took a small boat to get there with plenty of other excited partygoers. This boat was positively tame compared to the other one.
I had on my party gear: a full tie-dye set. Upon arriving, Shriya got some flowery body paint and we ventured into town. The party consists of both the town and beachfront, accommodating about 20,000 people each time there’s a party. Despite that, I never felt too crowded or squished (other than on the beach at midnight, duh). There were entertainers, attractions, activities, bars (of course), and pretty decent food. I dabbled in some fire jump roping and made it out unsinged unlike some other amateurs. Getting back to Koh Samui wasn’t even too hard, and once we got back, we had the great fortune of continuing to ring in the new year with some locals partying at their restaurant next door. We’re probably famous on Thai tiktok. Overall, the full moon party was a wild experience and one that I would recommend or do again!
After recovering for a couple days, we did a Thai cooking class on an organic farm (one of my Christmas presents to Shriya). It was sort of like visiting the circle of life in person - every detail of the farm and aquaponics system mattered, and nothing went to waste. Whether you were interested in farming, engineering, cooking, or sustainability, you were set. I was truly shocked when I tasted the Pad Thai, spring rolls, and papaya salad that I made. I’m really hoping that I can recreate it to some degree once we get to a place where we actually cook again.
We made another brief stop in Bangkok to run some errands before leaving Thailand. Notably, I picked up a tailored suit that DIDN’T turn out to be a scam, and replaced my Nintendo Switch that was lost in Australia. (I guarantee you some JetStar employee’s kid got a Switch for Christmas… Ultimately this was my fault, but the way they mishandled the whole situation is honestly pretty shocking. I generally use this blog to beg for endorsements from Teva and Charles Schwab, but I’m not above using my vast sphere of influence to take down a middling airline company…anyways…)
What can we say about Thailand overall? The food was good, most things were cheap, there were some good parties, and lovely beaches. If we went again, I would definitely do it a little differently though. I think we both wish we would have spent some more time up north, and it would have been nice to do more in Bangkok if we knew exactly what area would be best. The city is just so massive and we went in pretty much blind. That’s not to say we didn’t look up neighborhoods in the city, but you don’t always know what something will be like until you’re in it.
One thing that did strike me about Thailand was that it felt like the tourism industry was a bit overdeveloped. We thought that spending six weeks in one country would give us a better appreciation for actual Thai people and culture, but honestly I felt like so much of what we saw and did was a bit put on. Almost every interaction we had was monetized somehow, and it made it difficult to get a sense for what the people were actually like. I’m not blaming this on Thailand or Thai people, mind you, we are the ones who picked very touristy places and activities during our time here. Of course there are unique and meaningful interactions to be had if you can find them. It just felt like so much of the places we explored were geared toward tourism that the whole thing felt pretty impersonal. With exception though, we loved our tea lady in Koh Samui, a reliable and kind driver on Phuket, an honest and selfless electronics merchant in Bangkok, and the cooking class family who answered everything with care and wanted to teach a new generation. Shriya and I have had some realistic conversations about the travel industry, what it means to be a traveler in some of these communities, and our overall impact on local culture and economy, so maybe there’s room for a blog post outlining some of our thoughts and concerns at some point.
Next we would be gearing up for our trip to Nepal. We have a couple weddings, family trips, trips across the border, and lots of rice and lentils (daal bhat) to get through. Until then!
Love,
Peter & Shriya