"this is, by far, the dumbest thing we've done yet."

good morning, clear water. how are you?

..

well, i came to a very important philosphical realization today. so far, each day, i've been keeping track of roughly how much money i spent so that a) my identity doesn't get stolen by asians, and b) i know what i've spent so i know how much i'll have when i get back. i've been spending, almost every day, much more than i had anticipated by the day, and wanted to "make up for it" along the way. but i'm realizing that i've saved up a fair amount for this trip, and it's not going to hurt to spend it. all, if need be.

since then, i've felt much freer. and i've started to relax a bit.

and just in time for the beach...

..

so what did i do with this newfound freedom today? alex and i woke up around seven a.m. again today-- i know, everyone from home is wondering why the hell i've spent the last ten years of my life in bed til one p.m. (or two, or three, or if i have a hangover, four to sixish. sorry mom, i love you) . its really nice actually, i feel like i accomplish things when i'm up this early.

but don't get used to it. etters, pa doesn't quite have the to-do list that ko samui does.

or the rest of asia, for that matter.

alex by the fountain near the coffee shop.

..

after dropping off our lovely smelling bag of laundry for the poor thai woman next to our hostel, we set out on foot. we weren't sure how we wanted to get around the island-- we have the option of walking, which, after a while, would really suck. though the island isn't big at all, four miles to the busier beach, chaweng, can get old, fast. though we're literally beachfront at our hostel (we might as well be sleeping in sand), we were told that chaweng was the nicest part of the island, so we wanted to see the action first-hand.

after our morning coffee(s, for alex), we began walking. after about a mile and a half, we decided to search for a better means of transportation that didn't involve our efforts. so we overpaid a motorbike taxi. he dropped us off the in middle of chaweng.

it seemed like a good idea at the time.

..

after another two miles of walking the beachlines, we were exhausted. as it turns out, though the entire beach is public, we cannot take the chairs that line the waters because they are all reserved for the guests of the corresponding hotel. mind you, no hotels here are beachfront.

they are all just beach. might as well be in the ocean.

we had been staring at the crystal green waters for well over four hours at this point and were ready to dive in, but neither of us had towels to save room in our bags. so we ventured back out into the street to find a taxi that could take us to the "public beach." unfortunately, as murphy's law would have it (appropriately enough), we're still out of english-speaking areas, so we scoured our sights for the white man.

alex found one.

he was sitting in a motorbike rental area. he had the best price to rent the bikes and we figured it would be the best way to travel around the island. we could keep the bike for twenty-four hours and pay virtually the same amount as we paid the taxi driver in the morning.

"have you ever driven a motorbike before?" he asked us in his english accent.

crickets.

..

he took us to the side of the building and showed us how to start the bike. alex gave the test run a go first, with flying colors. i stood and watched.

"now put her on the back," he told us. "it's really quite different."

he was right. neither of us could keep our balance at all. we swayed and i watched as the handle bars jiggled back and fourth and alex tried to keep us afloat. england looked at us, our eyes wide and worried.

"i'll give it a shot," and i hopped on like i knew what i was doing or something.

i really did no better than alex, and then we gave it a go with the two of us on the bike. after i came back down the lane with an "oh shit" look on my face, he looked at us again.

"you seem a bit more confident. you two will be fine. trust me, there are many people i won't let rent these things. we don't need the 150 baht that badly."

150 baht= 5 usd. that's right. for twenty-four hours of our lives on the line.

we grabbed some helmets as we let the door hit our asses.

..

with the key in the ignition, i sat on the motorbike holding the handlebars, ready to pull out of the parking lot. there was a hill in front of me which looked awfully big, and the turn was going to be a hard ninety degrees.

i looked back. "are you sure we don't need a license or anything for this?"

he laughed.

"alex, you realize that this is, by far, absolutely the dumbest thing we've done on this trip so far."
"yeah. just don't kill me and we'll be okay."

i'll take good care of her momma murphy. i think.
..

we pulled into the parking lot of ark bar in one piece. i think i forgot to breathe while we were on that bike.

..

after lunch at the bar, we laid back down on the beach for some sun, but to our dismay, it wasn't out. it looked like it was going to storm, and, knowing it would take about ten minutes to get back, we decided to pack up and try to beat the rain. literally, just as we got on the bike and pulled out of the parking lot, it started to pour. i quickly stopped the bike in an open gravel lot next to the one we had just been parked in for the most ackward parkjob known to motorbikes.

by this i mean by the time we got back to the gravel lot, someone had picked up our bike and moved it to a more practical spot.

i'm sure that person was only thinking one thing: stupid tourists.

..

just as we got back on the bike to head home, we got no further than half a mile down the street before we had to pull over again for another downpour. conveniently enough, we were outside of murphy's irish pub.

what better way for murphy's law to strike? and i was still with alex. murphy.

..

we ordered two bailey's and coffee drinks. any more of them and i wouldn't have been able to drive. the motorbike.

is this baileys?!

..

once we got back to the hostel and parked the honda, we set out for the best part of the day: be jealous. thai massage.

we scoured the beach for the best deal we could find-- 200 baht for 1 hour. at the hostel right next to ours. do the math if you remember from earlier.

as we waited our turn, i jumped in the lamai beach waters, which were in fact much clearer than those of the more-popular chaweng beach. once we were called, we decided to spoil ourselves by paying a whopping hundred baht more for hour-long full-body oil massages.

for ten usd.

that's all i need to say. i'll end this story here.

..

at dinner, alex and i each ordered drinks: a banana dacquiri and pina colada. note to self: thais do not, i repeat, do not skimp on the liquor. yum.

i'll have a bit of colada with my pina rum, please.

..

i want to drive the moto again.

Y rae. racho. d.