After months of asking to go to
the beach for her birthday, Sophie finally got her wish. I had told her in
January we would go on vacation for her birthday, but I refused to tell her
where. She kept pestering me day after day, until I finally caved and told her
we were going to the beach, but not where. She just kept guessing and guessing
and then thinking she knew based on my facial expressions. It was so funny, but
so hard to keep secret! We flew first to Bangkok where we had a 5 hour layover,
so we got to go into the city and to the huge Siam Paragon mall. She had never
been to Bangkok before, so that was exciting for her too. First plane ride,
first trip to Bangkok, first time at the ocean. This was a big trip for her. I
think the mall overwhelmed her, because after only an hour, she was ready to go
back to the airport. Shopping at Siam is like shopping at Rodeo Drive: fun to
look, but you couldn’t even buy a keychain with your inheritance. Except at the
Gap.
Well, to cut a long story short,
the trip from Bangkok to Ko Samui was not exactly the smooth transitions I had
anticipated. First, our flight was about 45 minutes late leaving, which meant
that it would be hard to make the last boat of the day. Then, we had to pay
twice as much as I had budgeted for our bus/ferry trip. Add to that a serious
case of teenage sized “are we there yets” and it was a less than joyous trip.
But all that didn’t matter when Sophie first saw the ocean and the sun setting
into it. It was a beautiful sight and she was SO excited. We got some food on
the boat and settled in for the hour ride to the island. Which actually took
two. Luckily, the rest of the boat was in the same, well, boat, as we were.
Apparently, we had all read the same travel website that gave us misinformation
about times and prices. We ended up sharing a cab with a British couple on
holiday who had not booked a hotel. They came to our hotel with us and got a
room there. Let me just say that internet photos are very deceiving when it
came to our itty bitty “bungalow” and I use the term loosely. Good thing we had
no plans to stay there much because it only a bed, a toilet with no lid or
flushing capabilities (yay for buckets of water) and, bonus! Cockroaches.
Suffice it to say that on the next trip, we will stay closer to home and pay
the extra for a room with a real toilet and a tv set. Despite all that, the
grounds were beautiful, and, come on! It was a beach resort. We were walking
distance from two beaches and at most a 20 minute drive from dozens of others.
The first day, we woke up early because Sophie wanted to have her first beach
experience. We rented a motorbike from the hotel and drove to the “family
friendly” beach about a mile away. It was a perfect first beach: super soft
sand, shallow water and lots of families with little kids, no drunk college
people anywhere in sight.
Sophie LOVED it. She was in that
water, playing in the sand, asking me to take a million pictures in a million
poses and generally having the time of her life. After a couple hours there, we
drove into the city to check out some other beaches and get some lunch. This
proved harder than we thought it would. We were hoping to find an area like the
markets at home, but the market appeared to be closed. We did find a place for
lunch finally, that was about the prices at home, and it was pretty tasty! We
had fun driving around, enjoying the scenery anyway. We finally found a popular
tourist beach where they rented jet skis. Sophie really wanted to do it, and I
did too, until I found out that it was $20 for 10 minutes! No thank you. We decided to spend our
money on a day tour the next day instead. So, we hung out on the beach, parked
our stuff next to a Dutch family who looked unlikely to pilfer it, and enjoyed
the beautiful day.
That evening, we met up with the
British couple again at the gorgeous pool and took a walk down to the beach
around sunset, where we took a lot more pictures with the hills in the background
and walked down to look at tide pools and crabs. We had dinner at the hotel,
delicious by the way, and not overpriced either, and took the motorbike into
town for a birthday movie. It was a movie with dogs. Talking dogs. Talking dogs
in Thai with no subtitles. Not animated. Can you imagine my joy? (That is
sarcasm, in case you didn’t catch it.)
The next day we were up even
earlier to go on our snorkeling/kayak adventure around the islands. I think we
picked a good trip, but the weather didn’t cooperate. It was pouring when we
left the dock, but by the time we got to the first island, it was clearing and
nice enough to go for a good kayak around the islands with the tour guide. Then
we did a small hike to the center of the island to see the beautiful saltwater
lagoon that the book and movie The Beach is based on. (They filmed it on Ko Phi
Phi cause they couldn’t get the rights to film on protected nature preserves). We
got back on the boat for lunch and to go to our second island. At this point
the skies opened up again, so by the time we got to our anchor point, it was
raining so hard we almost couldn’t see. We braved it anyway, and took a kayak
to the shore, where we picked up some snorkel gear. We could have skipped
snorkeling and just gone hiking, but I really wanted Sophie to have that
snorkel experience with real fish, so snorkel we did. The sky finally cleared,
but the damage was done, the fish were all scared away and the rain had pounded
so hard that the sand was all swirly so you could hardly see your hand in front
of your face. We gave up on snorkeling, got some snacks on shore and kayaked
back to the boat.
By the time we got back, it was
broiling hot and we were ready for a good swim. We were only the second group
back, so we took turns diving off the boat and swimming around in the aqua
water. Well, not so much diving, as being pushed off by a teenager, for me. We
headed back to shore, and took a nap on the top deck for an hour, which was so
luxurious and just what I needed. When we reached shore, they had made little
commemorative plates with our pictures on then, and even though I’m not usually
a sucker for that stuff, it was so inexpensive and such a cute picture of both
of us (a real rarity!) that I bought it. On the way home, Sophie said “This was
so much fun. Thank you so much mom!” That made all the stress and work and
expense worth it, because I just wanted her to have a really good experience to
balance out the terrible year she has had.
Back at the hotel, we got a pedicure
on the beach and then went into town to find some seafood for a special
birthday dinner. On the way home, we FINALLY found a souvenir place so she
could get presents for some of her friends. The next morning, we got up early
to take some more pictures on the beach before getting a cab to the docks. We
ate breakfast on the pier and then walked around the souvenir shops there
before catching the ferry back to the mainland. The trip back was much more
pleasant and faster than the trip out had been, and we stayed in the Bangkok
airport this time for dinner and browsing the bookstores instead of taking the
train into the city.
We got home late that night and
Ahna and Sacha were waiting to pick us up and hear all about our trip. All in
all, a successful first family vacation!
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