Thailand

Our friend Steph headed up a trip to Koh Samui for the weekend which is an island off the east coast of the Kra Isthmus (a bridge connecting the Malay Peninsula with the mainland of Asia) in Thailand. We went with Steph and a girl named Ann, from Atlanta who is also here for a 6 month jaunt with the bank, and a girl named Ashley who lives here and is originally from Philly. It was an AMAZINGLY fun time with the spinsters (who called themselves that all weekend after Ashely told a story in which on her visa approval form her choices were a. married b. widowed c. spinster). I must say, they were ROCKIN FUN spinsters.

Devin was SUCH a good sport to pal around with 4 girls all weekend and claims he had a blast as well. We left Friday around 5 and it was an easy 3 hour flight to reach the Island. When getting there the airport screamed tropical paradise with open air huts and a customs line surrounded by grassy jungly plants and birds chirping. The air was also slightly cooler and a nice reprieve from the heat.

We were greeted at the resort with fun surroundings and some fruity cocktails

That is Ashley, from Philly, who was super cool and fun

We quickly unpacked and headed into town to get dinner. The markets greeted us along the way with some fun prickly fruit of some kind.

Ann, my Southern sidekick from Atlanta, was an AVID shopper and kept darting off into local market shops on the way to the restaurant to buy something. She found these red Ray Bans first and so those came with her....

Fake bag anyone?

Then she found the hat to go along with the Ray Bans (I found a hat there too)

This was a very Thai looking statue in the restaurant

The land of elephants....

Samui Seafood was the name of the restaurant we stopped at to eat

It had this ship in the front with TONS of seafood on ice

As people ordered fish off the menu they would take it off the ship and then just cook it for you. So I ordered white jasmine rice. Thought it to be the safest bet. Here's the whole group (with our new purchases on).

The next morning we woke up and found it to be a tad overcast so I decided to go ride an elephant with Ann and Devin. Such a sweet face huh?

Here is Ann on her elephant

At first we sat on those little seats on the elephant's back but after awhile the guide let us just get on it's neck and ride it bareback which was REALLY cool!

Then Devin got a turn...

It was a great experience!

But, after the elephants I saw that you could feed a tiger cub a bottle and thought-I HAVE to try that! Y'all, it was the coolest! I ADORED that little tiger cub. It was top 5 most fantastic things I have done on this trip FOR SURE! I couldn't really believe that I got to do it at first.

But then I just enjoyed the moment....can you see how big his paws were? HA!

This one is a better angle to see the size of those paws...

Then Ann got a turn and then we both got to hold him for a little longer.

That night we went back and got cleaned up from the elephant trekking and went out on the town

Steph and Devin with the Asian glow that just accompanies you wherever you are here...

We had dinner at this really great restaurant (near more shops where Ann and I continued to help out the Thai economy). Isn't this light fixture so unique?

This guy serenaded us at dinner with some amazing Beatles cover songs.

Me, in white, with white elephant statues still on my, "I got to hold a tiger cub" high

It must be said, she is one of the coolest chics I have run across in my life

The next morning we went to this place called the Library where you can eat breakfast on beds on the beach overlooking the water. Devin posing with his book...

Here was the set up. We ate breakfast and then pulled our beds out into the sun and laid out/fell asleep. It was sort of magical.

First course of breakfast...

Pretty fruit from breakfast....

We stayed on the beach ALL day and then finished the beach day with a Thai massage in a little hut by the water. The massages were incredible here. We had a massage the day before as well but for only $10 US dollars we could NOT pass them up!

That night we went to a very fun restaurant that overlooked the gorgeousness

Devin took this great pic. Here we are on our last night. It was a fabulous weekend and I definitely think going back to this Island is in our future. Plus, we've made friends for life and got one more stamp in our passports and it's just one more reason I feel more blessed than I ever deserve to be in this life! I am so grateful for the opportunity we got to go!

Here's the group from left to right (obviously, Devin and me) Ashley, Steph and Ann