Journeys with Jenny and Cole: Living on Island Time

Our flight out of Sukothai was scheduled for 8:30 so that meant we had to leave BLES at around 6:30. The mahout giving us the ride showed up at around 6:45ish. Then began the hour long ride in his Toyota pickup that bordered on crazy. Apparently there are very few rules of the road in Thailand and even less enforcement. At one point we passed someone and were on the centerline as traffic was moving the other way. They just kind of got out of the way. It was very interesting and scary at the same time. We eventually arrived safe and sound at the airport which was actually a privately owned airport. This was weird because it was kind of like a resort, it was an open air terminal with a zoo next door and a fish pond/stream between the seating areas. The zoo was very sad because the animals didn't have very much room to roam and there was hardly any grass at all. The airport did however have complimentary sticky rice and banana treats which were awesome. We were trucked out to the airplane in little shuttle buses because the runway was very small and so we met the plane at the end of the runway. We were flying Bangkok airways "The Boutique Airline". It was actually quite comfortable and we got a full meal on the plane even though it was only an hour to Bangkok.

The strange little airport in Sukkhothai

Going through Bangkok airport was fairly relaxing, we weren't really in a rush and Jenny had a litle sushi snack. We didn't have much of a layover and it was time to get on the plane to Samui. This flight was also short (only 45 min) but we again had a full meal. The flight was uneventful until we went to land on the island (also a tiny airport). As we were about to touch down the plane suddenly took off again and circled the island. It was a weird feeling as we were literally almost touching the ground. The pilot eventually told us that there were very strong gusts of wind on the airstrip and we had to circle back for another try. When we finally landed it happened to the sound of applause from the passengers on board.

The resort sent a car to pick us up and we headed through the main town (Chaweng) on the island up the hill to our resort. The road to the resort is ridiculously steep. I really wonder how long the vehicles here last going up that road every day several times a day. It would be almost impossible with a manual transmission. But anyways everyone here is really nice and they speak great english. They showed us to our rooms and this is basically the nicest place I've ever stayed at. We don't have our own pool but we might as well have because the only other rooms in the area are across the pool (but facing out to the ocean) and above us, but I'm not sure anyone is even in that room. The Sandalwood Resort has only 10 villas with differing levels of privacy and features. They have a restaurant where breakfast is free, a spa, and a car service to the surrounding towns. Very swank.

We got settled in and lounged by the pool for most of the afternoon. I got in and paddled around a little bit. Jenny didn't want to get her hair wet. Jenny is more into "lounging near the water" but not necessarily "getting in the water". After reading and catching up on some of our blogs we cleaned up and got ready for dinner. We looked up the nearby town of Lamai on Trip Advisor and found a nice little place near the beach called Romantic Bamboo. It was the highest rated place on the whole island but it was very reasonably priced as are many of the restaurants in Thailand.!It was owned by an Italian man and his Thai wife. He did the serving and she did the cooking. There were only 3 staff members including the owners. They could only sit about 10 people at a time. THE FOOD WAS AMAZING! They did a mix of italian and thai cooking. We had Brushetta, Fried Red Snapper with thai chili glaze, Tom Yum soup with seafood, and spaghetti with garlic, chilis, and oil. It was so delicious. The fried fish was the best fish I have ever eaten (Jenny convinced me it would be good even though I was skeptical) and the spaghetti was very tasty even though the Thai lady came out from the kitchen to laugh at me and tell me that she only did 0.5 spiciness level instead of 1- they had levels 1-3 and I am very sensitive, haha. We finished up with a little rum and a dessert of chocolate mousse on recommendation of the owner. The Italian man was really cool he made lots of recommendations and was very talkative and you could tell him and his wife were very passionate about their food. We ate all that food including a beer each, for a total of 880 baht which is about $24, which would barely cover the booze back home. Amazing.

Next door to the Romantic Bamboo was a little seafood shack with a bar and some seating where we had some drinks before and after dinner. The guy that seemed to be in charge was an avid rock fan. He showed us his collection of rock posters including Slipknot, Avenged Sevenfold, and Avril Lavigne to name a few. Those were bands that he told us that he got to see in Bangkok. He was a cool dude.

Drinking some Chang (the other thai beer besides Singha) at the bar.

You can see some of the rock posters- most notably Iowa's very own, Slipknot.

The car from Sandalwood picked us up from the restaurant and we went back and went right to bed. We have kind of been going to bed early on this trip but we are getting a lot in stuff in.

Can't wait to see what Koh Samui has in store for us this week!