So, this past weekend we took our very first trip without Father Kelly (our program director)! It's kind of a tradition for the students on this trip to go to Koh Samet the second or third weekend of the program, so that's what we did! Some people left Thursday morning for a longer weekend, but the majority of us left Friday morning.....early. I got up at 3 am on Friday, and was out the door ready to go by 4!
We got to the bus station ready to catch the 5 am bus, but it turned out that there was no 5 am bus....so we had an hour and a half to kill until the 6 am bus arrived. A very sleepy four hour bus ride later, we arrived at the Ban Phe pier in Rayong and hopped on a ferry that brought us to the island!
The ferry to Koh Samet from Ban Phe...
You probably can't tell from the picture but
the dock was extremely rickety and seemed
like it was going to fall apart as we walked
on it...
Our view of Koh Samet from the ferry
Once we got on the island, we began walking along the coast, looking for a place to stay. This is the first trip I have ever taken where everything has not been planned out ahead of time. We literally stepped off that ferry with no idea where we were, or where we would be sleeping that night. It was a little scary, but so freeing and exhilarating at the same time! After stopping in and checking out a few bungalows at different places, we settled on one at Sea Breeze and ended up splitting a room that was 600 baht/night between four girls (This means it was 150 baht ($5) each, so I spent a grand total of 10 U.S. dollars for a two night stay on the island!!!)
Our bungalow....Sorry this is the
only picture I got! It doesn't show
very much....oops!
Pathway to other bungalows from our porch.
Once we got a room and dropped off our stuff, we headed right for the beach! The walk along the coast was probably one of the most peaceful and beautiful sights I have ever seen. We spent the rest of the weekend in total relaxation- I described it to my parents as being the type of relaxed where you don't even know what time it is, because it really doesn't matter! Overall, it was a fantastic weekend with people who are becoming such wonderful friends, and I can't wait for our next adventure!!
In the meantime, here are more photos from the island:
View from where we ate lunch!
Locals bringing in food from the mainland
The Sea Breeze bar on the beach!
Sunggly soi dog!
Leaving Koh Samet :(
Colorful fishing boats
No comments:
Post a Comment