Koh Samui was the most
relaxed place we went. We didn't do anything except lay on the beach all day.
Our hotel was really nice; it was out in the middle of nowhere, but there were
other hotels around. There was a resort a little way down that we were allowed
to walk through in order to get to the beach. The beach nearby seemed to be the
resort's private beach, as it was only a small tract of sand that didn't span
too great a distance along the shoreline and there were very few people there.
The beach chairs all belonged to the resort. Right next-door were three
restaurants in a row. The first one came recommended and we ate every meal of
Koh Samui there because it was so good. Basically all we did was camp out on
the beach during the day and party at night.
The second night there we
went to a nice dinner and then to two bars we had heard about that were in
town. First we went to Arc bar, which was an open-air bar on the beach. We
walked down onto the sand, where the beach lounges had been put together in
table formations, laid flat with their pads on top, and everyone was standing
on them and dancing. We joined in. People around us were drinking from
children's sand buckets, which seemed to be pretty typical in Thailand. They
would put a small bottle of alcohol and some mixers into the bucket, then stick
a few straws in and sell it to you for about $9. We didn't drink buckets there, just normal
drinks. We danced for a bit. A man came up to us with a monkey and put it on
Shannon's shoulders. I took a few pictures, and we didn't notice that he did
the same. Then he tried to sell her the picture he took, and got angry when she
wouldn't pay him or take it. There were lots of drunk people, including a group
of guys wearing only their girlfriends' underwear and some random Aussie
running around, incoherently dancing in just his boxer briefs. Australians
party hard, from what I’ve seen so far.
We left there pretty
quickly and went up the street to a place Kristen had read about called the
Green Mango. We danced for a few hours, and Melissa, Shannon, and I went home
pretty early in the night. Kristen,
Tonya, and Angela stayed out and went to another after hours club.
The next day was New
Years Eve, and we knew we were going to head to Koh Phangan, a tiny island to
the north of Koh Samui, where there was a huge party happening for the full
moon, which happened to be on New Years Eve. The taxi to take us to the
speedboat was late, so we missed our boat, but since it was the boat company's
fault they let us on the next one leaving. We got to the island and sat down to
an AWESOME dinner. I got a cheeseburger because it looked like it might be a
real burger, and it was. Hand formed patty, real cheese (not the crap you get
in Korea), with the works. Immediately after that we all bought our first
buckets of the night. I stayed at only one bucket because I'm in a foreign
country where I know none of the language, know no one but my friends who are
likewise foreign, I have to go back to work in two days, and there are 16,000
people at this party-- obviously getting drunk was the most terrible idea
possible. A few of the girls had two each. We went to a little station where
they had phosphorescent paint, and we all got our bodies painted, like pretty
much everyone else at the party. Then we danced. For about 5 hours. The crowd
was impossible to negotiate, and we lost Kristen and Tonya, though they stayed
together. We had set up a meeting point at the beginning of the night, and both
Shannon and I got lost at one point or another and had to go there. I was found
within about ten minutes of getting lost. Shannon found us again about 30
minutes after she lost us. Angela had met up with a few French guys she met
earlier in the vacation, before we got there. At one point we walked the whole length of the
beach, and sat down where there were less crowds. People kept trying to do the
lanterns, drunk, and I almost got set on fire a few times from people letting
them go too soon right behind me, so that the flaming lantern landed on me, but
I was fine. Then some people were setting off fireworks, and some exploded on
the ground about 50 feet in front of us, which freaked Shannon and Melissa out
a lot.
Shannon, Melissa, Angela,
and I left pretty early considering the size and scope of the party, at around
3:30. We later found out that Tonya and
Kristen stayed there until about 6 am or 7, though one of them (I won’t name
names) was asleep that entire time, having gotten way too drunk and having passed
out in a bungalow. Keep in mind as I describe my experiences at this party that I am writing this blog fully knowing my parents will probably read it, which means I am cleaning it up considerably. There was a roman candle fight in the ocean, the constant view of men's backs as they peed directly into the water, lots of people who had drank mushroom smoothies from a place called Magic Mountain, a flaming jump rope, and pretty much every kind of dance-floor sex you can imagine (though none in which I or any of my friends participated because ew). I doubt I will ever see anything like it again.
The party was amazing
until the ride home. At the pier, there were a lot of speedboat companies.
Everyone had their ticket around their neck, and each company had a different
color of yarn to hang the ticket on. But there was no way of knowing which pier
your company was coming to, and people were pushing forward. There were no
rails in between the edge of the pier and the ocean, so the people in front
were in constant danger of being shoved onto the rocks at the edge of the
water. I don't really want to describe what happened in too much detail, but
suffice it to say that I almost got cut off from my group and left alone on the
island, and then I almost got pushed off the plank walk down to the boat and
onto the rocks below. Three guys had to literally catch me, and one of them
lifted me up and carried me to the boat. The speedboat took about a half hour,
and then the taxi took us home and we went to bed.
Kristen and I stayed
another day. We went back to Arc bar that night, which was significantly more
subdued than it had been before (most of the people there having been at the
New Years party the night before and partied hard enough then to not need more
partying). We sat, smoked hookah, and talked to some people around us. Sitting
on the beach for a long time, we did notice something that was more than
slightly disconcerting.
On all the beaches in
Thailand, people would walk by trying to sell us stuff, whether it was
necklaces, dresses, or souvenirs. Some of them were children. That night at Arc
bar, the majority of the venders were little girls between the ages of 4 and
12. They were the most brazen flirts I've ever seen in my life. One girl, in
particular, was about 5, maybe 6 years old, and would sneak up behind tourist
men sitting of the lounge chairs and try to throw her necklaces around their
necks. She wouldn't leave them alone, would wrestle them as they tried to keep
her from doing it, and put her arms around their necks and tried to cuddle
against them. She would give them kisses on the cheek and whisper in their
ears. She would dance seductively for them. One guy bought a necklace and she
tried to kiss him on the lips. He dodged her, but she threw her arms around his
neck and plastered his face with kisses.
The awful thing is that
her parents obviously didn't just condone this, but put her up to it. People
are more likely to buy things from children, especially girls, so parents send
their daughters out to do this with strange men late at night. What's worse is
that these girls will all probably turn to prostitution when they are older
because of a lack of other options, the same reason their parents sent them out
to sell plastic crap in the first place. Which is horrible. I, and so many
others, truly take for granted that we were born and raised in countries where
such a future is rarely foisted upon anyone without their consent. For girls in developing nations that rely
highly upon the tourist trade, such a future is inevitable. It’s sad.
I don’t mean to end on
that note because Thailand was amazing, but that was the note upon which the
trip kind of ended. We sat out on the
beach for a little while before leaving for our flight the next day, and that
was that. Back to the freezing winds,
biting air, and entertaining yet constant work awaiting me in Korea.
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