Nights Out in Koh Samui

While in Koh Samui we went out on the town twice, and had a great time each night. We heard there was a great Brazilian Steakhouse on the island, and we were starving the first night, so we hopped in a taxi and made our way to Zico's.

Jeff had been to Brazilian Steakhouses in the US, but I had not. For those of you who are not familiar, I'll explain how they work. Basically there are waiters constantly circling the dining room carrying different meats on a skewer (at Zico's there were 13 different types!). If you want food, then you flip your card to green and they will come and serve you. When you are full (or just ready to take a break) you flip the card to red and are left to eat in peace. The danger when you flip your card to green is that you will be brought all of the meats you don't want to eat. We had a lot of fun trying to time our card flipping with the passing of our favorite meats!

The key to the Brazilian Steakhouse is to take your time. We planned on being there for a while, so we ordered a pitcher of Caipirinha, the national drink of Brazil. Watching all of the meat circling the room and timing our card flips just right was enough entertainment for us, but little did we know that we were in for a show! About 45 minutes after we arrived Brazilian music started blaring and dancers in native costumes came to the stage (we didn't even notice the stage before they came out!). They performed several dances and even came to the restaurant floor and danced through the tables.

It was so much fun that we decided we should order another pitcher of Caipirinha and stay for a while! There was another short show every thirty minutes after the first one, and they were all pretty entertaining. It was so much fun, especially because we hadn't expected it!

After just over two hours, countless slices of meat, two pitchers of Caipirinha and lots of fun we decided it was time to head out!

On our last night in Koh Samui we returned to an Tropical Murphy's, an Irish Pub that we had been to earlier in the week. Last time we were there we saw an adorable scruffy dog sleeping next to one of the tables outside. When we came back we sat outside and I swear the dog hadn't moved in two days! She was adorable.

We were both pretty tired from our Ang Thong Marine Park tour that day, so we had planned to have one drink and then head home. As we were finishing up two American guys and a Swedish woman sat at the table next to us. We struck up a conversation and it ended up that one of the guys, Jobe, and Jeff had about a million things in common! Jobe was born in Saudi to American parents, had spent some time on the road as a child, and was currently traveling for his work. He was really cool, and I swear after 10 minutes you would think him and Jeff were long lost brothers! After about an hour, and a few friendly drinks, I was exhausted and ready to go to sleep. I could tell Jeff was going no where, so I hopped in a cab and let him and Jobe have their boys night on the town. They had a great time, and snapped a few pics along the way. Most of them turned out blurry, but here's a great one of Jeff's new friend Jobe (with a completely random guitarist).

Jeff finally came home at about 4:00 am, in time to get a few hours of sleep before our 9:00 am flight back to Pattaya!

Ang Thong Marine Park

While in Koh Samui we couldn't skip the water and the beaches completely (after all, it's what the island is famous for). We heard about the Ang Thong Marine Park and decided it would be worth a tour. We booked our boat tour, which picked us up bright and early at 7:15 am! We ended up waiting quite a while at the beach for the rest of the passengers to be picked up, but eventually we hopped on the boat for the one hour ride out to the marine park.

Our first stop was for some snorkeling. The equipment they gave us wasn't the best (there were no fins and the snorkels tended to leak!) but we made the best of it and got a few cool pictures.

After snorkeling we hopped back on the boat and toured through the numerous limestone formations that make the park famous.

Our next stop was a at Koh Mae (the Mother Island). The island had a small beach, which was great, but we were more excited to hike up to Talay Nai, the lagoon inside the mountain. The lagoon is a salt water lake about 120 feet above the beach. It is surrounded by gorgeous limestone cliffs and is emerald green in color (it's sometimes called Emerald Lake). It was a the hike up was not bad, except that the island was very crowded and it was HOT outside! Once we reached the lake we snapped a few pictures, but then realized there was a lookout even higher up which afforded some great views of the whole marine park.

After Koh Mae we were ready for lunch. Out boat docked at a restaurant located in a tiny village. After we ate we were able to explore the village a bit more to see how the locals live.

We then hopped back on the boat and headed to another beach where our kayaks were waiting. We kayaked around the island and around some of the limestone formations.

After about an hour we beached the kayaks and had fun swimming in the bay.

As the afternoon was quickly coming to a close we hopped back on the boat and headed back to Koh Samui! The tour guides joked that anyone who slept on the trip back would have to pay 500 baht. Luckily they were just kidding or Jeff would have had to pay up!