In Koh Samui

The heat...it just makes you sleep for 10h straight and feel tired again. It's insane here. I know it's still cold there, but I kinda miss that right now. And it's hard to apply sunblock when you're sweating like crazy. Which reminds me. I've been kicking myself for not bringing perfume. I finally completed my quest for perfume at the Bangkok airport: Light by Isse Miyake, which has the cheeziest pamphlet ever. The heat, the sweat, the stink...not good. There. You should be happy it's still cool over there!! :-D

One thing I'm missing about Hue is the ice cream. They have these vendors who play their boom boxes (horrible music), and they push around a little cart with a freezer. The ice cream they pull out of their cart is so good (I couldn't work out the flavour), and the cones are just the right thickness - not too thick and crunchy and not too thin and soggy. And they put chocolate sauce and crunchy cone bits on top. Mmmm.

The street food over in Vietnam is incredible, and incredibly cheap. You just have to be willing to 'risk' a little stomach trouble. We didn't have any problem. People set up these little kid's picnic tables and stools on the sidewalks, in alleys, in courtyards, and serve their stuff. You get to sit (practically squat) on the stools and eat your soup as the traffic passes by. We got looks from the Vietnamese passing by and one of the 'stalls' gave us free boiled peanuts and tea.

Our one-day Halong Bay tour and evening runabout in Hanoi was the last bit of Vietnam. Hanoi was a really neat city with lots of interesting French architecture and bakeries (their moka cakes were great). It was there that I finally realized the best way not to get bothered is to just ignore the people trying to sell you stuff. Halong Bay was beautiful. We only managed to see one cave and one grotto, which of course contained some interesting phallic formations. The best part of the caves was the fact that they were cool. We got a delicious lunch on the boat with these crazy shrimp/lobster things that looked disgusting but were actually very tasty. And there were people there trying to sell us stuff on the boat too (I had to get some pearls). For the evening runabout, I wandered around the streets near our hotel just to get a feel for the place with one of our friends. We found a Café Dung, which I have a picture of. Ryan and the other friend were both sick with stomach flu. I left Vietnam with 110 VND and now I can't exchange any of it, so I'll just have to keep it as a souvenir. They have plastic money!!

I finally finished Catfish and Mandala in the Bangkok airport. What an amazing book. Very interesting (taught me a lot about the Viet-kieu and the Vietnamese), but also so depressing. I'm currently on the lighter stuff: Distraction (Bruce Sterling), Ludlum and the huge Strange & Norrel (Susanna Clarke) book that's been in the fantasy section lately.

For those of you who have been thinking that my vacation hasn't been much of a vacation at all, Koh Samui is for you. And for me. After all that trucking around with no longer than 3 days in any one city, we have finally 'settled down' and are staying on the big island of Koh Samui for a grand total of 4.5 days. :)

Koh Samui is one of the three islands sheltered by the Southern tip of Thailand, which is renouned for its beautiful beaches, coral reefs, and many resorts. It's the most touristy, but we're lucky at the moment since it's off-season and it shows. It's still hot and humid here, but not as bad as Bangkok. The people here are much more laid back and not as 'on' as the other places we've been to (which is a welcome change).

The beach is really nice and the water is fantastic. There are blowfish, octopus, all kinds of other marine life here, which makes the snorkelling really fun. Ryan got one of the blowfish to get big, and harrassed an octopus into changing colour. He found a huge snail on the ground and stuck it on our friends doorknob - that was priceless. :)

Yesterday we explored a bit and rented a scooter (verrry interesting driving - esp on the left). Koh Samui has roads all long the outer perimeter which go up and down and twist and turn, and the driving becomes very scary when you're going down a twisting curve right next to a cliff going down to the beach. We discovered a bunch of expats at a local bookstore (I managed to get some books for only $6 that are currently selling for $30) and we found out that you can live here for $1000 CDN a month. I know you can live in Montreal for that, but really. The same price, but for much better weather - tropical /all/ year around. I got my eyebrows plucked for the first time, which was really painful. And we went to a fancy restaurant here, which had a guitarist and a singer and I ended up singing a bit there. ;)

We are going to be completely spoiled when we get back. The fruits are incredible, the shakes are great, the curries are awesome, and everything's very cheap. The fancy restaurant was only $30 a head.

Today I went snorkelling with Ryan in the noonday sun and we both got burned for it, lounged about and then walked over to our beach's main drag (Lamui Beach) to get some pants taken in. Then I took the 'bus' into Chaweng (the main drag of the entire island) and scoped out the stores. The bus here is actually a modified pickup truck with two benches along the edges of the back. It's actually a nice trip. I had the whole thing to myself on the way up, it was raining and there was a rainbow (tried to get a pic, but ended up with some power lines instead). They have Boots pharmacy here, so I picked up some stuff (last time I was in a Boots pharmacy was back in 1998).

Tomorrow it's off to one of the many spas (there have to be over 20 here), while the boys go fishing. On Wednesday, Ryan and I are going scuba diving and our friends are going snorkelling. Thursday is relaxation day followed by an evening flight to Bangkok (probably do some cooking class here). Once we get to Bangkok, we're going on a crocodile farm/elephant ride tour package for one day, and then we're going to head over to the main market for some bargains and souvenirs to take home. Finally, we leave on Saturday, at which point I will have to resist the very strong urge to 'miss' my connecting flight from Narita airport and spend time in Tokyo.

I'll write more long e-mails as I can. Until then, I'll see you when I see you.