Thailand Day 2

We got up and had a nice breakfast at the hotel, hailed a taxi, went to the airport and checked in for our flight. The plan was to fly from Singapore to Krabi, Thailand and then immediately get on a flight from Krabi to Koh Samui, Thailand. However, we had a hard time booking our flight from Krabi to Samui… it’s a bit confusing as to how this all panned out, but we weren’t very confident we even had our seats reserved. So we wanted to go to the counter with the other airline to get it straightened out. However… our flight from Singapore to Krabi was with the “budget terminal” which was a whole taxi ride away from Terminal 1 where that airline was. So we paid $9 for a taxi to the other terminal. What a joke. And then they didn’t even have a single staff member on duty since their only flight of the day wasn’t until that evening. ::sigh::

Long story short, we made our flight in plenty of time and got it all straightened out with no problems. We had lunch at the airport near a group of young European guys. They had on stupid sunglasses with long hair and George and I had a pretty interesting conversation about how I thought it was cool they were all likely backpacking through Thailand and Asia and George thought they were lowlifes who needed to get real jobs and contribute to society. The never ending laughter about my free spirit and George’s sense of logic struck again. Sometimes we both wonder how we ever ended up together. While we are the same person, we are very different… and I think that’s part of what makes us tick.

We landed in Koh Samui airport and we were delighted to see the most precious airport imaginable. They had tiki-hut looking buildings and the airplanes were painted with fish, sunshine and rainbows. (See… free spirit)

Unfortunately since we booked our hotel through a budget website (agoda.com…. awesome by the way) the hotel apparently didn’t get our request for airport transfer so we had to get a taxi. We drove all of 5 minutes to the resort and we couldn’t have been more pleasantly surprised. The Bhundari Resort Hotel and Spa was beautiful. It was separated by a road into two pieces, one on a hill and one down the hill along the beach. We gave them our info at check in and they escorted us to couches overlooking the ocean and brought us an ice cold drink. The only thing that could have been better was if it had alcohol in it. We were informed we’d been upgraded from the deluxe pool villa to a luxury pool villa. No complaints there! So they took our bags and put us on the back of a golf cart and drove us up the hill to our room. Here’s where the problem was: In our days and days of research we had selected this particular hotel for the “beachfront pool villa” but we were 150 yards up a hill from the beach. Normally I wouldn’t have dared to complain but hey- you want what you paid for. So I sent George back to the reception area to have him straighten it out. They did, no questions asked and we moved down the hill and across the road to the beach. We were still separated by one other villa and the resort’s pool but the view was beautiful. And we had our own pool. And it was a villa. And I could live in that room forever and be happy.

Our room was done all in teak with the prettiest hardwood floors. It had high ceilings, a settee, a king sized bed that was super comfortable and the bathroom was 3 times larger than the one we have at home. It had an outside shower with dual showerheads, a Jacuzzi tub, and dual vanities with the cutest sinks. I loved that bathroom, and have made a mental note to live in a house with a bathroom like that someday. ::sigh::

We splashed around in our own private pool for a little while and then went to the resort pool because they had a swim up bar… and how could you not love one of those? We spent the rest of the afternoon there and then headed into the Chaweng Beach tourist area for dinner. George made me try a Maekong Lippo, which is a Thai whiskey and red bull drink (or something like that)… George goes on trips to Thailand pretty often and he knows all about those sorts of things. So I had one and it was delish. This meal came with the largest shrimp I have ever eaten. They were SO good.

 After dinner we walked around the area and were bombarded with people selling us suits, dresses, tickets to Muay Thai boxing, and massages. We ended up deciding it would be pretty cool to see a boxing match. Our friend Kate won the people’s choice award for her photo at a boxing match in Thailand last year and they had a good time at the match. Plus I divulged in Ashley’s season of the bachelorette… where they traveled to Thailand and participated in a Muay Thai boxing match, so it was on my list of things to do.

We walked to Chaweng stadium and got our seats in the second row. I was slightly terrified for these guys’ lives. This boxing is pretty intense but it also involves a lot of culture. Each boxer prays and hits each corner of the match, does a little dance to the live band and then the fighting began. It seemed like sometimes it would take 10 minutes for a match to start. The guys were all greased up and slippery, and their goons were passionate about their winning. Cheering them on, telling them which moves to use, yelling, screaming, and jumping up and down. Good grief was it entertaining. I think all together there were 7 fights. The smallest guys were in a 104lb weight class and didn’t look like they could be a day past their 15^th birthdays. The largest were in a 165lb weight class but George and I both thought they looked more like 195. There were kicks and punches and slaps and blood and sweat and knockouts. While it was really fun to see I was a bit worried some of those kids were going to have some serious brain damage. My favorite fight was the last one of the night. It was the most advertised too. It was an Australian guy vs. a Thai boxer. It was the Australian’s first fight and the crowd was pumped up. This is where we learned the phrase “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie!!! OY, OY, OY!” This is apparently a pretty popular phrase for the Aussie’s, as we heard it a couple more times during our stay in Thailand. The ring leader was funny too and introduced the Thai boxer as a boxing champion who has won over 100 fights… then he declared he was just kidding, and it was only his third fight. Funny.

So homeboy fighter Aussie had a whole brood of goons with him. I made up my own back story for this guy, which I’m sure is probably pretty accurate. Here’s how it goes: Aussie kid (probably early 20’s) went to Thailand on holiday (since they don’t use the word vacation) with some of his buddies and saw a Muay Thai boxing match. They thought it looked easy enough and since he had a few extra weeks to spare he stayed and trained and will probably participate in three fights and then head back to Australia with some sort of scar, lifelong injury or disease for thinking he could be a badass Muay Thai boxer. End story.

By the way, Aussie won.

We negotiated a taxi ride home on what they call a “Baht Bus”. It’s basically an old pickup truck with a cover and benches built up on the side of the bed for passengers. It was terrifying riding in that thing with all of the traffic. And by traffic I mean 100’s of motorcycle scootering tourists who were all leaving the boxing match and had probably been drinking. We made it back to our oasis room though, and slept through to morning.  

I can't believe we didn't have our camera with us for the boxing match but we took a few on George's iPhone.