Ko Samui, Thailand
Day 1
Today is an early day and a day full of travel. Florian happens to be going to the same place as I am so we ended up traveling together all day. A 6am wakeup call to catch the 7am bus to Chiang Mai. From there we caught the 1pm flight to Surat Thani, where we caught a bus to the ferry port, a ferry to Ko Samui and a cab to the hostel. It was a long day but went by surprisingly fast. We ended up getting to catch the early bus and ferry and got to our hostel about 3 hours ahead of schedule. Our hostel is SO cool. Right on the beach. You can see the ocean from my bunk. The beds are also so amazingly comfortable, especially after our 0.5in mattresses in Pai. I slept like a rock.
Day 2
We realized we only have one full day here in Ko Samui, as we leave tomorrow morning to head to Koh Phangan where just about everyone is going for the Full Moon party. So we rented motorbikes to make the most of our day. We rode to Waterfall 2 where we hiked/climbed up to the very top. I saw two snakes and 267 lizards. The lizards are my favorite. They're actually all over Thailand and I always try to catch them but they are always way too fast. By the end of this "hike" I was drenched in sweat. It was basically rock climbing and pulling myself up through a series of ropes randomly attached throughout the rocks. But the view from the top was worth it! There was a small waterfall pool at the top which was so refreshing. I could have definitely jumped in and never have come out but I settled on just dipping my legs in because I didn't want to be soaked for the hike back down.
The waterfall was in a national park (I think?) and there was elephant trekking offered there. The poor elephants were chained up and looked so sad. There was a little baby one here too but he wasn't playful at all and looked sad and sullen. I bought bananas to feed them and I like to think we made their day.
When we got back to the hostel we met Allie (US) and the three of us set off for a sunset view point. You had to pay 200 baht (~$6) to get in and they had a small fish pond that was filled with those fish pedicure fish. The ones that eat the dead skin off your feet. We all attempted to dip our feet in but it's such a weird/funny feeling I didn't last for long. We took the tram up to the top of the lookout and all enjoyed a fruit juice while we realized that we wouldn't actually see the sunset because it would set on the other side of the island. It was still a beautiful view regardless.I also accidentally deleted the majority of the pictures I took here. Kinda crying.