Bungalows, Banana Shakes, and Beautiful Beaches

I've been in the Central Plains of Thailand the past few weekends and my skin was getting super pale - not from the ever-present whitening creams sold in stores here - just from lack of sun, so I decided a trip to the beach was in order.  One of the best things about Thailand is that I decided I was going to go to the beach at 12:30 pm, left school at 1 pm and was on the beach that night.  There was no school on Friday due to a public holiday in Thailand but I had to be back on Sunday to teach a special class, so I decided to head to the closest island, Ko Samet.  Since it's close to Bangkok and it was a long weekend, the beach was bumping with tourists and locals alike, so we were worried we wouldn't find a spot to rest our bones, but luckily there was an open room at Jep's Bungalows right on the water and it was the perfect spot to spend the weekend.  Jep's had everything we needed: banana shakes, beachfront property, nightly barbecues, front row seats to the fire shows, and American style breakfasts.

View from the hostel.

Thursday night when we arrived we started with a beachfront barbecue with some delicious kabobs and baked potatoes - the first potato I've had since coming to Thailand and it did not disappoint.  We then checked out the local nightlife and some really fun bars on the beach while practicing our Thai with the locals before calling it a night.  The next day we went right for the water when we woke up, it was super salty so I spent about 2 hours just floating on my back, it was a-ma-zing.  My friend went for a walk and came back with banana shakes for all and a Frisbee which was the source of entertainment for the afternoon and pathetically left me with a sore forearm the next day...weaksauce...I know.  Pretty sure there is nothing better than a banana shake on the beach.
















Once we finally dragged ourselves away from the beach we were quick to realize that even with a few reapplications of sunscreen we were all bright red with sunburn - ouch.  We lounged around for a bit before catching the sunset on the beach and another barbecue dinner while we were treated to a seriously ridiculous fire show performed by boys ranging in age from 2 to 25.  At one point they lit a ring of rope on fire and allowed anyone that wanted to jump through the opportunity, I considered very briefly before deciding I liked all of my limbs too much to see them go up in flames.  The next day I was disappointed to discover that my favorite Thai band, 25 Hours, was performing in a music festival that ran from 5pm to 6am on the beach, but we had to hop the speedboat back to the mainland in order to catch our bus to be at the office at 8am on Sunday...not cool. The trip, though short, was definitely worth it.  I'm super relaxed, a little tan, and submitting grades this week before heading to Vietnam next Monday on a school tour, should be a busy week!