Island Hopping

The remainder of our time in Hua Hin was quite memorable. We started our final day off with full body massages from a smiling old woman on the beach. Under a triangular patch of shade made by several leaning palm trees she lay out a blanket and lavender stuffed pillow and rubbed us down from head to toe... literally- the woman massaged our faces. Later in the afternoon we decided to walk to the far end of the beach to check out monkey (aka chopstick) mountain and swim beneath the giant golden buddah that stands facing the ocean. We realized hours later, as we finally got back to our starting point, that we'd walked over 8 miles. After another trip of snacking and shopping through Hua Hin's addictive night market, we hopped on our overnight train. 7 hours later we transferred onto a 2 hour busride and then finally an hour long ferry trip that dropped us on the island of Ko Samui. Paradise found. We've spent the last couple days leisurely sunbathing on palm tree lined beaches, swimming in turquoise water, and sleeping in beachside bungalows. We moved from Lamai beach today onto Chaweng where we settled into a new bungalow, atop stilts and located on warm shallow lagoon. Tomorrow we've signed up for a full island tour where we'll take our first dip at a waterfall, hang with some elephants, and meet the monkeys who do all the coconut harvesting on the island. Then onto Ko Phangan via another ferry for the full moon party where we already have bungalow awaiting our arrival. Life is good on the East coast of Southern Thailand :)