It turns out that the bathroom at the Ko Samui airport was our favorite part of the island. The rest of the island, although beautiful, felt like a spring break spot. After checking into our hotel Hannah and I went for a walk around the town. The main strip of the town was filled with fast food joints (there were two Burger Kings and two McD's in four blocks), loud bars, and even louder bar girls/hookers/tranies trying to get our attention. This wasn't the island paradise Hannah and I were looking for and quickly decided to head to Ko Phanang the next morning.
We made the most of the night though and ate our first pad thai (one of now dozens), shared our first mango shake (first of dozens) and ate a thai street pancake for dessert (also first of dozens). We ended the night by dipping our feet in the ocean.
The next morning we went to Ko Phanang, an island highly recommended to me by a few people. One of the people who told me about the island is a guy named Adam Cooper who I met in Cambodia back in March. Adam, a California Jew, was traveling with his sister...who also happened to be named Hannah. The Cooper siblings are definitely in the upper echilon of cool people I've met this year and thus I took Adam's words of advice as solid gold. Adam told me to go to Ko Phananag and stay at Ocean View Bungalows on the north side of the island. Hannah, my Hannah, and I rented a motorbike (this will be tomorrow's blog) and drove to the bungalows. Adam Cooper was right -- the place was paradise. The bungalows were on a secluded beach with amazing views and barely a soul in sight. Hannah and I stayed in a bungalow about forty feet from the breaking waves and loved every minute of it. Here's us on a rope swing by our bungalow:
The other reason Cooper told me to stay at the Ocean View Bungalows was because the food at the restaurant was "killer." Well, again he was right. Hannah and I ate nearly all of our meals at the beachside, open air restaurant. The food was simply amazing and still the best food we've eaten on this trip. Equally amazing were the looks we got from the waiters when we ordered enough food for four people.
