koh samed/t

after bangkok, we took a bus over to rayong where we met up with some friends and headed to koh samed for new years.  or koh samet.  for some reason, the same place is spelled two different ways.  it made sense in thailand.

koh samed/t is one of the many islands in thailand.  instead of me writing that over and over, as a general rule of thumb anything that starts with "koh" is an island.  this island, however, it a little bit less well known that the others.  in fact, most people who i gave my itinerary to before i left were convinced i meant "koh samui" when i mentioned going here.

the island was pretty small and reminded me a little bit of a mix between key west and fire island.  everyone travelled by foot for the most part, with the exceptional rented scooter occupying the dirt roads.  the road was lined with bungalow style hostels on the island side, and restaurants that later moonlighted as bars on the beach side.  and we were a small group of tourists among was seemed to be mostly thais visiting the island.

one of the many restaurants on the beach

the first night we were there, we had a nice dinner right on the beach.  excited about our night to come, we were talking pretty loudly, and were approached with "are those american accents i hear?!"  a group of three guys from california came up to our table and sat down, and we basically became weekend best friends (or anyway i think it was the weekend as it was pretty easy to lose track of what day of the week it was).  we drank a few beers and a few more tequila shots, and ended the night throwing darts at balloons to win snack packs of lay's chips.  again, these things make sense in thailand.

muay thai fight in a bar

found a dart/balloon game we thought we would be AMAZING at and won...snack bags of chips

the next day was new years eve, and we spent most of our day on the beach nursing our pounding heads with noodles and banana milkshakes.  it was probably the first new years that i can remember being in a bikini in the ocean at 4 pm rather than at home showering and getting into my sequins.  it was most definitely the first new years that i went out with hair that was only washed with salt water.

action shot

family photo

setting off lanterns

happy new year

pyromaniacs

for the rest of the trip, none of us could stop talking about how it was the best new years we've ever had.  it's hard to top running around on a beach watching things get lit on fire while wearing flashing minnie mouse ears on your head.

my new years resolution?  spend every new years to come on a beach.