November 9, 2008– 6:30 PM – Marine Restaurant again.

Today was a pretty awesome day. We rented a car and drove around the Island of Samui. We got A 4x4 Suzuki Samurai and mobbed south. This time I decided to drive because the car is stick and I drive stick more than Kevin in SF so I figured it would be a good idea. A small problem was that the gear shifter is on your left hand side because you drive on the right side of the car. Another problem was that it was completely pouring rain.

Because of said rain the roads were flooded with about half a foot of water and when you splashed though it it would completely cover your windshield until the crappy wipers could clear your vision. Not good to be driving blind on the left side of a very narrow and flooded road with dump trucks heading at you.


We splashed our way around Koh Samui, did some back road touring, looked at a deserted beach, saw a water buffalo in a coconut orchard and then parked to walk down a jungle trail to a water fall that we never actually made it to because we got too wet and Kevin was having self created 'Nam flashbacks.

After a couple hours of driving we had made it almost completely around the small island in a clockwise circle. In the town of Na Thon we stopped to look at our map for a road that went into the mountains but couldn’t find it. Instead we took an alternate route up a mountain road farther around the island. The road was paved but laughably steep and our Samurai didn’t have enough power to get up the road. It died on the steepest part so I put it into four-low and we crawled higher and higher.

A few hundred feet up the road a toll guy told us that the road was closed because of the heavy rains so we went ahead to find a place to turn around and came to a part of the road that had death written all over it and was so steep we almost shit ourselves. Originally we had intended to sneak around the toll guy and forge ahead but after seeing how steep the road was we turned around. Kevin read that a lot of jeeps flip over in Samui and people die.

Going back down was pretty hairy as well but we made it slow and steady. Getting back to the place we rented the car from was another adventure. It was nearly impossible to tell where we were or what road to turn on because of the complete crap map we had. Crap maps are standard issue in Thailand but they're free so hey. Koh Samui has the worst. We did eventually make it back though.

So… We are staying one more night at a different and a little nicer hotel next door to our old one but will still be hanging out at the same bar at the old hotel with our people who work there. Headed out by ferry to the mainland and then BKK tomorrow.

Tonight we are going to hit the Reggae Bar and the Green Tortoise or something like that