The Day the Sun Shone

After spending the entire day indoors, Robin looked a million times better on Tuesday. It was a beautiful day as now the sun had come out after a couple of overcast days. It was going to be a great day.

While taking a taxi from the airport to our resort on Sunday, Robin and I had eyed off a shop that hired "big" motorbikes instead of scabby scooters. It was now the mission of Joel and Robin to retrace our steps and try and find this place so we could go for a cruise around the island.

While the boys were away, Jess and I went for a walk down the main strip of Lamai checking out the shops and having a cocktail. We then headed back to the resort for a dip in the pool. It was magical! The water was so warm and delicious.


It took about two hours of faffing about, but we had the goods. $30 a day, two Hooooondas on an island that has a 45 km/hr speed limit.

No rules, no helmets and no real plan, we set off to head clockwise around the island, stopping where we felt and taking the road less travelled.

Our first stop was to get some tourist stuff out of the way, the 80m Na Muang waterfall complete with elephant rides.

We didn't do the elephant thing (they smell pretty wicked) but the climb over the steep hills was pretty epic. It was stinking hot and the humidity was in the high 90's. When we reached the waterfall, I climbed up one of the rockfaces and enjoyed the breeze coming down and washed the sweat off my arms and face. It was so hot!

It was time to kick-on and we did so by heading south. We headed towards the coast again and followed one of the secondary roads off the main highway to Bang Kao . The roads were twisty and the scenery was green and tropical. Robin tried a few wheelies in the straight parts but the bikes were too clapped out to even lift the wheel. The maintenance on the hire bikes is next to nothing. They get fuel, and that's about it. Bikes with 7,000km on the clock have the rattles of bikes that should have been around the clock...

Let's race!

Jess and Joel still kept up on the scooter

Robin hit the anchors near a small restaurant on the side of the bay where the serve "Noname" for 70BHT. I later found out that it was a soup, more like a clear broth made of chicken stock, rice and some vegetables.

I'll have the noname please. Mmm, very appetizing.

The beautiful view, and not another tourist to be found.

After our home-cooked Thai lunch and icy cold Cokes we jumped back on the road and got lost and followed a road to a restricted area which we found out to be the Naval Base at Laem Chon Khram. We did a U turn and went back up the road we came down only to notice that we were travelling along the coastline and there was a beautiful beach through the palm trees. Now we were off-road! Robin managed to bury his CBR1000RR in the beach sand whilst taking photos. Jess, Joel and I were off in the ocean, enjoying water the temperature of a bath, without jellyfish or any other sea animals and all with the seabreeze. It was delightful!

After shaking the sand off ourselves (and off the bikes) it was cruise time again.

We headed up the west side of the island and then across the top towards Phra Yai where the Big Buddha is.

The view from the Big Buddha was breathtaking, but little did I know that what was about to happen next would leave me... speechless.

Robin grabbed my hands, looked into my eyes and asked me to be his wife. I don't remember a lot of what happened next, but I do remember asking if I could sit down and saying something along the lines of "wow, this is the sort of thing that happens to other people"! I cried for ages but you couldn't have wiped the smile off my face. I finally said "YES!" and cried some more. Robin had surprised me like never before, and with the most pleasant surprise ever.

About 10 minutes after we walked down the Big Buddha hand in hand (and still in tears)

The day was not over yet! If you thought you couldn't possibly cram more into your average Tuesday, then you are mistaken! Bar Ice was next, near Chaweng, but not before an ice coffee at Starbucks.

It was a very cool -7 degrees Celsius at Bar Ice, but the flavoured vodka shooters went down a treat.

When we left Bar Ice, the sun had set and night had set upon us. Jess and Joel had decided to retire for the night, but Robin and I decided to celebrate our future as fiancees and rode to The Cliff Restaurant. We had seen in the magazines and heard around the traps that The Cliff was "the" seafood and grill restaurant to eat at in Ko Samui.

Robin and I decided on the seafood platter of the day. Even though we were quite hungry and had strong appetites, this meal would have sufficed a table of four. There was squid, fish, deep fried crabs, oysters and bugs, all with a crisp salad and delicious spanish paella. Lucky we didn't order and entree or any side dishes. Dinner was topped off with a Tiger beer toasted by candlelight and a sweet kiss.

When we got back to our bungalow, it hadn't sunk in yet. I just went to sleep in a happy daze next to my man with a full belly and a smile on my face.