Loungin' in Koh Samui

The last two days have been relatively uneventful, and what they've basically taught me is that I am too busy of a person to really be able to slow down and enjoy a beach vacation.  Is this really what people do when they go to the beach for a few weeks?  Just go out and lie in the sun all day, and then find a place to eat dinner at night, and then go to sleep, and then wake up and do the same thing all over again? And again? And again?  I guess that's why my family's not a beach family!  Although, to be fair, it's probably good for me to have this enforced relaxation time.  The last month and a half has been pretty crazy, and it is nice to have nothing in particular to do and no place to be by a certain time, etc.

View from our room

Our room

The beach

Yesterday, we did have an appointment in our room for a Thai massage.  We each got one, and it was amazing.  I've never had a massage before, but this woman knew exactly what she was doing!  She managed to target all of my tight problem areas (mostly left over from basketball, I believe), even though she didn't speak any English!  Although that didn't keep her from carrying on a full conversation with me in Thai!  It amounted to a lot of nodding and smiling on my part -- as well as some hand motions and lots of feigning comprehension.  I think we're going to ask her to come back again before we leave!

One of the most interesting parts of being (trapped) on this island, is having the ability to sit and observe everyone around you.  Our particular resort seems to have no other Americans -- the majority are all different kinds of Europeans, and each group has its own personality.  There's the large Swedish family that is made up of three different generations.  They're all blonde and beautiful and get along with each other effortlessly.  They are kind of the Hollywood family at our resort.  Everyone wants to be part of that family.  Then there is the polar opposite family, made up of mothers wearing bikinis when they really shouldn't be, and family members who do not seem to want to be together.  There is the odd young couple in which the guy is markedly more attractive than the girl, and while she sits moodily around, he seems perfectly content to rub more suntan oil on her back.  I have no idea why.  And then there's the new family that arrived yesterday.  As soon as they arrived on the beach, they all shed their clothes and headed into the water.  And one of the sons (full-grown man) came out of the water after only a half hour lobster-red!  And this was towards the end of the day when the sun was much less strong.  Funniest of all was that he managed to have a reverse-farmers tan (shout-out to Cam!), where he was red until right above the elbow, and then white the rest of the way down, presumably because he'd had his arms in the water but his shoulders out.  Poor guy.

That's the other thing about Europeans.  They are all about the suntan lotions and oils.  No SPF for them. No sunscreen.  Just lots of oil.  And so they are all either very red, or an orangey tan.  Meanwhile, Mom and I are reapplying the SPF 70 like it's gold, and I am still getting darker like there's no tomorrow!  No complaints here though.  :)

Another interesting part about this island is that in some ways it seems to be about a decade behind the rest of the world, especially in areas like music.  Every single resort and bar has been playing late 90s and early 00s top 100 hits.  Yesterday, I heard Britney Spears' Sometimes ("Sometimes I run, sometimes I hide, sometimes I'm scared of you, but all I really want is to hold you tight...")...TWO times!  How about some throwback Geri Halliwell (formerly Ginger Spice of the Spice Girls)? And then there was some Leanne Rimes, some Shania Twain.  Then a little Ricky Martin.  And my favorite, Christina Aguilera's Genie in a Bottle in Spanish!  Seriously??!!?  But let's be honest, it's super fun, because this way I know all of the words to all of the songs!

Last night, we had dinner on the beach, and we witnessed something that I believe is unique to Thailand. There were beach vendors selling these giant paper lanterns (probably between 4 and 5 feet tall).  People could pay to light the lanterns with fire, at which point the lantern would take off into the sky and just float up until it disappeared or burnt out.  I could still see the lanterns when they were the size of stars!  It's pretty cool, and I believe that it is the tradition during the moon festivals to set off hundreds of these lanterns at once so that they pepper the sky in a glowing glory.  Maybe tonight we will light one ourselves!

As for the Fourth of July, it wasn't really celebrated on Koh Samui, maybe partially because there don't seem to be many Americans on this island!  But we did see a few rogue fireworks go off over the water last night.

Lastly, happy birthday to my baby brother Cam!  He is a giant (actually literally a giant) 19 year old now!  Heart and miss you!

-- Priya/Pri/P/Preesh/Pixi/LPJ/P-Money/Baibiya