Thailand Vacation (Day 2)

When we first arrived at Ko Samui airport, we were delighted to see such a quaint and relaxed atmosphere. The airport was merely a few over sized huts, all exposed to the nature of the island. There were no walls to be seen and a nice welcoming breeze. We had finally arrived at our island paradise. We made our way through the small airport and needed not to get our checked luggage, because we had carried everything on the plane. We were greeted by a driver from our hotel, and he swept us away to our new home for the next 5 days.
The roads were windy and narrow. We noticed right away that many people road small scooters. In fact the scooters ruled the island roads. After about a half hour ride or so, we arrived at our hotel. From the outside it looked grand and elegant. On the inside it was still grand and quaint. The hotel was very nice. It was built within the last few years and had a nice welcoming staff. At this point it was about 8:00am. We were worried at first because we were there so early in the day. We did not know if we would be able to check in, or maybe we would have to wait until the afternoon. We were delighted to find out that we would be able to go directly to our room. The staff also informed us that they were serving complimentary breakfast in the hotel restaurant. We went up to our room and got settled a little bit. We decided to hit up the breakfast buffet. It was really nice. It had all the essentials, toast, eggs, potatoes, rice, cereal, fruit and so forth. After breakfast we went back up stairs and grabbed our swimsuits. We decided to hit the beach right away.
Our hotel was directly on the beach. Lamai is the second largest beach in Ko Samui. It's second to Chaweng. Even though our hotel was right on the water, there were many rocks in this area. So we decided to walk down the beach a little further and find a nicer area to swim. It was only about a 10 minute walk when we found the start of the rest of the beach. Lamai's nice part of the beach is about a mile and half long or so. We set our towels down and jumped straight into the water. As my dad would say, it was just like bath water. It felt so refreshing yet not cold in the least. The waves were practically non existent. The water was so clear, that we could see our feet even at shoulder deep. There were no rocks to be stepped on. The sand felt great running through our toes. We had arrived, we were officially on vacation. We must say that the beach experience was much different than the great old Pacific in. We were actually able to wade in the water as opposed to being swept away by the waves. So, after an hour or two we headed back to the hotel to take a long awaited nap.
After a quick shower and our nap it was the afternoon. We wanted to take a trip into Lamai, this time to see the shops and vendors. Outside of our hotel was the main road. We were able to catch a Tuk Tuk, which is the island's version of public transportation. It's a little pick up truck with a shell on the bed opened in the back. There are two benches to sit on and away you go. It was only about a 7 minute drive, so not too far.
We got out and were able to walk the strip, which ran parallel with the beach. They had many shops selling all sorts of knock off clothes, purses, watches, sunglasses and plenty other merchandise. I swear if Latanya and I did not think Ed Hardy was so tacky we would have bought it up. But of course we have a little thing called taste, well Latanya anyways, I just try.
After walking the shops for awhile we were starting to get hungry. We found a restaurant that smelled delicious and stopped in. I ordered a red curry dish and Latanya a green curry dish. We also had rice and a beer to wash it down. The beer we had was Singha. Singha beer is actually really good. It complements the spicy food wonderfully. Our food arrived and we were both very pleased. Latanya's green curry was a little better than mine. After our wonderful dinner we got the check and it was a whole eight dollars. Eight dollars for two entrees, two sides of rice and two beers at a nice sit down restaurant. Wow! We were happy to be in.
We then decided to walk the shops some more and then head back to the hotel. We wanted to walk back to the hotel on foot. Instead of walking on the main road at night we instead walked the beach all the way back. It was only a 20 minute walk, so not too bad. We also got to walk off our dinner. Still pretty tired we hit the bed and watched a little T.V. We knew that day 3 of our vacation was to be even better than day 2.