Koh Samui Redemption « Trippin with Tiff

Koh Samui Redemption

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Ok, so I think I’ve been a little bit of a hater on Koh Samui, when it’s really not that bad. In fact it’s probably actually very nice. Yea, most of the tourists are not my style, but with your own crew of folks, it would be great. The beaches would probably be lovely on a beautiful non-rainy day. And there is good, authentic Thai food to be eaten here, you just gotta stop off on the side of the road and go get it.

The hardest thing about the island is just that everything is so far away from each other, and taxi rides are expensive. Don’t even get me started on renting a motorbike — I think I”ve seen at least 6 or 7 people scraped up head to toe from motorbike spills and accidents. Tourists who don’t know how to drive bikes should stay off the road or ride with someone else, they are waaaayyyyy tooo dangerous!!! It’s hard to enjoy a vacation with bandages soaked in pus and blood covering you all over your body.

I spent the remainder of my 1.5 days on the island kickin’ it with Max, Hijoo and Kannon. Beaches, walking around town, and some great conversations…it’s been dope to catch up with the two of them; when we usually hang out in LAthere’s just not enough time to have any meaningful conversations. It’s also been great to hang out with Kannon, who is a bit indifferent to me, but is hella adorable nonetheless. It’s been non-stop cuteness and sometimes temper-tantrum flare-ups when hanging out with the family.

AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!

On a completely different note…

One of the other highlights of my trip here to Koh Samui is meeting all the taxi drivers, who are usually more than happy to talk to me. They get to practice English with me, I get to know more about Thailand (particularly Koh Samui) and them personally. It’s been really great, I’ve just met the most amazing people through those 20-30 min rides. I’ve also become much, much, much more grateful for the many privileges that I have in my life as I listen to their stories of being exploited as workers (though they wouldn’t call it that), facing increasing poverty and joblessness in their towns, the challenges that they face with their home and family life, how they’ve never traveled in their life (most of them have never even been out of Koh Samui to the rest of Thailand because they work every day, don’t earn enough money, and never get a “holiday”), and hear about why they love their hometown island so much.

Merry Xmas with the pink Christmas tree.