ThailandStoryEislands

Our fellow travelers were as excited as we were to get to the Islands. There was a feeling in the air like children anxious to start their summer holiday. The series of islands located in the Gulf of Thailand are some of the most beautiful in the world and we had a whole month to explore them. A great chance to enjoy the sun and surf.

For her birthday, Summer's parents told us to check into a nice place and that we did on the island of Ko Samui. This island is a big tourist spot, people coming in from all over the world to relax on it's pristine beaches and dive into Thailand's legendary nightlife. We spent the days strolling the beach, reading, and taking long afternoon naps. We were ready to party and made the most of the big clubs that pumped out intense techno music. More than once we were still dancing when the sun came up kicking off a new day...

After about a week we moved on to the island of Ko Tao where we met up with Brett and Juliana again and anxiously awaited our girlfriends, Jennifer, Sandra, Katy, Cathy, and Brooke's (see pics), arrival from San Francisco. We landed a few simple bungalows on the beach and got comfortable with the local nightlife. The excitement was building up and by the day of their arrival we could barely contain ourselves. The gal's pulled up to the pier looking wide-eyed and excited to finally be on one of SE Asia's beautiful islands. The 36 hours of travel seemed to have little effect on the girls who looked ready to enjoy this island life. Summer was literally jumping up and down as the ferry pulled into the pier. We spent the day catching sun, drinking beer and talking on top of one another trying to get all of our different stories out.

We had four blissful nights together on Ko Tao, some more wild than others. We learned a rough lesson to pace ourselves with the Thai Whiskey buckets. The bartender takes a bottle of whisky, 2 or 3 Thai Red Bulls and a bottle of coke and pours it into a bucket then tosses in a half a dozen straws. The combo is lethal. The Red Bulls packed us full of energy to stay up all night and the whiskey was responsible for making us all strip naked and run down to the ocean for sunrise.

We spent the days enjoying the weather, the water and each other's company. On our final day, the diver's set out on a boat trip. Juliana was finishing up her course while Shawn, Summer, Brett, Jennifer and Sandra went diving together. It was a great feeling to be exploring underwater and seeing all of your friends around you!

We finished off their vacation on Ko Pha-Ngan Island, known for it's Full Moon Parties. We settled in together at Beach 99 bungalows where we had our own private beach. We headed to Haad Rin one night and found ourselves shuffling our feet in the sand and smiling at one another the next morning. We needed a recovery day but that evening we had a private party on our beach. We layed out the sarongs, grabbed candles and incense and chilled watching the nearly full moon twinkle on the water. We had a trippy evening just talking, smiling and laughing. It was sad to see them all leave. Thank you girls for making our time so fantastic and especially for bringing your great energy and all those goodies from San Francisco.

It was back to the four of us. We stayed on Ko Pha-Ngan for the Full Moon Party. It just wasn't the same vibe without all the girls. There was a great energy to the party but none of us made it to sunrise. Brett and Juliana needed to head north while the two of us were planning our trip south. It was a sad goodbye with the two of them.

Although the sun, sand, surf, and massive parties are a lot of fun, we were ready to get back into exploring. We were on our way to Indonesia, only a few days travel time until we would reach the Island of Sumatra.

Next Adventure: The Island Of Sumatra, Indonesia