Koh Samui, Thailand: Part 4

Wow, we can’t believe we’ve been in Koh Samui for almost 3 weeks! As we close to an end to our time here, it was time to move to the next hotel because we’re moving into their ‘high season’ so the rates are starting to go way up. In Thailand all the hotels have different high seasons (which is strange) so we just keep finding hotels that are still in their low season to get the best deal. Fortunately, we found one for a decent rate and they even had a driver come to pick us up. The owner, who is a French guy, checked us in and we headed upstairs to our room. The view from the room is overlooking the beach which is awesome. It was lunch time and we were all getting pretty hungry so we decided to order lunch and have it delivered to our room while we unpacked.

After lunch we threw our swimsuits on and headed down to the beach for a few hours. Tyson brought his bucket of toys with him and had a blast playing in the sand. We went back upstairs for a nap, but the crib wasn’t in our room yet and Tyson struggled to go to sleep for some reason. We just hung out in the room for a while to cool down (averages 90 degrees with 90% humidity) then took him for a stroll along the beach later in the evening. We saw a nice place with tables on the beach and stopped to eat dinner. Although it was a Thai place we ended up ordering chicken strips and pizza, lol. We’ve had so much Thai food in Thailand that it was nice to mix it up.

The next morning we walked over to a French bakery for breakfast. They gave us a ton of food and it was super cheap. They even gave Tyson his own plate with chocolate fudge, bread with jam and watermelon for free. Of course I ended up eating the chocolate fudge, but they don’t need to know that. After breakfast we walked across the street to an outdoor clothing market and bought Tyson a cool t-shirt and a few pairs of swimming shorts since we only brought one for him and he’s already outgrowing it. Total bill: 150 baht (~$5), not bad!

Renee from our last hotel gave us a recommendation for a babysitter so we could go out on Saturday night to celebrate Marshall’s 30th birthday. When we got back to our hotel after breakfast two ladies met us at the front desk of our hotel. One lady was Renee’s friend that owns a tour company and the other lady was the potential babysitter. We wanted to meet her in advance to see if we would feel comfortable leaving Tyson with her. She didn’t speak English very well and didn’t interact with Tyson during the time we chatted with her so we didn’t feel she would be the best person to watch him.

That afternoon we checked out the street near our hotel and found a German restaurant. It actually sold the beer from the brewery that we went to in Munich. How random is that? Of course we had to stop there for lunch. I had chicken stroganoff and Marshall had beef goulash.Yum! It was seriously better than any meal we had in Munich. In fact, we ended up eating there the following day as well. The owner was a cool Austrian guy who kept giving Tyson suckers because he loved seeing Tyson’s face when he handed them to him. He also had a dog that stayed in the restaurant and was addicted to these suckers. Anytime Tyson had one in his hand this dog would be no more than 2 feet away from him drooling and just waiting for him to drop it so he could snatch it up.

As we were walking back to our hotel we randomly passed a daycare on the street our hotel was on. We walked inside to check it out and there were toys everywhere. Tyson was in toy heaven! The lady who owns it, Alice, has run daycares for over 10 years and has lived on Koh Samui for 7 of those. The best part was that she has a son, AJ, around the same age as Tyson who loved playing with him. We asked her about watching Tyson on Saturday and she said we could drop him off to play with AJ inside her daycare and then when Tyson was tired she would take the boys back to our room to sleep. How perfect is that? Marshall and I haven’t had a night out together this entire trip so it would be awesome for us to go out for Marshall’s birthday. We officially booked her and were thrilled to have found such an experienced and awesome person to watch him.

That night our street closed down for the Mae Nam Walking Market. It is similar to the Fisherman’s market we went to last Friday, but smaller and less touristy. Before the market started we stopped at the bar Alice’s husband owns that is right across the street from the daycare for a drink. That’s so awesome that they own businesses right across the street from each other. We then walked next door to eat dinner at an Italian restaurant while we waited for the market to start and people watched for a while. The street was starting to flood with vendors setting up and by the time we were done eating the market was up and running. We strolled around the market checking out all the various local foods, clothes, and other random items. You can get anything from a pair of sunglasses/swimsuit to a Taser/brass knuckles at these things.

The following morning we walked to the hotel next door to get a coffee shake and brought it back to our hotel to sip on while we blew up our floaties. The water in Thailand is super calm and perfect for laying out on a floatie. Tyson had his own little donut shaped one that he enjoyed splashing around in while I laid out on my mattress working on my tan. When came back from the beach the French owner handed me a bill for our stay which I thought was odd considering we booked four nights and we had only stayed two so far. That afternoon Marshall went to 7-11 to pick up some snacks and when he came back the owner said we had to check out at 10am the next morning. Marshall told him no, we booked four nights (not three) and secondly check out is 12pm, not 10am. The guys speaks broken English so Marshall wasn’t sure if he was confused as to how long we had been there or what. Marshall came back to the room and we chatted about their discussion and thought it was best for Marshall to go back downstairs to clear up the miscommunication.

That’s when the owner started yelling at Marshall for a good ten minutes. He said he’d been watching us eating at other restaurants instead of his and listed all the places we’d gone (literally, he had been watching us the entire time…creepy) and he was also angry that we asked his staff to clean our room (which online says that the room comes with daily housekeeping), and went on and on about all these other things he’d done for us (that were also noted online as being included/free). His wife had to step in and calm him down since Marshall wasn’t giving in to any of his crap. We didn’t come to Thailand to eat at the same restaurant every day. What was this guy thinking?? Needless to say, he wasn’t confused about how long we were staying, he was kicking us out of his hotel early and even tried to make us pay for 4 nights even though he’d only let us stay for 3. After a lot of back and forth we landed on just paying for 3 nights and we’d leave the hotel in the morning. Good riddance! Getting kicked out of a hotel is definitely a first for us, haha!

Since we were going to be homeless on what was supposed to be our 4th night at that hotel, Marshall starting walking the beach to see if there was another hotel that had a room available for tomorrow night. He found one that was nicer than the last one but was also more expensive. Marshall negotiated with the owner and got it down to the same price we paid at the last hotel by pulling the Birthday card. He said ok, only because it was his birthday. Yay!

That evening was the Friday night market in Fisherman’s Village so we decided to go back there to hang out. We first went to the playground that we went to last time that had a ton of kids playing. Tyson has so much fun running around and climbing all over the playground toys. Once he was worn out we started walking towards the market and stopped at a restaurant for happy hour. There was a guy going around to the tables making balloon animals so of course Tyson wanted him to make a dog for him. Tyson was mesmerized watching the guy twist the balloon into the shape of a dog and then sucking air into the end of the balloon the make a tail. Tyson grabbed the balloon and started running through the restaurant with it laughing. He accidentally squeezed the tail so the air got sucked out of it. He kept trying to suck on the balloon to create a new tail but it wasn’t working. Then when we left the restaurant Tyson pulled on the balloon the wrong way and the whole thing came unraveled and was just a lifeless balloon laying on the street. He looked up at us with such a sad face but luckily we were standing next to a guy selling helium balloons so bought one from him to replace the dog. Then he was happy strolling around the rest of the night.

Tomorrow we’re checking out of this place and moving over the other hotel that will gladly accept us with open arms. I have a fun night planned for Marshall’s birthday celebration! It’s going to be epic!