The Steamtug Blog

Two weeks never went so fast, and now I am home coping with the worst winter weather I can remember here. (Ok, stop laughing… I know Russian Winters are worse!) During the past 2 weeks, I relaxed on the beach, tried all the different beers, went scuba diving, a kayaking in the marine national park, motorbike lap of Koh Samui, watched some poor football games, gave a tiger a belly rub, and rode an elephant down into the river Kwai for a wash! Busy eh? Read on to find out more…

Koh Samui

It’s a wonderous tropical paradise, quite relaxed by Thai standards, without the tackiness. Chewang Beach is the centre of tourist hotels and a bit like surfer’s paradise on crystal meth, but away from this busy stip of traffic is a relaxing paradise. I lay on the beach and tried all the beers. Singha is a popular choice by most, but I found it a bit pale and after my own hoppy beers, a bit tasteless and flat. I loved Tiger beer, then discovered Chang, and even better was Leo but a little harder to find, so mostly I drank the chang and at $1.50 a stubby, can honeslty say I only drank “too much” once during the whole 2 weeks. And then there is the Thai food. I kept ordering it extra hot so I could tell I was hungry when my bum stopped burning. I love those green curries, and pad thai noodles. Mmmmmm….

Scooting around the island

My mate Niel came too, and we hired little scooters and rode them around the island. Great for familiarisation! Everytime we saw a little bar overlooking the sea we had to stop for a beer. It was a great trip as recommended by Petri. My poor little scooter could only manage 90km/hr flat chat, but with a little down hill rush, I managed to crack the ton but in kilometres, not miles like the good ol’ days! We arrived back in Chewang Beach just in time for dinner and the start of the footy at home. We pulled up at mad Eddy’s sports bar. He was an aussie bloke that decided he was tired of Melbourne winters and opened a bar in thailand. The Geelong vs Essendon game was about to be telecast and with beers at the ready we at our pad thai, sipped our beers and watched my home team Geelong, clear favourites to win, start the game with a bang. Yeah… that’s my team! Undefeated all season and clearly invisable! 3 goals up and they backed off the pressure letting Essendon break away and get a few goals up. Our ex-coach is now the assitant coach for Essendon knew Geelong’s weakness and shutdown the game stopping Geelong from getting back in front. How disappointing! A massive thunderstorm hit blocking out the satelite signal for the whole 3rd quater. “Don’t worry… when it comes back on, Geelong will be 5 goals up!” I told everyone, with many Geelong supporters from around our area at home, drawn to Eddy’s bar like moths to a tele in the tropics! But when the picture came back at the start of the last quater, it was Geelong who were down, and didn’t make it back up, loosing their first game of the season! The following day was the elections in Thailand, and the government decreed that no beer would be sold from 6pm that night until after the election… (a sure way to loose my vote!) So having a beer became difficult. “No worries” said Eddy, as he issued big coffee cups filled with beer to all. “If the cops come, remember, it’s only coffee!” So we sat there after the game, all crying into our coffee cups, unable to accept Geelong had lost!

Scuba diving

The diving isn’t so good at Koh Samui, so Mitch and I caught the ferry North to the island of Koh Tao for a diving adventure. We did a little refresh course in the local swimming pool the day before as Mitch had not dived for a while, and it was so cheap I thought it would be good for me too.

Our dive master Shaun from the UK had been living there in Thailand for about 6 months and had the world’s best job. During his briefing, he asked if we were familiar with “trigger” fish. Of course not… so he proceeded to tell us how they were teritorial and had a habit of rushing at divers, turning away at the last second giving you a nasty shock. (We don’t want brown clouds in the sea now, do we!) He said they can also give you a shove occassionally. I was thinking how bad could it be getting a shove from a little fish, until he pointed out that there were around 700mm long. Well we found Mr. Trigger fish, but being near the full moon he was quite relaxed about us only swimming around staring at us.

Anghook Marine Park

We did the slow boat trip out to the marine park. What a great day out! We kayaked ashore from our boat moored off the beach, hiked to green lagoon, snorkled, had a great thai lunch and headed back. Very nice!!!

Tiger Temple

With their habitat shrinking, the local tiger population became under threat until the local monks who held them sacred set up a sanctuary and breeding program. We went to visit, walked with the monk and his tiger and got to give them a pat during there sleepy time in the afternoon. It was great to get up close and see just how big these cats really are! (see top photo, enough room in his belly for me!)

The only way to travel!

But I have finally found the world’s best travel system. With better milage than the volkswagon beatle, and still has a back end bigger than a Triumph rocket, nobody would dare cut you off or not give way to this! I want one to ride to work. Riley and I climbed onto our elephant and rode him down the hill to the rapidly flowing river Kwai. Yes it’s the famous river from the world war 2 legends. Our elephant waded in and blow a trunk full of water over her hot back, and us in the process. Next she sat down in the river tipping us off. It was a great experience. I walked back around past her huge face feeling a little intimidated working against the fast flowing current, and tripping over something in the river… her huge trunk! We gave her a wash, then climbed back on for some fun and tricks before wading back up the hill to camp. It was the best experience of the whole trip!