Loving the Island Life!

Hello! We are officially in the Thai islands. We arrived on Ko Samui last night after traveling all day from the other coast. Though traveling is long, they make it very easy for you. All we did was pay $20/each and we were chauffered from one side of the country to the other. We barely had to think at all, just follow as we went from a boat to a bus to a ferry. So, here we are. Ko Samui is very developed and tourist-centric so we decided to stay on a more laid-back part of the island, away from the crowds. We rented a little bungalow with en-suite bathroom and a fan for $12/night. It's perfect and it's right on the beach! We'll stay here until tomorrow and then take the ferry over to Ko Phang Nang. This is the island that is famous for it's full moon parties. In the high season they have over 30,000 people come to the island for the world's biggest rave. We just missed it (on purpose) and are hoping that our experience there is a little more low-key. We have one more island to visit after Ko Phang Nang and that is Ko Tao (Ko means island if you haven't picked up on that yet). Ko Tao is where we plan on going diving! We're still not sure if we'll have time to get to Cambodia yet but we haven't ruled it out completely.

Gabriel is off riding a rented moped right now. I told him that I wouldn't get on the back of it until he practices riding around town first. Even then, he'll have to pass my tests before I'll commit to jumping on the back. It's not so much driving the motorbike as it is remembering to drive on the left side of the road. As a DAN field rep selling DAN insurance I know that moped accidents are EXTREMELY common among tourists. That fact has landed me an upsell to the Preferred Plan many times:)

The last couple of beach places were amazing with limestone and granite cliffs that took your breath away. We've met a couple of nice couples. One brother/sister duo from South Korea that we hung out with in Sukkothai. We've noticed that many of the conversations we have with foreigners usually lead to a political talk about the upcoming elections in the US. Everyone wants to know if we think Obama can win it:) And, of course, we proudly say "YES HE CAN!" It's really not until you leave the States that you realize how much of an impact our politics have on the rest of the world and how involved they are in it.

I wish we could post more pictures but we found that when we do, they erase from our camera. Perhaps we will try again later. I better go find Gabriel and hope he made it back safely.

Love you all! Don't forget to email.