Parlay - Where's Parlay

1 /6/16 to 28/6/16.
After arriving in Ko Samui we spend a few days at the North Bay (Bo Phut). It has a tourist district to the West and a more local scene in the east. So we mix it up between the two. Some of the food in the tourist district is actually eatable which is surprising (we have a saying in Thailand tourist areas the more you pay the worst the food is the taste). I think the reason for the food being Ok is that these bars and restaurants are owner operated and not part of a corporate also there are no rubbish franchise outlets.
Billy Kitson and Steve, both who I know from the old East Freo days and a mate theirs Bob were holidaying in Koh Samui. They came to the boat to catch up and we had beers, lunch and beers, went sailing, with more beers and just to finish it off we had BEERS. It was a good day and many a good story was told well at least the ones we could remember.
My niece Sue arrived from Bali. Bill and the boys come around to Bo Phut and we sailed around to Lamia Beach where they are staying. It’s about 12 Nm on the east side of Koh Samui. We dropped anchor and had a swim and then we continue what we didn’t finish the other day, beers and bullshit. I think Bill is in his element on the boat as he was a cray fisherman for 23 years and he’s also good at beers and bullshit.
We all went ashore have dinner and we spend the night on anchored here and in the morning set sail for Koh Phangan about 12Nm to the north of Koh Samui. We had a good sail up in 10 to 15kn beam reaching. Once we got behind the land we start to get catabolic winds or bullets off the mountains. Sue reckons this is great as when the strong gusts hit, about 25kn, we heal right over and speed up but we decide to reef the sails. In the process one of the deck blocks disintegrates showering bits of plastic and metal everywhere which immediately causes huge amounts screaming and shouting. Anyway the screaming and shouting worked and we soon have everything under control and pulled into a bay half way up the east coast. This place is so tranquil and we immediately go ashore and have lunch and a walk along the foreshore amongst the rocks which has pathways meandering through all the holiday houses. It is absolutely beautiful and we find that the houses go all the way up the top of the hill. It only costs about AU$20 a day to hire one of these holiday cottages. We spend the next few days going from bay to bay along this coast and find that they are all similar, the imagination to build these buildings on top of huge rocks is amazing, some bays are more relaxed than others some are even yoga retreat with heath food and drinks. One of the yoga retreats was probably our favourite.
We have a great sail back to Samui but we all decide that there is not enough wind and it is a well known fact on our boat that you have to drink beer to get more wind, so we go to work with Sue leading the way, 4 beers later and we’ve got 15 Knots of wind. I tell Sue to stop as we have enough wind now, but she wants to go faster, she’s on a mission, so I decide to help. We manage to get the anchor down just before the storm we drank up hits. We go ashore and attend the markets which have lots of traditional food like boiled egg Kababs, deep fried silk worms and crickets and my favourite chicken feet. We end up at the Billabong surf club to watch the band and Sue chats up 3 Thailand businessmen that are drunker than we are. We have a good time talking to them and go home and sleep well.
Next day got a Taxi to Lamia to watch Freo win their second game and catch up with billy and co.
We hired a car for 800TB about $30. Best deal we could get. Most wanted 1200TB and some as high as 2000. It is a near new car so we are happy and spend the next 2 days cruising around Samui. We get down south and there doesn’t seem to be much happening and we find a beautiful little bay and restaurant and ask for lunch, the guy says that they are closed as it is Sunday and we start to leave disappointed but he says he can open but only to serve beer, so we stop for one and sit in the veranda and it is so peaceful as we are the only ones here. After we move on to find somewhere to eat and come across what we are looking for a good seafood restaurant. The food was great and we decided to go up the mountains to do some waterfalls. Did one and then tried to go to the second one with Siri (that stupid computer girl) directing. We ended up going down tracks barely wide enough for the car, but as everyone knows hire cars can go anywhere. We were going in to people’s private farms and if they didn’t look so upset I might have stopped to buy some eggs. Our plan was to travel straight over the mountains back to the boat but Siri couldn’t work it out, so we went the long way home and chilled out and watched the amazing lightening in the clouds.
Next day we did the big Golden Buda, the skydiving thing and local Thailand markets and food super market called macro which specialises in bulk buying which I think Sue was quite interested to see her line of work from a different perspective. We also went up a mountain near the Airport and went to the Pagoda wat (temple) which was interesting but as it was above the airport it was more interesting watching the planes take off.
Next day took Sue to the Airport and dropped the car back and pulled anchor and sailed back to Phangan. Saw Sue’s plane take off and bank right to Singapore smack on time. Sue was good company will she was here. We are going to have to find something to ween us back into our mundane life. I know just the thing, full moon party at Had Rin Nok. This is the biggest and best full moon party in the World. We go to lunch to phone everyone on face time just in case we don’t survive the party. Have a few beers at lunch to put us to sleep this arvo so we will last at the party. Have a couple of drinks while we put on our glow paint and glow sticks and hit the beach at about 10pm. It is so full on I estimate the crowd at about 15000 there is a new DJ and dance platform about every 50 meters so you just keep moving and find the music you like to dance to, everyone is dancing all the time. That is of course unless you aren’t sliding down the water slide, doing the limbo under the limbo fire pole, doing acrobatics on the high bar, joining in one of the200 metre conga lines or going for a swim. This is a bucket list must do. Because we are old farts we go home early at 4am as we have to get some sleep as the after party starts at 7am. We sleep in and go ashore and have breakfast and turn up to the after party to have a look. We are late, it is 10am and there are only 150 people there but most are well under the weather. We watch the comical scene for about 10miniutes and decide to head home checking one fallen soldier we found was still alive and in care before we left him.
We find out that our friends Ian & Alison off SY Nereid have arrived at Samui so we sail down to meet them. They are at Chaweng which is the most populated area on Samui. It is a place we haven’t been so we go for a look. It is full of resorts so we catch a cab to Lamia and eat there and watch one of the better fire shows I have seem. They love fire shows in Thailand. A good time is had but we don’t like Chaweng so we sail back to Bo Phut as we need to dump rubbish and stock up on veges.
As we enter the Bay I get a radio call from Chris off SY Quasar how we met at the Tiomen Islands. He has just cleared in to Thailand and we make arrangements to share a hire car to do our shopping ECT. We pick up veges and garbage bags at the local street market but leave the crickets, silkworms, and frogs for Chris, Clare and Ryan. We do the rest of our shopping at Macro, look for some electronic stuff for Ryan (Chris’s son) and we use the car to pick up so diesel for Parlay