We went to the Friday night market last evening, packed with people eating, drinking, shopping, walking and talking. This is one of the few places I know where you could just stroll along the street with a beer in hand. Our beer came in paper bags, which I'm assuming were meant to keep our hands from getting cold and not because we were doing something nefarious.
On the beach I saw a restaurant had set up huge brightly coloured lounge pillows for the patrons. People were lying down on the pillows facing the ocean with drinks in hand and food on small tables. Some of the food at this market was served on wooden sticks so you could walk and eat at the same time. Elizabeth and I had some corn on the cob on sticks which were cooked on coals, and later Catheleen and I had broiled squid tentacles on sticks, dipped in a sweet and spicy chilli sauce. John was adventurous and had some sushi - one roll with fish eggs, one with red snapper, and one black roll with squid dipped in squid ink. Way too crazy for me but he seemed to like it. Later Catheleen and I had scoops of coconut flavoured ice cream added to a half coconut shell that the vendor had split in half on the spot, with the white coconut flesh shaved up on the bottom. It reminded me of our first visit to Thailand years ago when we asked to purchase a coconut from a coconut milk producer on the street, who had a machine to process coconuts into coconut milk for use in Thai curry dishes mainly I imagine. He just gave us a coconut - I guess not too many people had made the same request and our request was just small potatoes.
There were performers everywhere along the way, a few singing Bob Marley tunes on guitars with thick Thai accents. Some performers were connected with cocktail vendors who were selling drinks out of old style Volkswagen vans converted into bars with multi-coloured lights emanating out of the vans. There was a group of Thai dancers in a square in traditional costumes performing traditional Thai dancing as far as I could tell. The costumes were ornate with a lot of gold trim, head dresses that looked like little temples, and fake nails on their hands that were around six inches long and curled backwards.
I went for a run this morning, which I hadn't done since I had access to a treadmill in Bangkok about ten days ago. Typically the morning temperature will start around 28 degrees Celsius and go up from there. This morning the temperature was around 24 so I was out of excuses. I ran along the main road that circles Koh Samui against traffic. The motorcycles are the worst hazards, since they zoom in and out, many rode by tourists. I finished my run a bit hot but none the worse for wear. Maybe I'll try again in a couple days.
I like our quaint hotel. The dark wood deck outside our room is flanked on both sides with ponds holding lilies with purple flowers. Elizabeth discovered the ponds were filled with tadpoles and spent some time catching them and letting them nibble on her fingers. We heard some strange noises last night, which we think came from the pond frogs. There are flowers everywhere, including many varieties of orchids attached to the trees in little pots. I enjoyed looking at the beige stone statues lying around or attached to the walls. There were Thai style dragon heads, playful monkeys spouting water from their mouths at the pool, and stylized small statues of people, flanking each of the room doors.
I don't know what style this person is - maybe Cambodian inspired or just playful.
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