After not much sleep, but a comfy not-typically-Asian bed, I woke and showered. Roused the kids with some Thai PBS where they learned how to make sweet rice cakes. Breakfast at the Nantra hotel was nice – cereals, fruits, toast and juice. It was plenty to fuel us for a short walk down the road to the Ekamai bus terminal.

The destination windows were easily labelled so Zoe sat on a bench while I bought roundtrip tickets. They charged her full price which is odd in Asia – on the bus a seat is a seat. Avi was free of course and I’m talking about a $5 ticket for a 3 hour air conditioned bus ride. A/C that is the difference between costs and classes in Thailand. So anyway, the lady gives me the ticket and She says “930 bus” points to a sign and then “go now, number 23”. I look at the time and it’s 931. Oh, what service. I had kind of hoped for a short wait so I could buy some water and a card for my camera (I conveniently left mine in the computer at home). I gathered Zoe and we hustled out to all the waiting buses, spotted 23 at the end of the platform, and quickly walked down. The lady taking tickets was obviously not concerned about time as she brought over a baby to play with Avi while I loaded my backpack and the stroller in the bottom.

Avi didn’t want to play, he wanted on the bus. He thought this was fascinating AND Zoe picked a seat that had a great view of the backhoe beside the bus. Before we pulled away the driver brought us ea h a bottle of water and some cookies. Aaahhh first class. Mostly we slept or stared out the window until we reached Ban Phe. The port town is where we needed to check in to our hotel – I picked a resort that was down on the remote southern coast of the island (KO) of Samet. We took a jaunt through the lively dock side market on our way down the road. Zoe loves stuff like this and found several fun shell creatures she may choose to spend her money on when we return. Avi mostly wanted any snack, but I refused to buy him that dried squid he likes. I just can’t stand squid breath.

As the Sametville Resort check in we needed to wait a half hour for the boat so I popped over to a Tesco (its a grocery chain) and found a cheap SD card for my camera. Yes! It takes much better pictures than just my phone. The kids each got a special donut for good behavior.

Back at the check in for our resort a pickup truck with benches in the back pulled up to take us to our boat. Of course this I awesome! Zoe held on tight and I held Avi. Shockingly we are still in possession of the two balloon animals from Jeju air. Re truck dropped us a on of the many docks – and we were guided to the proper boat. This is the speed oat out to the island instead of the ferry. The ferry would be fun and scenic and is cheaper but stops in the town if Samet at the north of the island … Taking a truck taxi south to our resort would cost more than the speedboat. So we speeded along bouncing, kids screaming, holding tight to those balloons about 15 minutes out to the island. We dropped off people at two other beaches before getting to ours.

Drop off at Sametville resort is basically just hopping off the speedboat into the surf. We packed our shoes into a bag before getting of the boat. It’s barefoot from here!! Our resort is a more basic kind of place but a lot fancier than I expected . It takes up the whole beach of Ao wai and the headlands north and south. The beach is gorgeous and not built up compared to others we passed. We were led to our hut – a newer one up in the gardens. There are all different kinds of huts all nestled in the woods or facing the beach. We will have fun exploring here!!

First thing was to get changed and hit the beach!!! We spent hours playing in the warm water, building castles, climbing the trees, and swinging at the playground. I wish Bryan could be here. In the evening we went back to our hut and changed, then got dinner at the outdoor restaurant. The food was ok but service was super slow. After dark we explored one half of the resort and sat and chatted as the sun set. I have already seen a positive difference in Zoe: her tiredness and sadness from Korea has dissipated. We then returned to the main resort area for a fire twirling show! The one kid was excellent!!! Afterward we talked with him a bit – I think he liked Zoe. He wanted to know how hold she was.. He was only a little bigger than her and turned out to be 11!!

Now a little bit if journal time and off to bed!!