Location: Ko Samui, Thailand
Today has been a good day. I think I speak for everyone on Argo when I say that we are so happy to be back in Thailand. We woke this morning to Richie, Shannon, and Carolyn’s freshly made chocolate and cinnamon apple donuts, which were delicious! We promptly cleaned up and headed to shore to get in some tour buses that were going to show us around the island. The weather was scorching, so the air-conditioned vans were a very welcome luxury. Our first stop was the large Buddha statue set in a temple on the coast. Many of the shipmates gave a few donations to the temple there and were granted a blessing from the monk. He tied a multicolored bracelet around each of their wrists. Our second stop along the way was a beautiful overlook showing the coastline all down one side of the island, including a view of Argo, anchored very far in the distance. We only stopped there for a short time because we wanted to see the Grandfather and Grandmother rock structures along the far coast. Now, if none of y’all know what these are and really want to know, I would recommend researching them yourselves; let’s just say it was quite an interesting site. We departed the shops and rock structures to head to our second temple of the day. This temple was special, however, because it harbored the mummified monk. As we walked in, there was a large ceremonial structure set up with a glass case in the middle. Inside this case, there was the mummified monk. He sat in traditional orange robes cross-legged and praying. The best part of this experience, however, was the brand-new black Ray-Ban glasses that the monk was sporting. At least we know that the monks had a sense of humor. From there, we all packed back into the van, where we took a 30-minute trek into the jungle to an 80-meter waterfall. The pictures we had seen were beautiful, and all the shipmates had their swimsuits and towels ready to jump in and swim for a bit. To our dismay, we were there in the dry season, and the waterfall had reduced to nothing but a trickle. But our trek out there had not been for anything! We were greeted by a baby elephant and were able to feed it bananas from across a fence. Many shipmates got to experience seeing an elephant for the first time outside of a zoo, and it was quite adorable. Our tour ended with a delicious meal of traditional Thai food right on the beach. We took the buses back to our anchorage and headed home for dinner. Richie and Carolyn surprised us again with fried fish sandwiches, onion rings, and french fries! Yummmm. The boat is all tucked in for bed, and the waves are lulling us to sleep. Sweet dreams, everyone. Until a new day. -M