Tender Mercies Lead to Heaven on Earth

OK, this is Cody again, so you know what this means, this is going to be a very long post. So, I'm going to take a page out of the reports I write for work and I'll start with an executive summary. Then you can scroll down and see the pictures if you don't want to read the awesome story.

Executive Summary:
1. We left Koh Samui for Koh Nang Yuan on a catamaran.
2. Nicole made it 5 minutes before she lost her lunch (and everything else she ate for the past 2 weeks).
3. After the 45 minute boat ride, she couldn't go any further (and neither could a few other people) so we all got off at the first island, Koh Phangan.
4. We found an AWESOME place with a beach view, had AMAZING food right on the beach and it was super cheap.
5. Went snorkeling, played in the monsoon rain and overall had a great few days.

OK, now for all of you with ADD, if you are done with reading, head to the bottom to see the pictures. For the rest of you, here's the story:

A few months ago my Dad sent me an e-mail that contained the notes he took in his institute class. Since he is taking the Book of Mormon class, and that is the subject for seminary this year, he sends the notes he takes from a real teacher with real experience and real lesson plans. The main point of this particular lesson was "Life is not about 'fairness,' it's about mercy." Now, this post is more about mercy, not about life not being fair because anyone who has lived or traveled in Asia, especially SE Asia knows life isn't fair. And if you have the privilege to actually travel to Asia, you know you are on the better half of the "fairness" meter. Anyway, funny story to show the "mercy" part.

After a few days at Coco Palm on Koh Samui (see previous post), we headed out for a teeny little island called Koh Nang Yuan.

However, looking at our e-mails I realized we didn't have an official reservation at the only little resort on this island. Also, it's the low season and had been very windy, so the ferries were not running on a normal schedule. We wanted to catch the 8:00 a.m. ferry, but we were told it was canceled due to high waves. We would have to wait for the 12:00 boat. Well, this is bad news because there are only two ferries coming back from Nang Yuan to Samui (where the Airport is) everyday, and if the early ferry is canceled, we will miss our flight to Bangkok and I will be a day late for my conference. I figure that would not be good because Schindler only paid for us to play on the beach a few days so I could attend some training. Well, needless to say, I was a little nervous checking out of Coco Palm. In fact, I had the distinct impression we should not go. But I ignored it. We went.

We got to the dock and a very nice tranny selling tickets told me that if I gave him/her a kiss, he/she would promise the early boat would run on Sunday and we would make our plane. He/she was cute and all, but not enough to smooch. I still didn't feel like we should go. The dude/dudette told everyone it's time to get on the boat. I finally said to Nicole "I don't think we should go." This bummed both of us out because we were really looking forward to spending three days on Nang Yuan. After some discussion, we decided in order to ensure we make our flight, we'll head to Nang Yuan today and come back to Samui the next day on the late boat. This would still give us a few solid hours on the amazing beach.

Well, we got aboard the Lompraya Catamaran and off we went. We had only been off the dock for about two minutes before the boat hit the first wave. Up we went, and up and up and up... then down, down, down... with a big crashing wave of water rising above the boat. Then a bunch of people on board screaming... then the boat goes up and up and up again... then everyone starts laughing, then down, down, down again. After about three huge waves, nobody was laughing anymore. Especially Nicole. She goes dead silent and won't move a muscle. I later find out she was trying to mentally suppress the feeling to hurl right there on everyone. She finally musters up the courage to talk. She turns to me and says "Do they have any barf bags?" I look around, don't see any so I reply "No." She goes back to the stone cold stare at the seat in front of her for another minute. Then she again turns to me and says "Do they have a bathroom?" I kinda pretend to look around and say "Well... I don't see one." "GO FIND OUT NOW!!!" "Uh... OK" I run up to the front and ask one of the non-tranny workers. After a few minutes of charades he points to the back of the boat. I turn around to see Nicole already up and out of her seat, running down the isle. I don't know if she saw the guy point, or if she was just looking for an open window.

Anway, I sit back down, pick up Jadyn who immediately falls asleep, then enjoy the roller coaster. After about another five minutes, they started passing around barf bags and after about six minutes, most of those barf bags were being filled. It was gross. Don't worry, I didn't take any pictures, and no I didn't lose my lunch, but I had to do the mental "Don't think about puke... don't think about puke..." chant in my head a few times.

Well, to get to Nang Yuan, the boat goes for 45 minutes, then stops at a small island called Koh Phangan, then it's a 1.5 hour ride to Koh Tao where you transfer to a taxi boat for a 20 minute ride to Koh Nang Yuan. After 45 minutes of non-stop up and down, we finally pull into the little harbor on Phangan. After we have docked, Nicole comes and sits down again. She is white as a ghost, has no more make up on, is soaked to the bone with sweat, and can't say a word. I say "How do you feel?" No response. "Do you want to keep going?" Again, no comprehendible response, but I did get a faint grunt/sigh. "Do you want to get off here?" Finally a got a little nod and faint smile. I quickly rush to find our luggage. I then have to argue with the boat workers who won't let us off the boat because we paid to go all the way to Nang Yuan. I seriously had to give the guy the stink eye, say "We are getting off, NOW!" and then push him aside.

We got to the dock, which is nothing more than a huge slab of concrete and head to the teeny little metal lean-to they have set up because it is the only spot with shade on the whole dock. We let Nicole lay down on the bench and rest a bit. A very helpful local lady came up to us with something in a bottle that she rubbed on Nicole's forehead, behind her ears, on her wrists and below her nose. She said it would make her feel better and would help her get over the sea sickness. OK, she didn't say that, but she did say "Smell... you smell" and then pointed to the bottle and to Nicole's wrist. Nicole complied, sniffed the stuff on her hand and after a few minutes did start to feel better, even though a sweaty local kept telling her she was smelly. After a minute, I finally get Nicole to talk to me and this is all she had to say:

"I feel bad for whoever has to clean up that bathroom. There was no lining in the garbage can... and I filled it up to the top"

After a few minutes of me trying very hard not to laugh she also drops, "At one point I had it coming out of both ends." (Must have been that super hot green chili she mistook for a green bean the night before.) At this point I can't suppress my giggles and have already started planning this blog post. Well, it turns out that the nice lady with the sniffer stuff was sent to the dock by a local resort to wait for people to get off the boat. She then started pushing pamphlets in our face, telling us how great this one place was... and to be honest, it did look pretty good. After Nicole could sit up, we decide to go check this place out. The lady kindly calls the hotel car for us, which is nothing more than a pickup with padded seats in the back. We hop in the truck with a couple from Jakarta/Australia who had the same fate as Nicole. Though, I will admit, Nicole walked off the boat under her own power, this guy had to have his wife carry him off the boat. He was in really bad shape.

After a 15 minute windy, bumpy truck ride we arrive at this place

and for US$70 a night got this view.

I don't know if you are keeping track, but the Super 8 Motel in Rock Springs, Wyoming costs more than this--trust me, I know from experience. This is where the mercy part comes in. The beach was AMAZING; soft, white, shallow, calm... it had it all. Then, after the sun goes down, we had an incredible Thai dinner on the beach for like $25. Dude, Applebee's at the mall in the SLC costs more than that! Extra bonus: Thai food is waaaaaaaaaaay better. We were pretty stoked.

Then the next day we wanted to go snorkeling, so we headed off to Koh Ma. A teeny little island that is about 100 yards off of Koh Phangan. Depending on the tide, you can either wade out to it or walk across the sand bar
The weather was pretty lousy, but the fish don't care if it's raining. I had the best snorkeling I've ever experienced, and I'm pretty sure as far as overall snorkeling experiences rank, this one was pretty low. The water was a little murky from all the storms, but I got to swim with schools of tropical fish and that's all I came to Thailand to do. It rained pretty hard all afternoon, so we just sat in a restaurant right on the beach, enjoyed lunch, coconut shakes and read some Harry Potter. Overall, it was awesome.
So... we didn't make it to Nang Yuan, but this place was mercifully good enough. Even though I twice had the distinct impression to not get on the boat because someone knew Nicole was going to have a tough time, we still had an absolutely amazing experience. Thank goodness for mercy...