Monks and Monkeys

Today we were picked up at 9:20 on a minibus to do a tour of the main attractions on Koh Samui. Our first stop was the Beautiful Lady Monk temple, built in 1972, with Chinese, Thai and Indian elements. There was the main temple building Thai style in the middle, surrounded by water, with a Chinese smiling Buddha statue on a platform to the right, with four statues of Indian (Hindu) Gods surrounding it, and on the left was a statue of an 18 armed God whose name I can't remember. It was quite a beautiful temple.

Next we went to the Big Buddha statue briefly mentioned in a previous post. It's actually on a tiny seperate island that has been joined by road to Koh Samui. The ship behind the Buddha is the symbol of the Thai royal family and the circle represents the circle of life. We climbed up some steps to get to the statue and there was a nice view over the sea from the top. We were told we were leaving at 10:40 but actually left five minutes early. Just as we pulled away, one of the guys near the back of the bus suddenly pipped up. It turned out we had left someone behind.  Thankfully we hadn't gone very far and the guide hopped out to find the straggler.

Our third stop was Chaweng viewpoint. Thankfully, unlike other viewpoints we've been to recently, this one was the side of the road so we pulled in right next to it; no stairs required. From there we could see Chaweng Beach, right next to where we are staying, and Lamai beach. We were standing looking out over the view and taking some photos of each other when one impatient Asian tourist started pointing and gesturing to get us to move out the way. She couldn't even wait for us to finish taking photos and eventually I told her to just wait. We moved out of the way before I'd has a chance to take a photo of Lauren with the view and let her have a turn as she was being very impatient. She didn't say thank you or anything and was just plain rude. After we'd finished we went and sat on a bench at the top and the woman came and almost sat on my lap. She then immediately left as soon as lauren returned from putting something in the bin. It was very strange but the view was beautiful and we managed to get some half decent pictures despite her.

After the viewpoint we went to the grandmother and grandfather rocks. We had trouble seeing the grandmother rock but the grandfather rock was slightly more noticeable. I've included a photo of what the grandmother rock supposedly looks like and one I took of the grandfather rock. I'll let you work out for yourselves which is which...

Our next stop was at a 'monkey show'. Basically we saw how monkeys are used to pick coconuts. The monkey, which is tied up climbs the tree, twists off the coconut and drops it before climbing back down the tree. We were then shown how to make coconut milk. Brown old coconuts are used; the outside is removed and then they are cut in half. Coconut is ground out and then coconut water is added and it's all mushed together and voila.

After the monkey show we went to a temple to see a mummified monk. Apparently he predicted the day of his own death and prepared himself. There was allegedly no actual mummification done of the monk, he died in the position we saw him in and was just naturally left to decay but became mummified. Sunglasses were added to make him less scary and there was a sunglasses donation box behind him which actually had quite a few pairs in it.

Our penultimate stop was Namuang waterfall. It was bigger than I expected and quite nice. Wasn't much option to get near it though.  Just took some photos and then left. In the car park there were some chained up elephants which you could ride to the waterfall via a longer route. We'd heard somewhere that when elephants shake their heads they are in distress and these elephants were shaking their heads like there was no tomorrow, even the baby ones. It was really sad.

Our final stop was Nathon town for lunch. We didn't get a chance to see any of the town as we spent the whole time in the restaurant the tour recommended. But I'm not really sure there was much to see. After lunch we were driven back to hostel, arriving sometime between 3 and half past.

We chilled for a while in the room and then around 5pm for a tuktuk to the fisherman's village night market where we got some food. I had chicken satay and dumplings and Lauren had fried chicken.  Then we went to a restaurant for chocolate fudge cake which was so good. We also got henna tattoos. I got a chain of elephants round my ankle and Lauren got a shell. 

We got a taxi back to the hostel and walked down the road to find somewhere Lauren could get her hair braided. While we were there I got my toes painted. Then we went back to the hostel and packed as tomorrow we leave for northern Thailand.