Exploring an island

3 Ltrs in this and you can cover all of Samui

On top of the SUV

Like all successful ones on the Internet, couchsurfing.com is brilliant but simple idea, which is effectively executed to satisfy a human need. It is designed to connect travellers and hosts in different countries, each benefitting in a certain way, and fostering great friendships and experiences along the way. I should thank Chachra for introducing me to this, and after mostly hosting for a couple of months, it was time to see if it works the other way too. Before coming to Samui, I had sent a few random requests if any body would have time and inclination to show me around, and I did get a few responses, if only to meet up for lunch or drinks. It wasn't a bad start.

Chinese Buddha

Waterfall 2

Anastasia Simakova, a tall lanky Russian girl (and why btw, are they all six feet plus!), wasn't quite the 'local' I was expecting to meet through couchsurfing, but she worked in a travel and tour company, and lived near the Big Buddha temple - the biggest tourist attraction on the island. She agreed to meet me for lunch. I rented a scooter for the day, but as I was driving one after many years, and for a tourist attraction Samui has very few signs in English, I was duly late though she was polite enough not to complain. She is from Sochi, the winter Olympics location for 2014, and told me incredible stories about how the government dresses up english teachers as ushers and bartenders to give the impression of English speaking city to the Olympics committee, or give a day off to everybody to make it look like a busy happening place. And how the government officials come before the elections to get the details of how many people are voting from the household, and for whom! She doesn't think Russia will be a democracy ever.

Big Buddha

Buddha in Durga Avatar?

Even though she doesn't like two wheelers as she has no sense of balance, she decided to show me around Samui. The first stop was the Big Buddha temple. This a magnificent structure on a hilltop near the sea, with beautiful views around it. But I was more intrigued by the next Buddha temple we visited, which depicted Buddha with 18 hands, very much reminding me of way Durga is depicted in Hindu mythology. They also had the laughing Buddha in the same complex. Next stop was few kilometers away to see the mummified monk, who has been positively dead for over 23 years, but the body has been preserved with supposedly very little mummification. We were close enough to visit the nature park and the waterfalls with in, though it was bit of a climb and our hired car with in the park abandoned us when their office closed. Luckily a very nice couple from singapore gave us lift back to our scooter. On the way back we stopped by to see The grand pa and grand ma rocks, Shaped like human genitalia, and one couldn't help but wonder that the grand pa must have been a real hony man in his day.

Finally managed Lotus pose

Mummified Monk, dead since 79

It was a long drive back so we stopped by for some dinner. I had seen pretty much all that I wanted to see of the tourist attractions in Samui. Anastasia had some other plans for the weekend but she liked the way it eventually turned out. It was, as she skyped me later, 'a very peaceful, relaxing and positive-energy-filled day'.





Location : Mae Nam, Ko Samui, Surat Thani 84330,
Prashant