The first of which was my birthday trip to the island of Koh Samet with my friends. Its the closest island to Bangkok, it only takes about 4 hours to get there. At least, that's what they say. Koh Samet is also the island with the whitest sand beaches, and that part is true. It is so beautiful, I almost wish Ty and I had gone there instead of Koh Phangan in December! Almost...
Participating in the adventure were myself, Ben, KC, Nicola, Jennie and Dave and his girlfriend Mai. Luckily, my birthday fell on a Saturday this year, and even more so, the Friday was a public holiday. Maka Bucha day in fact, which according to Wikipedia marks a day when 10 000 monks spontaneously turned out to visit Buddha. It took place exactly 9 months after Buddha received the Enlightenment, and he shared important teachings with the monks. It's also said to be the beginning of Buddhist Lent.
Anyway, a great day all round. We left pretty early in the morning so that we could have a full day on the beach, a bus trip for 3 hours and then the ferry for about an hour.
Besides beach activities, Koh Samet is also perfectly designed for partying. Its a small island so you can (and I had to) walk from one end of the beach to the other and explore various pubs along the way. With all this temptation and the sea salt frying our brains, we got a bit out of hand, and by the end of the weekend, I had a broken phone, neither Ben nor Nicola had any shoes, Ben also had no camera, Jennie discovered that she is not a monkey, and we all had various cuts and bruises.
My birthday itself was pretty awesome, we chartered a boat to go on a trip around the island, stopping at prime snorkelling sites as well as at a fish farm. The water was crystal clear; at one point I was in water at least 12m deep and I could see right down to the coral on the seafloor. Truly an amazing experience.
So now I've come to a decision about my birthday. I've always been a bit crazy about my birthday, I tell people weeks in advance so no one can possibly forget, I've been known to instruct classes of children to prepare appropriate surprises for the day (this year's Grade 12 class was no exception). I always make sure I enjoy the hell out of it, and I make no excuses for that.
And this year I hit the quarter century mark, which means that some people are starting to tease about getting older and so on. But I've decided I honestly don't care. If I get to have a day that's all about me every year, I suppose it must come with some drawbacks - I have to get older. Oh well. Also, I've decided that I don't want birthday presents anymore (no Ty, that does not apply to you). Instead I want to have an awesome adventure and people must just pay to come with (and maybe pay for me...)
The other adventure was going on camp with my school, but I don't feel like talking about that travesty right now, perhaps tomorrow.
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