Koh Samui, Thailand

One of the great benefits to being part of the military is that you get to see the world (whether you want to or not, actually).  Right now, we live in Okinawa, Japan, which is a small island south of the main island of Japan (where Tokyo is and where they had the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in March, 2011).  Okinawa is essentially the vacation spot for 'mainlanders', and hosts 2/3 of the American military based in Japan.  Another interesting factoid about Okinawa is that it is rather expensive to get to and from Okinawa.  But how can we live in this area of the world and not see at least a couple other places?  Or maybe five...  After looking at all of our options, we decided to take a cruise!  Two flights let us visit 5 countries over a span of 16 days - Uh.May.Zing.  Amazing.


As you may have seen in my previous post, we boarded our ship, the MS Vollendam of Holland America Cruise Line, in Singapore.  Bottom line for Singapore?  1.  Get there if you can.  2.  Try Dim Sum  3.  Ride the cable car to Sentosa Island.

From Singapore, we made our way up the coast of East Asia to Koh Samui, Thailand.  In every location we stopped except one, we decided to get off the ship, find a cab, and negotiate a price to get to our destination(s) of choice.  It worked SUPER well.  I highly suggest bartering on your own, rather than using the cruise line for basic transportation to get inland.  We saved a TON of money by doing our own thing!  Our taxi in this case was a flatbed truck that had benches built onto the sides of the flatbed, and a canopy over the top.  The back of the truck even had stairs attached to it!  So there you have it!  An open-air taxi to take us wherever our little hearts desired. 

Koh Samui is where we saw our very first Thai temple and Buddha.  In fact, the Buddha is simply called 'Big Buddha'.  The area has plenty of souvenir shops around for tourists (as this is certainly one of the most popular tourist attractions in the area) if you're looking to buy.  The Big Buddha sits atop a hill, surrounded by pagodas and smaller shrines. 

These formidable fellows stand guard on either side of the courtyard's entrance.  As you can see in the middle picture, one of the characters is being eaten by a crocodile o_O  They are certainly fierce looking!

Guardian of the Big Buddha

Guardian of the Big Buddha

Guy being eaten by a crocodile o_O

 The whole courtyards is filled with small pagodas, statues of various incarnations of Buddhas, and places to get your fortune for a few Thai baht.  There is a station with a Buddha for each day of the week (and two for Wednesday!), and also a little store where you can pay a bit to get your name or whatever you desire written on the underside of one of the roof tiles, in hopes that it will give you good luck, or whatever you wish for.  For me, it is another reminder that things of this world perish.  The temples and even the idols that are being worshiped here are under constant repair because they aren't truly immortal like Jesus is.   

The Courtyard Around Big Buddha

 Wherever there is a sitting Buddha, you usually also see a lying Buddha.  The picture on the left is one of a lying Buddha.  You also see the incense and offerings made to Buddha in hopes of good fortune.  There were stations to buy whole baskets full of offerings so that your prayers might be heard.  The gong is also used in worship.  I particularly like the gongs because my mom happens to have one in her den (no, we're not Buddhist, and yes, I've hit it many a time just for fun). 

Lying Buddha

Sitting Buddhas

Gong

 People will take their shoes off at the entrance of the pagodas (or at the foot of the stairs for the Big Buddha) to go in and worship.  This guy with a mohawk is offering prayers and incense to the fat Buddha.  On a side note, one of our companions occasionally got called 'fat Buddha', and then 'lucky Buddha'...  Usually the person saying it was trying to sell something.  I don't think they helped their case.
 

A man worshiping fat Buddha

 Finally!  After taking off our shoes at the base of the stairs and passing by the many heads of the dragons that guard the stairs (which are actually part of the railing leading up to the Buddha), we climbed to the top to find (woohoo!) the BIG BUDDHA!  It really is a spectacular piece of art, full of detail, vibrant color, and interesting art.  The look of serenity on Buddha's face captures the Buddhist ideals.  

Big Buddha

 Around the edges of the Big Buddha are many other sculptures of Buddha in various positions.  On the left you again see a lying (or 'resting') Buddha.  These smaller statues surround the entirety of Big Buddha.  We found one smaller statue facing inward, toward the Big Buddha instead of outward, toward the viewer.  We decided that Buddha must be in time out.  There were gigantic bells like the one in the picture on the right surrounding the whole terrace on which the Big Buddha was seated.  It was SUPER tempting to ring every single one of them.  In some locations with similar bells, the more devout folks (and the more playful and irreverent folks) would say prayers while going along a whole row of bells, ringing each one in turn.  

 

 After we had seen our fill of the Big Buddha and the area immediately surrounding him/her/it, we headed over to one of the beautiful waterfalls in the area.  We passed many small tables and shops set up to sell typical Thai souvenirs on the sidewalks heading to the waterfall.  They sold items such as carved soap, bugs in shadow boxes, t-shirts, candles, etc.  Just before descending to the base of the waterfall by some rather perilous rocks, we passed a shrine and a tree with scarves tied around it, I suppose for some sort of worship tradition.

Had we come prepared, we could have gone swimming in the pooling water at the base of the falls.  As it was, we rolled up our pants, took off our shoes and socks, and waded on in.  As we enjoyed the beautiful forested area, the sound of the water, and the cool water lapping around our feet (while dodging some large, scary looking ants), we looked down the stream and could see..... ELEPHANTS!  Tame elephants, of course, with riders.  Amazing!  

Waterfall II in Koh Samui

People riding elephants near Waterfall II

So, of course, our NEXT stop was to head over to where WE could ride the elephants!

This is a particularly important moment in my life.  Why, you ask?  This has been one of my bucket list items for quite a while.  In fact, it has been a priority in my life ever since I heard of my great grandmother taking a trip over to India in the 1950's with a bunch of her cronies.  Can you guess what she did there?  She rode an elephant!!!  So, riding an elephant has been on my to-do list for a long time, and I can finally say that I have checked it off!

Our elephant had a seat strapped onto it where Mr. A and I sat.  Getting onto the elephant is really a rather awkward business.  You climb up onto a platform that has ropes hanging down over the little ally where the elephant saunters up and waits for it's passengers.  So, you grab the rope (which is covered in dark grease from the grime on people's hands), and try not to step too hard on the elephant, while also not missing the bench.  Then you're terrified to move out of the dead center of the bench for your partner (in my case, Mr. A) to hop onto the bench because the bench feels like it's tilting precariously to one side.  Our guide sat in front of us on the elephant's neck and guided the elephant once we finally got in place and strapped our little seat belt on.  More importantly, however, we had a special companion come along with us:  a baby elephant!  The older elephant was helping to train the baby elephant, so the baby was tied to our big elephant, walking along with us!  

Baby Elephant!

Riding elephants is a rather scary business, actually.  The seat that we were felt legitimately like it was wobbling precariously from side to side.  We thought it was just us, and that our bench would be the only one that suddenly slid off the to the elephant's side while we were dangling under his feet, unfortunately still strapped in.  Or worse yet, that we would fall 10 feet to the ground!  I've already fallen from 12' tree houses twice, I'm really trying to end the 'falling from great heights' chapter in my life, thank you very much.

Thankfully, we didn't fall.  Halfway through our trek, the guide got down off the elephant and took pictures of us riding the elephant for us.  Then, he told Mr. A to take his place at the helm!  I must admit, I did struggle with a bit of jealousy at that point.  Perhaps one day I'll have another chance to ride elephants, and I'll get to sit on the actual back of an elephant, instead of on a wobbly bench, terrified that I'm about to fall off. 

Our Elephant and the Baby it was Training <3

One of the things that struck me about Koh Samui was that almost every business or house that we passed while driving had a shrine out in front of it.  It seems that worship is an incredibly important part of the daily lives of the people of Thailand.  At the very least, money is most certainly spent on the building and upkeep of, and the offerings to these shrines.  It is a reminder that we, as people, are worshipers because God created us to worship Him.  Romans 1:22-23 says, "Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles."  Our prayer has been that the Lord would make himself known in that land to those people, so that they would not just claim to be wise (but be fools), but that they would indeed be wise.  As Proverbs 9:10 says, "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding."  May the people of Koh Samui have true wisdom and understanding.