January 23,

We awoke and decided on a walk on the beach. The tide was low enough that we could navigate and walked for a mile and then back. Then we gathered our laundry. It was time! Crazy how quick this builds up. We loaded us & the laundry up on Little Honda, and took off. We have to go about 1.5 miles to the self serve laundromat. It costs us a 100 Baht ($2.97) to wash and dry a load of clothes. It’s funny because the sign above the dryer translates “To bake your clothes…” I snicker every time I see it, but it is essentially true. We did not stick around the washer time, but went back to our place for our Javas and breakfast of Muesli, yogurt, and milk. When we finished eating, the washer should have completed so we went back and transferred the clothes “to bake”. 🤣😂 I stayed there, as Jeff went to get more cash and fill up the scooter. Then when he returned the clothes were pretty much done, so we loaded up and went back.

We hung around till 1100, watching some You tube. Our place was scheduled to have it’s weekly cleaning. The cleaning lady showed up promptly, and we went for a swim in the pool to leave her to it. The lady who cleans is Thai but she doesn’t have a key to the houses/places so we have to leave it unlocked or be here. We choose to be here. It seemed others had the same idea of swimming at this same time. Three of us – Jeff & I and a Russian dad across the way – were in the pool, but when two more showed up, we got out and just sat out to dry off. The Russian dad guy is a serious swimmer. He’s around 30 years old and does 15-20 minutes or so each day of swimming intense laps. He and his wife have the cutest one year old girl. Anyway, when the cleaning lady finished, we changed out of our suits, loaded up, and headed out.

It was lunch time, we went to a local street cafe (this is a second “no name cafe” we have eaten at once before). It is on the south part of the island. This time we had Crispy Pork Stir-fried with Morning Glory, and Pad See Ew with Crispy Pork. Again we were both served a clear broth soup with green onion. The entrees were both good, but the Morning Glory Stir-fry was best. We were delighted with the meal and only paid 190 Baht ($5.65) total, including the water bottle that we split. 😋

Finished we decided to go to a temple we had been seeing, that appears to be made of a red hued wood. It is over on the east side of the island right on the water. We arrived at the temple – Racha Thammaram Temple (Snake Stone Temple). The temple is of a red clay not wood as we had thought. The temple/pagoda says to have “enshrined Buddha relics… from Sri Lanka” – info from a placard describing the temple. The ceremony for the relics was on June 12, 1955, and King Rama the ninth, and Queen Sirikit came to worship the Buddha relics on April 24, 1962.

We went inside the main temple that we passed by a few times. It was beautifully carved and intricately hued clay outside and inside. The outside works were heavily glazed for their protection making the red seem to pop more. The main altar inside was of a sitting golden Buddha, but the walls inside were the draw for me… stories of Buddha in 3D affect. They were fantastic art works. We walked around the grounds: saw some monk homes, saw a cemetery area, a pavilion area, and the pagoda – where the relics are, maybe. One of the big buildings was closed as construction was being done on a roof. Overall glad that we stopped, it was most worthy of a tour.

Now we went to a coffee place, called Flo. I sampled the Duck Dive and bought it. It had “dark sweet chocolate, hazelnut” tastings with a “complex and round finish.” I got the dk. choc. and hazelnut, so I was happy. As I was waiting for my taste cup, I saw a coconut pie piece and surprised Jeff with it. It was not coconut cream pie, but it was a great piece of pie!

Finished we left and went to a couple of shopping stores for food supplies. I also still kept an eye out for a swim wear type top, without any luck. We went around the north side and back to our place. So we completed our third or fourth loop of Koh Samui. If we went without stopping it would only take us around one hour, depending on the traffic. Back at our place we had a siesta.

At 1730 we went out to walk the beach to Retro Think Cafe. Tonight is the live Thai musician. We had a happy hour drink (Cuban Libre for me and a Chang Beer for Jeff) and an appetizer of deep fried mushroom with plum sauce. When we finished the mosquitoes were coming alive so we settled the bill, 320 Baht ($9.51) – that was including a tip. We walked back with the lowest tide we had experienced since being here. Another great day in the Kingdom of Thailand on Koh Samui!