The rest of our time on Koh Samet wasn't much different than the first day: laying in the sun getting up only to go get a massage or ice cream (or both!) during the day and going out to a beach bar for dinner and drinks. And it couldn't have been more perfect. We would be ultra-relaxed by the time we got back to Bangkok the next night.
One day, though, Megan decided to mix it up and take a tour to see some neighboring islands. "Have fun!" I yelled from the comfort of my beach mat where I was at the mercy of a Thai masseuse yet again. I was perfectly happy seeing just this island, from just this spot.
Seven hours later when I woke from my sun-soaked slumber at 6pm and saw that there had been no sign of my travelmate, I assured myself everything is fine. Megan had been talking about wanting to watch the sunset on the other side of the island; I had assumed she would stop in and get me first but given the sun would be setting in about 20 mins, maybe she decided to go on her own.
Fifteen minutes later, just as I'm starting to go through the possible next steps for a Thai-Island search and rescue, I see Megan speed walking up out of the sand and saying something in a frantic matter about the ridiculously long time it took for that tour. I start to ask more when she speeds past me saying we have 5 mins to climb this hill to the other side of the island to see the sunset. Ok! Here we go! About halfway up, I have flashbacks to our Angkor Wat climbs (you know, when we thought we might have a heatstroke). At the top of the hill we start back down through a forested trail. Now some of you know of the one major phobia I have and if you are of that lot, you can probably guess the level if panic that starts running through my blood at this moment. Hmmm... a forested jungle-like setting on an island in Thailand. Fabulous. I'm sure there aren't any snakes hiding out in here.... Oh God, just breathe Sara, just breathe (which, by the way, would be much easier to do had we not just booked it up this hill). 90 seconds into our jungle trek, and about 60 seconds into my failing panic-reducing breathing, we see the west side. I have no doubt that the view at sunset would be amazing here. However, it seems that tonight the west side of the island is under a bank of clouds leaving the sun nowhere to be seen. That's it! I'm not going any further... In minutes it's going to be dark and the thought of walking back through this surely infested area with no light is not doing anything for my current state of panic (Megan: "Don't worry, I have my keychain light." Uh....). I hand Megan my camera and tell her to snap away. I'll see her back here in a minute. So much for "ultra-relaxed"....
Shockingly (I know!), we made it back to our beach bungalow without any snake sightings and a few hours later my breathing and heartrate returned to a more normal state. We enjoyed our last night on the island with... yep, you guessed it: a nice meal and tropical drinks on the beach, followed by a riveting game of Connect Four.
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