"This is the island in the sun..."

The third and final destination of our trip was my favorite: Koh Samui.

In Thai, "koh" is "island" and "samui" means "coconut." Coconut Island. :) How tropical does that sound!?

True to its name, there were lots of palm trees with coconuts...


One of the highlights of the trip for me was when we rented motorbikes (surprisingly easy to do!) and rode around the island...

The view from the road:

We stopped biking a few times in order to eat, take a few pictures of the view and go shopping. I bought an outfit to add to my collection of tropical clothing. :)

During the second day on the island, we signed up for a program that included: an elephant show, an elephant ride, a monkey show, a Thai boxing demonstration, swimming at a waterfall and canoeing.

Elephant show:
Oliver got kissed by an elephant (!!) when he volunteered during the show. According to him it was smelly and gross.

Thirty-minute elephant ride:
During the ride, our guide on the elephant made us each a necklace and ring out of leaves. Cool!

Monkey show:
After the show, we could have a photo taken with a monkey. :)

Waterfall:

After taking a jeep to the jungle and then hiking up to the waterfall, we got to swim at the bottom of it...

"Oliver, Liz...help me!!" haha

Canoe ride:

The time on the island was a great balance of relaxing and adventure. It was hard to leave and come back to cold and rainy Japan.

In fact, it's official that I'll be going back to Thailand during Christmas break! One week was not long enough there. Originally, we were going to spend a little bit of time on the trip volunteering at an orphanage. But since we didn't do that this time, that's what I'll be doing during Christmas. Looking forward to it!