Koh Samui

Everyone fancies themselves a travel writer, and thinks they have a good travel blog in them. There are only the select few of us who are prepared to put up with the irritation of netbook schlepping, the incessant Wi-Fi Hunt ™, the pressure of finding words for your thoughts when you’re surrounded by beauty and awesomeness, and the potential self-esteem crushing incident where your blog receives only two hits (Hi Mum), to actually go through with it. Then once we have those of us travel bloggers out there, there are only so many who can keep you guys reading past the first paragraph. Which is where we have our first test.

Still with me?

We’re here, in Thailand, and this place is everything they say it is in books. Which is to say, full of people who pretend to be nice but plant drugs in your luggage, and elephants walking the streets robed in purple and gold. I won’t say none of those things are true, because I’m keeping my travel eyes open, but so far I’ve seen some of the other attractions, as promised in books, and they certainly live up to the hype. There’s a white sandy beach to my left, with gentle, rippling waves that are as warm as a Jacuzzi. In the background are mountainous peaks covered in thick trees with the odd guesthouse peeking out through the greenery. I’m sitting in the poolside restaurant at our resort, which is incidentally the only place in the resort to offer free wifi. This means that instead of being the girl who sits in the hotel room connecting with the universe all day, I get to do my tweeting, Facebooking, blogging and news dot com dot au-ing poolside. That’s right babies.

This is the kind of travel blog where observations are king. I won’t try and tell you what to do, because we’re the kind of girls who have taken ‘wing it’ to heart, and thee are no prebooked hotels or day trips planned on the Fabulous Tour of the Universe TM. We’re the people who picked up our baggage at the carousel and then sashayed over to the bookings counter to select a hotel from the big scrapbooks filled with shiny images, handwritten notes and room listings, looking like the kind of album Mum filled with photos back in the eighties. We, of course, selected the only resort that had a price for a ‘poo room’ - after all, it could come in handy.

For those airport junkies out there (is my Dad reading this?) I thought I’d give you all the updates.

Melbourne Airport is all redone, and kids, it is fanc-y. I’m talking security before passport control, a completely new layout and lots of fancy new shops in the old departures area. What scares me more is that either it was done in a heartbeat or I am completely non-observant, because I flew out of Tullamarine only in February and had no recollection of the place looking like that. Gone is the token Body Map Australia for your last minute souvenirs and the Collins Booksellers, and where on earth has that cute little mosaic gone? I’m thinking the Fifa bid has another chance now. Seriously, the airport will blow them away.

Thai Airways are still my favourite if only for their exceptional use of the colour purple. Aside from the flight attendants in their dapper purple suits and the fleecy purple blankies, I was most impressed by the purple jumpsuits on the mechanics down on the tarmac. Goes with the fluero yellow vests surprisingly well.

Bangkok Airways, on the other hand, prefer those kitchy, pastel colours that remind me of early nineties kids play centres. I’m sure I had a Crayola set of textas in just those shades of pale pink, light blue, pale yellow and pastel green. Not only do the stewardesses wear these fabulous blouses covered in the prints, they’re painted all over the plane, including the belly. Which makes for nice beach watching if you’re lying in the sun and see a Bangkok Airways plane pass overhead. These people think ahead, I’m telling you.

Now excuse me while I get back to my cocktail and my poolside chair. I’ve had three women come by hawking their garments, and I appreciate the concept of shopping without leaving my chair. Here are some moments of joy recorded by Ora, who is apparently some kind of amateur photographer and will be looking after the visual aspects of this blog.