MightyBobX Quotage

onto the final portion of the trip! i'm in koh samui, an island in thailand. it's by far the most touristy place i've been, but in a good way. it has some of the cheapness of bangkok (though a few things are far more expensive). for instance, we've found a hotel where we got two double rooms for 1300 baht a night, which amounts to 40 a night for 3 people... not too shabby. the rooms are small, but really cool, and right on the beach. taxis are waaay more expensive than bangkok though, but i guess that's not saying much: in bangkok, we got a 1.5 hour taxi ride for about six dollars. koh samui is basically the sexy, touristy version of bangkok; there's a main road that goes all the way around the island, and in the downtowny area it's nothing but shops, restaurants, nice restaurants (nice means the average entree costs a whopping 10-15 USD), bars, and spring-break-type clubs (a shitload of white people dancing in big open areas). i kind of like it more than bangkok, just because it's like 50-80% white here, and i for some reason have a much easier time meeting people who speak english and, honestly, are white. that's not to say i haven't made plenty of asian acquaintances, but when it comes to hitting on girls at bars, it takes a special effort if they don't look the right way.
anyway, we're here for 11 more nights, and it should be fun. we've met a crowd of dave's friends who are all sharing a house on the island (it's very "the real world" when you talk to them about it) and the girls seem really fun, so i think we'll have a blast. the only limiting factor is i've basically run out of money (ok, not *out* but i really need to pay attention to how much i'm spending the rest of it). this is unfortunate and unexpected, because i didn't think i'd have an issue at all this trip, based on estimates from thayer. we've since learned that this trip is completely different than the previous trip he was basing his estimates on, so i'll have the joy of being extremely poor until i can get a few paychecks under my belt when i get back. but that's what credit cards are for, right? and debt to friends? and prostitution? anyway, totally worth it. i'm a huge, huge idiot for not having been travelling like this my whole life. i feel like i'm learning a ton of new things and really growing in important ways, and otherwise just having a really good time. hooray for asia!