Hiking in Koh Samui

I have been meaning to write again on the blog but I have been lazy. Not inactive, I have done MANY things here but I have put off writing on the blog because I am lazy to start it off, but once I get typing I realize I enjoy reflecting and reliving the experience. 

I am at the reception with absolutely nothing to do for two more hours so there really could be no more of an obvious sign to stop being a lazy bum and post about my awesome experiences before my goldfish memory takes them away from me.

I figure I also need to keep writing and reading in English as I seem to practice and improve all languages working here at the hotel except for English... Mostly due to my communication with Thai people made up of one word sentences and a lot of miming... Having said that I am impressed by their English skills! 

So my first day off after nine consecutive days of working nine hours a day I decided to go for a HIKE. I am obsessed with them. I am searching for new hiking spots here but they are hard to find because Thai people LOVE their vehicles so walking is not a huge activity here. The hiking trail I did find was a dirt path that cuts through the jungle and leads into the middle of the island where there there are barely any buildings but unfortunately it was for cars as well. Or should I say it was for pedestrians as well because the main use of the path is for tour cars that take groups of people up and down the hill leading into the jungle. Many cars and scooters stopped along the way to ask me if I needed a ride or if I was lost. At first I thought it was sweet but after a while it irritated me that walking is so rare. It is a beautiful island but unfortunately the use of so many vehicles is severely polluting it. However, I cannot let myself get irritated because obviously it is a very different culture developing a ta different rate where principles like global warming and air pollution are near to existent. I have a vision of turning this island into a mini Amsterdam J (I am referring to the cycling, nothing else...) It’s small! There’s good roads, it could work! But anyways…

These tours carried out on this side of the island are mainly to visit various waterfalls. I parked my scooter and walked through a small trail made only for pedestrians, or should I say mountain goats (it was a tricky one…) to get to the first waterfall. It was beautiful. I fell in love with it, I climbed the rocks to go higher up but I did not get very far. I found out later you can keep climbing it for a while so next time I will definitely do that. I tried to meditate on some rocks on the side but with so many tourists coming and going I did not feel comfortable (I know, who cares, meditation can be done anywhere no matter who sees). 

So I took my scooter and rode up further to the next parking spot. I had an ice coffee in a beautiful restaurant with an amazing view of the jungle and the coconut trees. (Me posing like a dork...)

After I left my scooter and decided to continue up the trail walking. This was the car trail so I had to be careful to stay to the side, but overall it is so silent and peaceful that you can hear any car coming from a minute away and they don’t go by too often. I took a side trail and arrived at the absolute ideal meditation spot surrounded by trees and next to a mini waterfall. It was quiet except for the sound of the waterfall and everytime I opend my eyes I could see a butterfly fly past. Koh Samui has a butterfly garden on the south of the island so I always see many beautiful butterflies of all colors and patterns. It has become a symbol of the island for me (as well as the gecko) and my place in it right now. Everytime I see one I am reminded about my choice to come here and how appreciative I am of this experience and how grateful I am of losing the fear to take a leap and go somewhere so far and different from what I am used to. But don’t worry, no butterfly tattoos for me. Tattoos; yes. But I refuse to get a butterfly! I think they look great on other people but it is not the one for me.

I realized here how much easier it is to feel more connected with nature than my meditation attempts in my room. I find myself getting easily distracted whereas here it came easily and required little effort to sit back, relax and just breathe.

 After this I continued up the trail and ended up walking around 3 or 4 hours in total, lost track of time! I did not get to the next waterfalls because they were too far away. I had a fruit smoothie in a restaurant on the way back with the view of the coast on one side and the jungle on the other.

I also did a different hiking trail another day. Here are some pictures: