i'm in ko samui right now, and after a little bit of searching, i actually found a guesthouse in a less-touristy, pretty secluded beach area...the beach is pretty much outside my door. warm turquoise water, clean sand, peaceful waves...it's sooo nice. after spending the night on a bus (11 hrs) and then taking a ferry to get to the island (3.5 hrs), i spent the afternoon reading on the beach. i'm not that huge of a beach lover, but i'm so loving this right now.

another thing to report...while hitting a tourist spot in bangkok, i actually ran into my swedish friends from hanoi!! we didn't think we'd be in the city at the same time, but it turns out we overlapped about one day, and somehow we managed to be at the same spot at the same time! so we caught a late lunch before i took off...it was sooo nice to see them again!