Day 129! Today is the last full day with my cousins. It’s been such a treat having them around! We had a nice final day in Koh Samui shopping and wandering around… and our night was FULL of night markets! Let’s get into the final day 🙂

We were pretty exhausted after a morning of travel and being out in the sun all day. So we woke up on the later side and then headed out for breakfast.

We ended up going to the restaurant we tried to go to the day before. This time their power was working! So we sat down for a nice breakfast.

Tomorrow, my cousins will be flying back home and I’ll be heading to my favorite island, Koh Tao!

But I still needed a boat ticket. Conveniently enough, the restaurant we were at was also a travel agency! So I asked the owner if if I could book a ferry ride tomorrow and we hashed out the details.

I got a ferry ticket for 700 Baht, it felt a bit pricy, but I wanted to make sure I had the ticket and was ready to go for tomorrow. My ferry will be at 12:30pm and will only take 1 hour and 45 minutes to get to Koh Tao!

Once I arrive, I’ll start looking for hostels to volunteer at… I have a few leads on some places, but I’m not sure what to expect! So we’ll see what tomorrow holds.

Just as we were about to leave the restaurant, it started torrentially down pouring outside! It seems rainy season on the islands is starting to begin.

But luckily for us, the restaurant had UNO. So we played for a bit until the rain subsided.

I taught Ben, Mina, and Sam the rules my friends Harry and Grace taught me in Ninh Binh. We had a blast playing a very hectic game of UNO.

With all the rain, the beach seemed out of the picture for today. So about an hour later, the rain calmed down and we found a mall to get a Grab to.

We arrived at Central Samui, a very large indoor and outdoor shopping mall on the north east side of the island.

The outside of the mall was a medium sized market with food, jewelry, and clothing vendors. The inside of the mall was filled with more boutique looking stores, fast fashion stores, tech shops, and a grocery store.

We wandered around this mall for two hours and enjoyed perusing the various shops the mall had to offer. But then a huge wave of exhaustion hit me and I decided to head back to the bungalow to take a nap.

Since it was my cousins last day, they wanted to stay out and about. So I parted ways with them for a couple hours to rest up.

After waking up from my nap and feeling very refreshed, I got in a Grab and headed back to the mall to meet up with my cousins.

A small night market had popped up while I was gone. So I grabbed some Takoyakis to share with my cousins. We then wandered around the little market together and tried a very strange snack.

I never thought I’d try chicken ass… butt 😉 Ben and I thought it’d be an interesting thing to try! And… it wasn’t that bad. I don’t think I’d go out of my way to eat it again. But if I was served it I’d eat it.

When I was on my way back to my cousins, I saw another night market nearby. This intrigued my cousins, so we hopped in another Grab and headed to the second night market of the night, the Si Khao night market.

This night market was FULL of very cheap food. I was very hungry and took full advantage of what the market had to offer.

I got a Thai style chicken basil gyoza for 10 Baht. Then I got a fried chicken sandwich with chicken on the inside for 20 Baht. After, I got a mango smoothie for 30 Baht. And finally, I got a 20 Baht pad Thai, this was pretty small but for 20 Baht I couldn’t complain.

Ben bought a Korean corn dog for 79 Baht, which him, Sam, and I shared!

And we finished off the evening of eating with some very cheap deserts! We got seven deserts for 100 Baht… they were insanely good! We all split them and were filled to the brim and ready to go walk around our third and final night market.

I couldn’t get over how cheap the food was. I personally spent 100 Baht at this market for a feast and only 40 Baht on the Takoyakis at the other market.

Our third and final market was the Fisherman’s Village night market which was just down the road from our bungalow!

We walked around this market for a couple hours. There were more food vendors, which we skipped, live music, a beat boxer, and lots of the standard night market vendors!

The night market led to another walking street which was a nice way to end the night of shopping. We then walked back to our bungalow to finish off our final full day together.

This post caps off an amazing trip with my cousins! We’ll have a few hours in the morning together before my ferry and their flight. But this trip was absolutely incredible. I think it couldn’t have come at a more perfect time for all of us.

I’m excited to be back solo traveling, but this trip will hold a very special place in my heart!

Here’s to more adventures!!

– Elie