Another Reason to Hate Us
Although we were quite eager to escape Chaweng (especially once I had my steak dinner), little did we know that Samui had a little surprise in store for us.
We had only just left our room when a British bloke by the name of Alex approached us and offered us a couple of scratch-off tickets -- the luxury resort he was working for was having a promotion and we could 'scratch-and-win' a free prize. Normally we're pretty skeptical of such offers but since we didn't have any plans and since he seemed like a nice guy we thought, "Why not?" I had the great fortune of winning a crappy bright yellow t-shirt (which I later left behind in our hut), but Lee got three stars, the fabled Grand Prize! Alex was gobsmacked or, at least, he put on a good show of being gobsmacked. Our prize was either 20,000B (more than C$700) in cash, a digital camera, a camcorder, a laptop, or a 'dream vacation.' The catch? (Of course, there's always a catch.) All we had to do was listen to a 90 minute sales pitch for a 'holiday membership' at their luxury resort -- with "no obligation" to buy anything -- and the gift was ours. They'd even pay for our transportation there and back. Thinking it would be fun to see how the well-heeled spend their vacation, we again thought, "Why not?" and were ready to jump into their taxi.
Before we left, though, Alex had to make sure we met the eligibility requirements. It quickly became apparent they were trying to weed out the backpacker set (e.g. you can't be travelling for longer than six weeks; you must be gainfully employed or retired; you must be paying at least 1000B/night on your current accommodation, etc.). We failed all three! But we didn't tell Alex that. The only one we copped to was the accommodations (we were paying only 400B/night) because we figured if they asked us where we were staying, they would quickly figure out that it was a backpacker haunt (it's been around for years). But Alex said to just say that we were staying in a more expensive room, and it shouldn't be a problem. When we got to their office, however, we had a hairy moment when, after asking us where we were staying and how much we were paying (we said the Embassy at 1100B/night; we picked it because when we arrived a guy asked us if we were interested in staying there for 800B/night and told us it was brand new ... we figured they probably wouldn't be familiar with it), the lady picked up the phone and started dialling. We thought for sure the jig was up! But no, she was just calling to arrange for one of the sales guys to meet us at the sales office.
The resort turned out to be absolutely stunning with amazing bungalows (actually, in this price class they're called 'suites' and 'villas'), infinity pools, private beaches, and fancy restaurants. David (our sales guy, an expat from Scotland) was really nice and not at all pushy. And the package he was selling seemed quite reasonable but, of course, after an interesting three hours (it was his first day and we were his first pitch) we turned it down. After a friendly handshake we were back at the main office where we received our big prize: the 'dream vacation'! It's not all inclusive -- we have to get there ourselves and food isn't included -- but it is seven days accommodation in a 5-star hotel in one of a selected list of countries. Maybe we'll trade the cockroaches with silk sheets while in India?
Next up, the dive paradise of Koh Tao. Has the Chalok Ban Kao beach been overrun with package tourists, McDonald's, and Starbucks? Are the whale sharks still around? Is Soe still making his strangely addictive chicken and cheese sandwiches? Stay tuned to find out.
For more photos, see our Thailand photo album.
