Greg: Your dad has totally turned you against me.
Jack: I didn’t turn her against you. You did that to yourself.
Greg: Jack, please. You didn’t like me from the second I walked in here.
Jack: I’m a very accepting person, Focker. All I ask for is honesty.
Greg: Oh, honesty? You wanna talk about truth and honesty, Jack? Okay, let’s talk a little truth and honesty. Let’s talk a little “Operation Ko Samui,” Jack.
Pam: What’s he talking about, Dad?
Greg: Yeah, that’s weird, ’cause I thought there weren’t any secrets…inside the circle of trust, Jack.
Jack: I don’t know what you’re talking about.
Greg: You don’t? Huh? What’s the matter? Cat got your tongue? Hey, Pam, guess what. Daddy’s planning a little covert operation in Thailand for the day after the wedding.
Pam: You are?
Greg: Round and round we go, Jack. Hey. I bet everybody would love to hear about your rendezvous…in the parking lot of the Oyster Bay Drug and Sundry. You know what I’m talking about. Where the guy gave you the passports and the documents. Or how about your little phone call in Thai?
Dina: Jack can’t talk Thai.
Greg: Oh, no, Dina. Jack can talk Thai. Jack talk Thai very well. I’m sorry, Pam, but your dad is not retired. He’s still very much in the C.I.A.
Jack: He’s right. My cover’s blown. I-l-I am planning…a secret operation the day after the wedding.
Pam: What?
Jack: A surprise honeymoon for Deb and Bob. You stupid son of a bitch! You just blew it!
Greg: What?
Jack: Ko Samui is an island off the coast of Thailand!
Watching “Meet the Parents†was the first time I ever heard of Ko Samui and ever since I’ve only heard good things and have longed to visit. It’s the end of our second day here and I’d have to say its been a pretty good past couple of days. The overnight bus was, in Joylani’s words, “the nicest bus I’ve ever been on.†It was a ten hour trip down to the Don Sak pier near Surat Thani and then another couple hours on the ferry to Ko Samui. At the Ko Samui pier, we reboarded our bus and drove 15 minutes to the bus stand- makes me wonder why the bus even goes all the way to Ko Samui only to drive for a few minutes. Anyways, from the bus stand we caught a sawngthaew (basically a truck with two parallel benches in the back) to Maenam, on the northern coast of the island. Wanting to avoid the super-touristed and heavily developed east coast of the island, Maenam turned out to be a good choice. We found a nice beach bungalow within 30 meters of the beautiful water, run by a jolly fat Thai man and his family. Although we got here yesterday morning, it was kind of a wasted day as I caught up on sleep and slept the day away.
Today, Joylani and I explored the village and beach a little more, both of which are spread out over several kilometers. This was, of course, between our eating, swimming, and napping. The atmosphere here is really, really laid back, which is a huge contrast from urban fast-paced Bangkok. We’ll probably rent a bike to explore the island tomorrow, as its quite big, and then do a one or two-day tour to nearby Ang Thong National Marine Park. Thailand issues 30 days visas on arrival, which means we have to be in Malaysia by January 2nd. There’s so many other places to see in southern Thailand, between the Gulf Coast, the Andaman Coast, and the peninsular interior. I thought we’d spend only a couple days on Ko Samui before moving on, but location and guesthouse are awesome and its so tempting to just stay here for longer. I guess I just have to remind myself of one of our premises of this trip: there’s more out there. We were comfy at home, but we decided to go and explore the world. Even just five months in, we’ve been greatly rewarded thusfar. And we’ve traveled, we’re continually surprised and amazed. So even though I like it here, I know that I’ll probably see and experience even more incredible things in southern Thailand before December ends. So we’ll take my grandmother’s advice, which she passed down from her parents: don’t be a frog in a well. I like Ko Samui, but we’ll continue to travel, explore, and learn.