Ark Bar Koh Samui

I've finally settled in in Australia enough to take some more time to play catch up and share a bit more about Koh Samui. When not lounging around the house, there was much to do and see in the more lively area of Chaweng. This area is overflowing with backpackers and tourists from all over the world and as a result, is also packed with everything tourists love: clubs, bars, and definitely lots more illegal things that we were careful to avoid. One place in particular that I really loved was the Ark Bar, which is equally as much a hotel as it is a bar. It's low nightly cost makes it a hotspot for budget travelers and the bar aspect, tables lining the beach, is open to the public.

The next three photos were taken on the walk from our parking place to the Ark Bar.

Banana & Nutella Pancakes from these street vendors are so, so good.

These are actually taxi drivers. The yellow vests indicate that they're the drivers of these motorcycles.

As you can see, the area of Chaweng is quite lively. And this is 7 nights a week, too, since no one really has to worry
 about waking up for work tomorrow (except for the people who own these businesses).

We then arrived at the Ark Bar, which thankfully is a bit less chaotic than the streets are. The picture below brings back bittersweet feelings. These are two of the many local Thai women and men who walk the beach selling what is mostly useless toys and trinkets to tourists. It's sad because the level of competition is so incredibly high, and the demand for what they're selling is quite low. Then again, these people can live off of a few dollars per day, and there are definitely worse livings out there.

Also, this entry serves as my first attempt at something new: video sharing. Those of you with slow connections will probably not have much luck watching these, and more notably, the videos are completely amateur and actually quite terrible in terms of technicality, but I'm hoping they can aid in my attempts to share these experiences. Here's one that shows a bit of what Ark Bar is like on an average night. 

Another highlight of Ark Bar is the nightly fire show that locals put on. There are some incredibly talented people who put on these performances, and it's very entertaining to watch. I saw the show on two separate occasions and am happy to say that I didn't see any injuries, performer or spectator.

It became all the more important that these performers knew what they were doing when Melissa asked for a photo with one of them. We were both pretty shocked
when he brought the flame so close to the both of them, and it made for an unexpectedly cool photo.

And to finish this entry off, here's a photo of the DJ. Again, I really enjoyed taking these photos because it was night time. Most people see night as a time to put away the camera or use the flash all of the time, so it's nice to when I can do neither of those and still get some decent pictures. As the week progresses here and I find more free time, I'll be sharing pictures from my day trip to Anthong Marine Park off of the coast of Koh Samui, and will move forward from there. I hope you enjoyed and I will share again soon.

Edit: Here's a photo I stole from Melissa's camera of her, I, and a monkey. It cost a few bucks to have the guy take this picture, but it's pretty cool so that's alright. He needs to make a living too.