I managed to get a ticket on the 9am ferry over to Caye Caulker, a small, 5-mile-long coral island about 20 miles out further away from the mainland in Belize City.
After another TWO HOURS on the boat, we took a car from Tagbilaran to Alona Beach and finally arrive a little past 1:30am. Our taxi driver took us to a few different hotels trying to find vacancy without much luck. Then he looked us up and down and said, I know a place that probably has vacancy if you don't mind a place that's a little....different.
After waiting thirty minutes of no one else showing up, we decided to pay 1,000P (around $20 USD) for our very own ferry. The minute we'd paid for the ferry to go over, all of the locals who'd been hanging around waiting for the boat to leave piled onboard with us. Always great when you can drop a Jackson and feel like a baller.
This is what the ferry terminal to Malapascua Island looks like! We weren't in a big hurry, so we decided to hang out for a bit and see if any other people showed up who wanted to take a boat together.
An hour and a half later, we'd arrived at Koh Samui! I wanted to stay at Charlies Huts, the place I'd stayed last time I was in Samui, but it had since closed down and been turned into some sort of fancy luxury resort. Next we tried a place called Munchies, but they wanted 1,800 Baht per night...which is only $42 USD, but was still a little pricey for our "taking a month off" budget. So we ended up at a rad place called...
