Rain rain go away

Cuz we want to play! That's our slogan for the day. We had to postpone and change plans due to the crazy storm hitting Ko Samui today. Instead of starting at 9am we delayed until 11am. Most of the group had already gathered at 9am so instead of going our separate ways for 2 hours we decided to head to the big open air lobby to play cards & games and enjoy the storm.
Everyone gathered at 11am and we headed out. We made a quick stop to buy rain ponchos for everyone and then went to Big Buddha Temple. We climbed the steps to the top (not too many) to see the huge gold big Buddha statue. For good luck and good fortune you can pick up a wooden club and walk around the perimeter hitting each bell. We went back down and received a blessing from the monk and he put woven string bracelets on each of us. It was raining so we didn't do a lot of extra exploring.
We loaded up and headed to Bill & Eat's favorite restaurant for Thai lunch family style. Eat orders all the food when we eat family style and she always picks amazing dishes. One of our group's favorites is morning glory. You eat the stalk & leaves, not the flower. We have a few vegetarians which I've nicknamed as a group "The Veggies" so we always make them sit together.
Since the other activities of the day were rained out, Bill & Eat scheduled 2 hour Thai massages for everyone. AMAZING! Best Thai massage we've had so far. We are hoping to go back again before we have to leave. All Thai people have a formal given first name and then a nickname. You may have noticed in Bill's emails he refers to his wife as Warowan or Eat, her nickname. The "lady" doing my massage was Nanny. I'll be sure to ask for her if we go back. Natalie's favorite massage lady at Railay Bay was Bomb.
Did you notice the quotes around "massage lady" in the last paragraph? Thai culture is very open to transgender or transsexual people and is the gender reassignment capital of the world (according to Bill). So you may see a beautiful woman who then talks to you and your head snaps while you do a double take. I had heard Nanny talk to one of the other people and heard her voice and knew she is what they call a "lady boy". This is a common term and not derogatory. When we were done I told Lori the person that did my massage was Nanny. She laughed and said "Nanny was a Manny". So there's your Thai cultural lesson for the day.
We missed seeing Grandmother & Grandfather rocks due to the rain and we missed playing at Choeng Mon beach. We were supposed to snorkel tomorrow but with the storm the visibility will be poor so Bill is rearranging the schedule. We think zip lining is tomorrow which is one of the things I am really looking forward to. I'm late to meet the group for dinner so I have to dash. We're staying in to eat at the hotel and play games until the storm passes.
Love to all from Thailand!

P.S. Dad, one of the pictures below is what Bill calls a "Thai gas station"