By far, the most relaxing part of our October travels was our time in Koh Samui. We knew we wanted to fit in some beach time during our time off, but were a little worried because October is the beginning of monsoon season in southern Thailand. Luckily, we decided to go for it, and were rewarded with mostly clear skies during our six days on Koh Samui. Going at this time also meant that it was "low season" for tourists on Koh Samui. This worked out really well for us, as this made the island more peaceful and relaxing than if it had been crowded with tourists.
Thailand actually has three different coastal areas - the Eastern seaboard, the Andaman Coast, and the Gulf Coast. Koh Samui is on the Gulf Coast, and after viewing some pictures of its long sandy beaches and palm trees, we decided that would be the location of our island retreat.
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| Beautiful beach on Koh Samui |
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| Jon on the beach |
Our time on Koh Samui was incredibly peaceful and relaxing. We stayed at a place called PGS Sandy Resort, and had a great time - in fact, after our first day at the resort, we extended our original reservation for two nights to the entire five nights of our stay in Koh Samui. The resort was right on the beach, with two pools, a reasonable restaurant, and a very friendly staff. We were also really happy with its location in Koh Samui - instead of being on one of the more touristy beaches, this resort was located in Mae Nam, a less populated area that was just a short walk to numerous restaurants. Even better, we got a great deal on this hotel, as we booked with a site called agoda.com. For our own personal bungalow just minutes from the beach, with cable TV, internet, A/C, and breakfast included, we spent about 700 Baht a night, about $23!
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| One of the pools, with the ocean visible in the background! |
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| Our own personal bungalow |
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| This is where we ate breakfast every morning - right along the beach! |
During our time in Koh Samui, we relaxed and spent most of our time going back and forth between the pools and the ocean. We enjoyed walking around the beach, and we were just a 10-minute walk from the Bo Phut Fisherman's Village. This was an area with a lot of different restaurants and stores, and was a fun place to people watch. The Fisherman's Village also has night market on Friday nights, where we ate some delicious bruschetta and bbq chicken. The food was very cheap, and there was a huge variety of both Thai food and farang (foreigner) food. There were also some pretty hysterical handicrafts for sale, including some ridiculously crass bracelets that made me wonder if the person who made them had any idea what the English words they were writing meant.
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| Fresh fruit and grilled corn for sale on the beach |
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| At the end of Bo Phut pier |
Bo Phut is also where we headed for our big splurge of our time in Koh Samui - a romantic dinner right on the beach. We headed to a place that had gotten good reviews, called Happy Elephant, and ordered whatever our hearts desired. Although the main courses we ordered were pretty good, the side dishes were our favorite parts of the meal - Jon loved his onion soup, and I enjoyed a generous helping of mashed potatoes. The ambiance of the ocean in the background, as well as the view of various boats lit up in the distance, made this a wonderful dinner - and we are extremely grateful to be in Thailand, where such a meal is affordable even for poor teachers like ourselves!
Our one activity on Koh Samui that was not very relaxing was when we rented a motorbike to explore some more of the island. Koh Samui is actually a pretty big island, so we wanted to check out some of the other beaches further south from where we were. After riding our friend Katie's motorbike in Chiang Saen, we thought this would be a fun way to explore the island independently. After the first couple minutes on the bike, we realized that this maybe wasn't the best idea. Chiang Saen is a quiet town where the streets are usually pretty empty, Koh Samui is a lot more populated. Also,Thai drivers are seriously crazy, and the streets are pretty much chaos - trucks, cars, and motorbikes all zoom around and lane markings are just suggestions. People regularly cross into opposing traffic to pass slower vehicles, and speed limits are completely ignored. As a result, driving the windy roads in Koh Samui was not the most pleasant experience, especially as it started raining right after we got on the motorbike. I think next time we will just rely on the cheap songthaews that can take you pretty much anywhere in Thailand.
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| At least we got a great picture from the experience! |
Our time on Koh Samui was wonderful to the end - we enjoyed a beautiful view of a sunset over the gulf as we left.
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| Sunset on the ferry leaving Koh Samui |
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