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Published: September 18th 2022
Ko Samet wasn't originally on our itinerary but there was too much uncertainty about the area we wanted to visit after Jomtien that we decided on a change of plans. What an excellent idea that turned out to be! Once again we used
Bolt to get a driver to take us rather than take the more complicated and not-much-cheaper route by bus. We have indeed gone soft!! In the blink of an eye we were being dropped off at Ban Phe Pier and were soon on a fast boat over to the island.
Pick-up van taxis wait for their captive audience on arrival. There's no real room for negotiation with the drivers but the prices were not too exhorbitant. We stayed at the wonderful
Green Bay Samed Resort. To call it a resort is stretching it a bit, but we loved it there and for two of our three nights I think we were the only guests. That's a shame as our hosts were fabulous and they deserve a lot more visitors. Hopefully their efforts will be rewarded as the tourism industry picks up.
Island life isn't generally our scene. We are not beach bums so we had to find things to do.
Walking along Sai Kaew beach, beginning literally over the road from our room, was always a pleasure. During the day it's beauty is indisputable. The sea is like stepping into a hot bath though, so hardly refreshing! At night it totally came alive with restaurants on the sand and fire shows after dark. The food was excellent and considering the location, reasonably priced. The small town was worth wandering around too and has a chilled out backpacker feel to it.
Our "resort" had a couple of bikes we were able to use. Unfortunately they were a bit rusty with no gears, and the island's roads are just a series of hills so we didn't manage to do what we wanted to do! Instead of cycling all the way down to the Southern tip, we went westwards to the sunset beaches. It's clear everywhere how much tourism has suffered but the signs of recovery are there. Later that day we went back to the town then continued on to the northern shores of the island. Sitting out on the deck of a rustic bar listening to super chilled music is such a pleasure. When we got back to the resort
and told them what we had done, they thought we were mad! It seems the bikes are really only to go into town, but that's only a 15 minute walk so we thought that was ridiculous.
One day we did an excursion by boat to see some other islands and do some snorkelling. We were so lucky with the weather that day and there were just three of us on the trip. The two of us and Freddy from Rotterdam. His aversion to snorkel gear was even stronger than Trish's so it was just Russ who managed to do some free diving onto the reef to see Nemo and his friends. The trip was a little too organised at times and we even had to pose with a fake picnic on the beach for photos which none of us wanted to do. It was a great day out though, and highly recommended. Swimming with the fish on several small islands really was superb.
On our final day we tried to negotiate a taxi to take us the the southern tip of Samed but the prices are fixed and they seemed quite offended that we would even try to
get a better deal! In the end we settled for a ride to Ao Kio beach, about a kilometer of undulating road short of the extremity. We would have been quite content sitting at a beach bar, having a swim and some lunch, but the two hotels there operated a strict "guests only" approach and we were turned away. Some people just don't want business! We picked up our bags and walked down to the small National Park with both sunrise and sunset beaches. The scenery was stunning but there was no real way of going for a swim. After exploring the whole promontory, we walked back to Ao Pakarang. There the
Nimmanoradee Resort had no issues with us using their bar and deck. We had a lovely time cooling off in the shade drinking mango smoothies. The bar staff even called a taxi so we could get back to our own resort. But for its remoteness on the island, I think it would be the perfect place to stay, but if that's what you are looking for then we would suggest you have a look there.
It was sad saying goodbye to our resort and to the island, but
we had to move on. Interestingly though, looking back through our previous trips to Thailand,
we visited this island back in 2013 and didn't really have many nice words to say about it! Incredibly, neither of us realised that we had been here before.
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Looking good
Living the dream. We hope our paths cross at some point.