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Published: February 9th 2009
So after another long drive in a convoy of Mini Buses the group arrived at the ferry port to board the boat to Koh Samet. Koh Samet is a national park of great natural beauty in the Rayong province, not so far from Pattaya and Bangkok. But the close distance is probably the only thing this island has in common with the other two. Ko Samet has fabulous beaches but a minimum of night life, bars and discotheques. The island is located about seven kilometres from main land and the Samet beaches are among the best. The ferry across took us about 30 minute and we were soon in the back of green open backed taxi jeeps taking us the short 10 minutes to our hotel on the beach front.
More like a Public toilet than a hotel room We checked into out room and it certainly was not the worst room l have stayed in but also not the best in the past 6 months. The room complete with floor to ceiling tiles and bright see-through green curtains did have one thing going for it and that was the fridge and that unlike some of our
group also had a window. We spent the next 3 days and nights spending time on the beach, having messages and even had the my feet done which was pure heaven. Our first night a few of us walked along the beach front and ended up a couple of bays along. We soon stopped at a area of tables amongst the rocks over looking the sea and l brought the first round of Mai Tai cocktails. The 4 drinks came to 560 baht, so it then became cheaper to buy to buckets of Mai Tai for 600 baht and that served us about 10 drinks. After a few hours we had to start our walk back to the hotel, this was not until we stopped at another bar with a sand fire pit on the beach with cusions and mats all around the fire. What a way to spend our first night on Koh Samet.
Can I buy your T-Shirt mate ? One evening the 3 of us were sitting at out favourite Bar with Poo the bartender when a guy appearred from nowhere and asked me if l would sell him my T-Shirt, confused he
told us that his girlfriend and him had been skinny dripping and she now cant find her top and is still isn the sea. So l gave him my T-Shirt, did'nt sell it as l would hope that one day somebody would return the favour. Ten minutes later he re-appeared minus girlfriend (Had the right hump) and he then insisted in buying us all drinks for the rest of the night, so it would have been rude not to accept. The guys name was paul and we met up with him a couple of time during the week.
On Wednesday we had a boat trip organised for us which took us around the island and included snorkelling and lunch on-board we even went to a fish farm in the coast at the end of the trip.
The Firestarter One of the events that we saw a few times whilst in Koh Samet was the famous Fire Show that happens not just on this island but on many others in Thailand. Every night at 8.30pm and 10.30pm about 8 Thai guys do an amazing Fireshow in front of Ploy Restuarant & Bar. The music is loud,
but fits in with the Juggling and acrobatics these super fit guys perform.
Sometimes a girl needs a bit of luxury Sharon that has been travelling for the past 3 months and this week is her last until she returns to the UK, had said to myself and Jane that she would like to change hotels to have a few days of luxury before her turn and she would love it if we joined her. So after we finished our boat tour we packed up most of our things from Toilet Hotel and moved 3 bays along to the most beautiful resorts l have come across so far on my travels. The Tubtim resort is pure paradise and we booked two beach huts complete with balcony with sun loungers. The room itself was furnished to a very high standard with fresh white linen and a fantastic walk-in shower, the ones with the giant shower heads. The icing on the cake was that our rooms also had 24 hour wireless internet and even a wide screen TV above the bed. We spent the next three days on a very quiet beach and relaxing in pure comfort.
I love the stories of history that people tell you The island is famous among Thais as the setting for a story by their most famous poet, Sunthorn Phu. Travellers will notice on Haad Sai Kaew the decaying statue of Phra Arpaimanee, who travelled with his flute around Thailand until one day he was captured by a ravenous giantess. After seeing her chomp the head off a buffalo, he managed to lull her to sleep with his music and ran away. Upon escaping he met and fell in love with a beautiful mermaid. They married and lived happily ever after with a son, Husakorn, who had the body of a horse with the head of a dragon -- if nothing else an interesting study in genetics.
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Andrew
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Tart
Well, that has to be one of the most original chat up lines I have ever heard! Can I buy your T shirt - yeah right. Trollop! x